With Jim Sabatini

Jet Li's Fearless

Rated: PG-13 for violence and martial arts action throughout
Reviewed by: Jim
Release date: September 22, 2006	Released by: Focus Features

Jet Li's best work since Zhang Yimou's Hero is a true story with his name on the title. And, from the advertising, his last martial arts picture.

Jet Li's Fearless centers on Huo Yuanjia, a man who had quite an impact on China, from within and beyond its borders.

Li is Huo, son of a martial arts master (Collin Chow), is headstrong in youth, becoming more cocky until his victorious pugilistic path leads to dire consequences.

Finding his way to the countryside, a blind girl (Betty Sun) is more than a good samaritan for him. Many moons hence, Huo realizes something about what his father has taught him. Maybe there's something other than the vicious side of this artistry as the film becomes more about a unification effort as China begins to be affected by the Far East and beyond.

The slight, if remarkable tale uses a feature match in 1910 to bookend it. In this showcase, Huo battles four global greats: German soldier (Brandon Rhea), Spanish swordsman (Anthony De Longis), British boxer (Jean Claude Leuyer), and, especially Japanese master (Nakamura Shido).

A deeper understanding of this sequence gradually takes hold as Huo's life unfolds with the foibles, the trials, tribulations, and learning. It's to Li's credit how Huo nurtures the calm and tough sides of his personality to demonstrate the nuance of a wuxia hero, highly credible in the way he achieves prominence.

The stuntwork by the early middle-aged Li exudes a physical bravado in a class with the likes of the indelible Bruce Lee. Under Ronny Yu's able direction, Huo is able to manifest shadings hardly seen in this kind of film as Fearless blossoms into its climactic showdowns. The choreography by the inimitable Yuen Wo Ping (The Matrix, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) exhibits authenticity, grittiness, and class as the encounters are bracingly staged.

Like Hero, Li and Yu in sweeping form are able to soufully look at a nation and a man dealing with the hardship inwardly expressed. If the story sometimes seems as opaque as some victories, than Huo's existence can be surprising, thrilling, and touching, too.