Fearless arrives in UK

[killer meteor]

Went to see it yesterday at my local Odeon - formerly UCI - in Preston. Amazing film, with awesome fights and a very intelligent story. If this really is Jet's final film, it's a great swansong. It ranks as my second favourite of his films, beaten only by Hero

[Markgway]

Might check this out during the week.

It's subtitled, right?

[limubai2000]

See my other thread...

New YWP film, possible Jet Li starring.

And yes it's a period film.

[actionjackson]

i agree that its excellent. except i didn't like hero much. this ties with fist of legend as jet's best movie.

[killer meteor]

Mandarin with subs

[theportlykicker]

Just saw it yesterday. Excellent movie!

That broadsword fight is bloody fantastic!!:eek

[JewLung]

Fearless which you can get the DVD (Excellent quality print and sound) is without question his best movie. IMHO much better than Hero and Fist of Legend. The fight scene choreography is incredible, and some of Jet Li's best weapons fighting Ive seen and the storyline is excellent!!! Its a pure martial arts movie. I'd rate it to be one of my top 5 martial arts movies.

[ToothbrushFu]

Saw this yesterday. I was expecting it to be entertaining but I was surprised by how good a film it actually was.

[Sifu Socky]

Went to see it a couple of days ago. Bloody good film, actually. Here, I did a review (http://www.wayofthesocky.co.uk/review.php?id=15) already.

And yes, it is subtitled.

[The Running Man]

The UK trailer is so much better than the US one for this film.

The UK trailer actually gave me goosebumps. Shame it wasn't used here.

[Markgway]

Saw this today in a multiplex (*shudders* :x )

Ticket cost me £5.30 ($9.69) -- and that was for an afternoon screening. :rolleyes

Very good film. :D Better than I expected as I've never been a a particular fan of Ronny Yu's. Great drama, characterization, and action. Purists might balk at the wirework, but I got used to it thanks to the superb power and execution of technique. Woo Ping did a sterling job. Jet Li's acting was surprisingly good here, best work he's done IMO. Many talked about a stretch for Danny the Dog, but his performance here easily surpasses that. If you haven't seen this go see it - or at least import the DVD. :hat

[rebelliousreign1]

IMO, the best film Jet Li has ever done, and one of the finest Kung Fu films I've seen without a shadow of doubt- perhaps THE best I've seen. It had an emotional depth that the 70s Kung Fu films lack more often than not and no irksome 'comedy' either (something even the most vehement 70s Kung Fu fan may find hard going, as this site shows), amidst some superb bone crunching fight choreography. As Markgway says, a career best for Jet Li's acting- if this does prove to be his last Kung Fu film, what a way to go.

As a film, it reminded me of two of my favourite westerns- 'The Gunfighter' with Gregory Peck and 'The Shootist' with John Wayne. All show the futility of living up to a legend, and 'Fearless' stands very proud amongst those classics, imo.

And it cost me only £3.30- cheap if you go before 12 noon here!!:D

[sammofan]

Am I the only one who thought the camera work / editing in the fight scenes let this film down? Everything else - story, acting, costumes and sets was great.

[Liu chung liang]

Ok, finally I saw it. The film is something else.... :rolleyes

My thoughts on the film:

