Story: The biopic is only loosely based on the life of Huo Yuanjia (1868-1910). The time is set at the first decade of the 20th Century, when China was suffering from corruption and foreign invasion. The story starts with young Huo Yuanjia accidentally killed his opponent, son of a local tyrant, during a match. The local tyrant then revenged on the Huo family and Huo Yuanjia run away. He then spent three years at a small village in Thailand. During which, a half-blind girl named Yue Ci, became his spiritual guard and developed a specially bond with him. In the end, Huo Yuanjia defeated a foreign boxer in Shanghai and became a national hero.
Nice to see Jet Li doing a traditional martial arts film again. I hope this will be something like Once Upon a Time in China. And I think Ronny Yu was a good choice for a director. He has always been a bit under-rated.
btw, is this a remake of Legend of a Fighter (Huo Yuan-Jia - 1982) ?
“Sigh” So Ronny Yu is directing this, eh? Even with Jet Li and Yuen Woo Ping teaming up together in this movie, I kind of get the feeling that this movie is going to burn to the ground, like Michelle Yeoh’s “The Touch” and Jackie Chan’s “The Medallion”. Most Hong Kong movies nowadays show either a glimpse of the classic golden era (as in mid-80’s to mid-90’s) of HK cinema (Infernal Affairs, Election, Fulltime Killer) or turn into crap (Twin Effects 2 anyone?!). Personally, I wish this movie would feel a little bit like the “Wong Fei Hung” movies, but we live in a CGI world now. It’s all about special effects & pretty faces instead of character development & good storytelling nowadays. Oh well, there’s still gonna be some solid action in this movie I hope.
This is old news but in case someone doesn’t know: Michelle Yeoh is no more in this movie. The director edited out approximately 40 minutes of footage, including all scenes featuring Yeoh.
Just saw the movie, it’s Jet Li’s best movie ever. I like the film’s message that martial arts should be used as a sport and health and not a killing device.
However, 80 minutes is too short, it could have been much longer, what a shame for the producers to cut out Michelle Yeung’s scenes
“Well, if you’ve been wondering where we’ll have the first crack at the long cut of Jet Li’s Fearless, keep your eyes on Thailand. The locals reportedly were a little irked when they learned that the fight sequences involving the Thai fighter - who was prominently featured on the Thai billboards - had been removed from the theatrical release in Hong Kong and, as a result, Thailand will be screening the original, longer cut of the film which not only reinserts the Thai character but also Michelle Yeoh.”
I’ve seen the rest now, it’s of no use to rate this movie in any way with 40mins missing. Thats why i also lost interest in watching.
1st half is just fights, 2nd half is kinda renascence in a quiet and peaceful village; this act is a little toplofty. It’s nice, but bla. Then theres the end, which is really pathetic if you aren’t so into emotion.
I enjoyed Fearless because it reminded me of Wong Fei-Hung and all those great kung fu films about legendary masters fighting for what is right. The new generation of kung fu period films (Hero, House of Flying Daggers) don’t have that same quality to them. Huo Yuanjia was a legend and it’s good to see Jet Li again in a role similar to OUTIC and Fong Sai-Yuk. I am a bit of a sucker for historical masters of martial arts.
[quote=“Hung Fist”]
I’m happy I never bought the dvd because I just found out it’s getting a theatrical release in Finland soon
[/quote]
I am pretty sure you will love it.
[quote=“Contrai”]
Then theres the end, which is really pathetic if you aren’t so into emotion.
[/quote]
Oh come on, have a heart Contrai. It was sad. Sure Chinese kung fu films would never have done that in the old days, but people expect some emotion with their film!
and btw, both US dvds (theatrical cut and unrated cut) are edited versions of the Hong Kong theatrical cut. So, we have 5 versions of the film:
US Theatrical Cut (shortest)
US Unrated Cut (a little longer)
HK Theatrical Cut (a few minutes longer than the US Unrated Cut)
Thai Cut (HK cut + thai fighter scene)
Yu’s HK Director’s Cut (longest version)
now the only thing we’re missing is the Besson Cut. And maybe a Premier Asia version with a new hip hop soundtrack
EDIT: and oh right, since I’m feeling really negative right now I say the english subs get cancelled before the disc is out. I don’t really care, but at least you guys get to suffer.
I wouldn’t mind the extended one (well, I would love it), but as far as I am concerned. The theatrical cut is not incomplete. Not to say I want it to miss all those extra scenes, but it isn’t as if it was lost. It was cut, so until any of us see the extended cut, the theatrical cut is the FULL VERSION as far as I am concerned. They released it that way. So it isn’t half a film, it is a whole film.
I am just pointing this out because people seem to think that it isn’t worth reviewing or coming to a conclusion on this film because it is “incomplete”.
Yeah I loved it as it is. Alot of asian films could benifit from some cutting, yes I am talking about you Volcano High! I still can’t stand that friggin water fight scene in Hero.
Anyway there isn’t anything noticable cut out, unlike when they cut out sex scenes and you feel like you got hit over the head with a rock. The films message and best fight scenes are still there.
