Jet Li is one of my all time favorite martial artists. As a kid, I idolized him enough to study the art of "Wushu" for several years hoping that I would one day be able to fight one hundred people with my broad sword. In Fearless the art of Wushu is on full display and it is incredible.
The movie Fearless is about the life of Huo Yuan Jia, a legendary hero of China. He started out as a youngster, challenging everyone in his town to martial arts duels. He won every time he fought, and at the same time he became more boastful of his growing skills. That is until he made a critically wrong challenge which led to the death of his family.
The second part of the story is about his soul searching at a time when China was also struggling with its identity because a lot of foreigners were infiltrating the country. This introspection brought on some gentle and romantic scenes that are lovely to watch.
The fighting scenes are great. One can easily see that the people fighting are martial arts experts, not just the crash coursers of 6 months trying to pull off real fights. Broad swords, staffs, short sticks, bare hands...you name it, they incorporated it here. The scenes have good continuity. It seems that you are taken there during the early 20th century.
Scattered within the movie are lessons for the viewers to learn. These lessons are about unity, respect, responsibility, and about violence not being the solution to everything.
Jet Li's acting is not his strongest weapon. He cannot act as well as he can kick, but as for his fighting skills, well, all I can say is BRAVO! Even in his older years, one can still detect his talent for coming alive on the big screen. He may not be the greatest actor in the world but he sure is one of the greater fighters and that is what really counts in this film.
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