My favorite movie is a martial arts movie. It's the Director's Cut of 'Fearless' staring Jet Li.Briefly, 'Fearless' is based on the life of Huo Yuan Jia, the man who founded the Jin Wu Martial Arts Federation (a school of Kung Fu). Huo (played by Jet Li) is the son of a martial arts master and becomes a famous master himself. However, Huo is a shallow man and his interest in martial arts is based solely on arrogance. This leads to his downfall just as he achieves the pinnacle of success.
Once his success and position are destroyed, Huo is just an empty shell of a person. He wanders aimlessly, homeless, and almost dies until he slowly discovers the spirit that is supposed to go along with martial arts. At this point, Huo starts to rebuild himself.
Thankfully, there are none of the pat 'moment of truth' scenes you'd find in most movies with a fall and redemption theme. As Huo finds a real sense of self and purpose, he returns home to reclaim his life and make amends. As an extension of his own healing, he seeks to unify different schools of martial arts.
'Fearless' has lots of great fight scenes, yet it also tells a very deep and moving story with awesome cinematography. Ronny Yu makes the film so epic and yet it is so simple, almost like an ancient parable you'd read about some Zen master. Much of the reason the movie is so powerful is that the script allows the story to unfold rather than using dialogue to tell us what to think. Also, Li does a fantastic job conveying the various stages of Huo's journey in his expressions, delivery, and body language. You can really tell the difference in the character from the beginning of the movie to the end. As far as I'm concerned, that's what great acting is all about.
As is usually the case, the Director's Cut makes this a long movie. However, I never felt at any time that 'Fearless' had unnecessary scenes or dragged in pace. If anything, I think the shorter versions of the film must be lacking key scenes or subplots whose absence would lessen this very rich movie. As a result, I have no interest at all in the shorter versions.
'Fearless' speaks to me in so many different ways: the importance of friendship, the importance of wisdom versus knowledge, what real success is all about, and what it is to be a man. For these reasons, as well as the sheer beauty of the film, the great story, and the terrific fight scenes, this is my favorite movie of all time. It's also the movie that inspired me to get back into martial arts.
No comments:
Post a Comment