Not made in Japan

Director: Ronny Yu
Starring: Jet Li, Collin Chou, Anthondy de Longis, Masato Harada, Jon T Benn 
Classification: 15

If you were a fan of Hero and House of Flying Daggers, Fearless – a biopic of Chinese martial arts master Huo Yuanjia – might fail to measure up to your expectation although it’s produced by the same filmmakers. While Hero and House of Flying Daggers have wowed audiences around the world with breathtaking wire-actions, beautiful colour schemes and scenery, and tricky plot twists, their successor doesn’t have the same appeal.

Huo Yuanjia was the founder and spiritual guru of the Jin Wu Sports Federation. However, he is too arrogant and obsessed with winning a championship in his region. One night he kills a rival martial arts master when he loses his temper, and he finds his family including his daughter killed by the rival master’s disciples. He drifts in despair and is found and nursed by the people of a remote village.

Kicking arse

Through living with the villagers, he learns how to respect others and he then goes back to his home and fights at a tournament for the honour of his country and the true spirit of martial arts. In this Chinese martial arts flick, super-kung-fu-star Jet Li, who plays Huo Yuanjia, proved that he is still in good form and can kick bad guys’ arses. His action scenes are undeniably well-choreographed, exciting and artistic. Also, all the sets are really gorgeous and it feels good to see those lavish sets being destroyed.

However, compared with Hero and House of Flying Daggers, Fearless is more commercial, more Hollywood rather than art-house. In other words, it seems that the director tried to make something for everyone so that the film became a mixture of a bit of romance, family drama, comedy, self-awakening story and politics and loads of action. As a result, it ended up something out of focus and nothing special.

Learning to be a good person

The affection between Huo Yuanjia and a blind village girl isn’t convincing so it’s difficult to get into the story. The film reminds me of Tom Cruise’s The Last Samurai – a Hollywood blockbuster set in late 19th century Japan. Both films are about a wounded man who is nursed by a lovely woman in a remote village, learns how to be a ‘good’ person, and sacrifices himself in a fight for an ideal nation. Actually, the actor (Masato Harada) who played a villainous Japanese officer in The Last Samurai plays another Japanese villain in Fearless. So, what is the difference between those two films? Well…one is set in Japan and the other in China. That’s all!

2/5 Mediocre martial arts film but with some exciting action scenes