Fearless


Jet Li's last action flick?

Even if not true, this is a movie we're required to watch. You see, Connie and my's very first date movie was also Jet Li's first movie, Shaolin Temple . Ever since, we've made it a tradition to watch every new Jet Li flick that comes out, good or bad.

And, some of his American releases have been bad. We did like Romeo Must Die, but The One was kind of flaky, and Kiss of the Dragon was just gruesome. But, with Fearless , Jet Li is back in China, with a traditional, heroic Chinese story, and he's doing good. It reminds me of his depiction of the famous Wong Fei-Hung.

Fearless is about Huo Yuanjia, a lesser known legend than Wong Fei-Hung. Huo founded the Chin Woo Athletic Association, and was famous for challenging foreign fighters in contests, at a time when the Chinese nation was crumbling, and Chinese pride was ebbing. The fights become the central part of the story in this movie. And, there are some exciting fight sequences.

His style of martial arts is known as wushu, which is taught in martial arts schools in America as well as around the world. so Huo's legend lives on today.

Another entertaining movie, so if you like martial arts fights, go ahead and see it. Not as artistic as Hero, but it is also minus the overt propaganda too, so I think you'll enjoy it. Well, um, except for one thing. Connie even commented on it during the movie: they depicted Hercules O'Brien in the movie as American, when he was actually British (see Wikipedia's entry on Huo for details). And, the fight never took place, as O'Brien left China before the date of the match (chicken, maybe!). Considering that America is now "the country to beat" in contemporary Chinese eyes, changing the story like this serves the purpose of modern Chinese pride.

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Posted: Sun - September 24, 2006 at 02:37 PM

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