Pacing went too fast, but maybe they did that to not bore you out. Still though some parts were boring in the beginning of his past, the way they shot it. The camera work was just horrible, and you find yourself lost most of the time, if you haven't seen it yet.
Had Ronny Yu ever done a Kung Fu film before? He did Freddy VS. Jason and I even found that boring.
The movie starts out with him in a competition, beating the 3, remaining 1, the Japanese. I'm not surprise on that. Flashing back to his past, we didn't see much of him long enough as a kid. Next thing we knew, BOOM! it's Jet Li as Yuanjia, skipping a big gap in his life. Dad dead, we see his mom, and Yuanjia seems to have a daughter? Interesting, I guess he was married once. He seem to had learned martial arts, and not from a certain Japanese :\ , he's very arrogant, very pushy, and drinking wine.
The film doesn't really grab me until we see a very bearded, hair messed-up Jet Li on a village with a blind lady after close people of his are a little dead. I think even on that part, they needed to re-shoot those scenes. Was it suppose to be emotional or not? Family dead, daughter dead. Next thing, he leaves, all washed up, lost elsewhere. Man, even that went quick. Then it goes into the part I like, because it slow down a bit and the pacing was a little better this time. He stays with the blind lady, helping, giving them a hand, farming, planting. It looked like Yuanjia found a new life. He seemed to had gain a little wisdom. Looks like he's following their ways, and is enjoying it. Yuanjia goes back home, which feels different now. Seeing the same beggar, being in a debt it looks like, paying respect, learning what he did wrong, visiting a old friend. I think it was parts like these that made it a good Martial Art film, but does it have any truth to the real Huo Yuanjia? :rolleyes
Well, as the movie moves along, Yuanjia is asking his friend for money etc. to him reading a newspaper about a american champion, who is played by Nathan Jones.
YWP probably saw Jones in TYG and wanted to use him lol.
Anyway, this leads to a match, little chinese man against Hercules. And I must say, the fight turned out really good. I remember some of you on the Fandom here were comparing this fight to the Jaa vs. Jones. Now that I saw it, the Jet vs. Jones is better. Because it's a different fight. This fight is a competition, the Jaa fight is not. Jaa was pretty much trying to kill them all lol. The Jet fight with Jones had more logic, and I like how it turned out. Yuanjia was going for what hurt the most. Praise to YWP there. The fight ended in a really respectful way. It's definitely a classic match. Yuanjia pretty much won, Hercules didn't stop, he got kicked out, then Yuanjia saved him, and the big guy respect him for that. Very classic, I loved it. I'm sure they used wires too, when it was necessary with all the fights in the movie, but I'm just glad they didn't do those unbelievable flying kicks etc. If they did... it would not had done any sort of justice to the real Huo Yuanjia.
Going back to the movie here... you notice that Yuanjia doesn't drink his favorite wine anymore lol. Instead, he drinks tea now. There you go with the Kung Fu classics again. I forgot but it goes into a little on his Jing Wu School, to these guys that are plotting a fight with Yuanjia. Something like that... Yuanjia meets the Japanese guy who he's going to fight at the big arena, which we saw in the beginning of the film. Then it goes back to the present, and Yuanjia fights the Japanese. I knew it was going to end with him fighting the Japanese, to the poisoning. I'm not surprise at all.
First match with weapons, Second was with hand to hand combat. Nothing new. They switch Yuanjia's tea cup to a poison tea, you can say. He drinks it, he fights, he's spitting blood, movie is almost done. The Japanese punched his neck, fight pretty much done for, then Yuanjia gave his power punch lol that he gave the guy in his past, ending with results through the Japanese guy. He saw with his own eyez who really won. So he surrender.... a little cheesy, but classic.
Next thing we see, Jet is doing Tai Chi :x lol... he must loves that style haha. The blind girl appear, and she seem to have sight now... it's a miracle lol. Well, obviously he's a little dead, and she's seeing him through her dream lol. Then it says something like Yuanjia died in the hospital at the age of 42 and some other things. The End. Ok.
Does any of these scenarios have some truth to the real Huo Yuanjia? We only get ideas of what he was like. Some facts, some fiction. Overall, the movie is a good, not great, but a good Jet Li Movie. Not a good Huo Yuanjia Movie. Maybe they should had approach the movie with real facts, like a biography. The film went so fast, you know some things are made-up. One thing for sure, Fearless is completely different from Legend of a Fighter. 0]

Only things similar between the 2 films:
Yuanjia spying on father, wanting to learn martial arts.
Dad only wants him to study.
Yuanjia fights foreigner.
He gets challenged.
He fights a Japanese at the end.

...Man they should had let Leung Kar Yan play Yuanjia again :p I think Leung looks more like the real Huo Yuanjia. Jet Li doesn't even look close to da man. :lol Doesn't matter I guess.

Only facts in the movie:
Huo Yuan Jia AKA Fok Yuen Gaap was poisoned.
Founder of the Jing Wu School or 'Jing Mo' School. Well, all I know is that credit was given to the My Jong Master and the Chinese hero Fok Yuen Gaap for starting the school.

Other facts I know about the real Fok Yuen Gaap:
He was nicknamed "The Yellow Face Tiger".

http://img.search.com/a/af/300px-Huo_Yuanjia.gif

Oh yeah! another thing! Collin Chou! LOL man I almost forgot about him. He is like, uh been in a few of Jet Li's movies. And of course, you matrix fans know him as Seraph lol.
I had no problem with him playing Yuen Gaap's dad, but they could had used someone else.
Collin Chou has been in I think 3 of Jet Li's movies... make it 4 now, including Fearless.
Chou is in -My Father is a Hero -The Bodyguard from Beijing -The Kung Fu Cult Master, uh huh that's right, I remember him in this film for sure. He was so evil lol.

[mits777]

Best movie? Have any of yall seen Legend of the Red Dragon or Twin Warriors? Those rank up there with his best easily

[Shun Fist]

i loved this movie, definitely my favorite jet li movie. the fight scene in the restaurant was just executed to perfection.

[kingofkungfu2002]

Just got the UK DVD today....talk about a bare-bones disk, not even a bloody trailer :\