Review of Fearless

By Alex Conde

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars.

            Billed as Jet Li’s last martial arts epic, this movie has some high expectations to fulfill, and it surpasses them all.

Based on actual history, Fearless is the story of Huo Yuanjia (played by Jet Li) who lived around the turn of the last century.  Huo Yuanjia was the founder of the Jin Wu Sports Federation, and gained a great deal of fame by publicly challenging foreign fighters at a time when Chinese culture was being undermined by foreign powers.

            In this movie, Jet Li is truly a star in his portrayal of a stubborn and prideful man on his road to self-understanding.  In the ongoing interaction between Huo Yanjia and his best friend Nong Jinsun, played by Yong Dong, we see incredible drama.  Each individual character growing in turn and then coming to support the other as they grow.   The beggar on the streets was a powerful feature in the earlier parts of the movie, as he served as a mirror to Huo’s inner beliefs in himself.  Jet Li demonstrates an incredible command of emotion as he portrays fear growing into pride, then that pride in turn wilting into shame as his character grows.  Each emotion was played perfectly, with the audience keenly feeling the character’s situation.

            If we can look away from Jet Li’s place in this movie, we still see a fantastically written and directed piece of work.  By making the fighters with whom Huo spars in the ring into honourable men, the director Ronny Yu tears us.  As viewers, we cannot take the easy route of choosing sides amongst the fighters, we are invited to look deeper into the nature of martial arts itself, and what makes martial artists differ.  The final fight between Jet Li and Shido Nakamura is breathtaking in the sense of the martial arts used, but also a fine example of the honour, history, and sportsmanship involved in martial arts.

            While I personally will be sad if this is Jet Li’s last martial arts epic, as it means he will never have the often rumored fight movie between himself and Jackie Chan, I can’t think of a better film for Jet Li to go out on.  He does credit to himself as an actor and as a martial artist by bringing martial arts away from the level of pure fighting for entertainment as it had become in many movies, and showing that it truly is an art rather than just a method of combat.

            I personally think that this is one of Jet Li’s best films ever.  If you only ever see one martial arts film, make it this one.