Fearless (2006)

Fearless, is a 2006 martial arts film directed by Ronny Yu and starring Jet Li. It is loosely based on the life of Huo Yuanjia, a Chinese martial artist who challenged foreign fighters in highly publicized events, restoring pride and nationalism to China at a time when Western imperialism and Japanese manipulation were eroding the country in the final years of the Qing Dynasty before the birth of the Republic of China. Li stated in an interview that the film was his last wushu martial arts epic, a point also made in the film’s television promotions and other publicity.[citation needed] Fearless was released on 26 January 2006 in Hong Kong, on 23 June 2006 in the United Kingdom, and on 22 September 2006 in the United States.

Plot.

The film begins with Huo Yuanjia fighting and defeating three Westerners: a British boxer, a Belgian lancer, and a Spanish fencer. While waiting for the fourth match to begin, Huo remembers his father Huo Endi teaching martial arts. The story is then told in an extended flashback. Watching his father fight, the young Yuanjia wants to participate, but his father is concerned about his asthma. Yuanjia sees his father in a match with Zhao, who dishonorably won by retaliating when Huo Endi held back a fatal blow. Humiliated by his father’s defeat, Huo Yuanjia vows to regain the Huo family’s honor and pride. He practices martial arts behind his father’s back. As time goes by, Huo Yuanjia defeats several opponents (including Zhao’s son who bullied him when he was younger) and becomes a famous martial artist in Tianjin.

As he becomes successful, he becomes more short-tempered and reckless and grows more arrogant and ruthless towards his opponents, unlike his late father who advocated showing mercy to opponents. This also leads to Huo gaining many followers and getting himself into financial trouble by spending his family’s money on drinking and partying. When a rival martial arts master named Qin Lei injures one of his followers, Huo feels insulted and furiously confronts Qin on his birthday, at a restaurant owned by Huo’s childhood friend, Nong Jinsun. Failing to dissuade his friend from fighting and fed up with his ruthless behavior, Jinsun furiously and adamantly ends his friendship with Huo. The confrontation escalates into a fight that ends with Qin’s death. Qin’s godson seeks vengeance and kills Huo’s mother and daughter. Huo goes to Qin’s house, where Qin’s godson admits to the murders before killing himself.

Jet Li’s Fearless | All Action

Huo becomes depressed when he learns that it was his follower who had insulted Qin’s mistress, which caused Qin to beat him. Wracked with guilt, Huo flees Tianjin and wanders aimlessly for months. He nearly drowns in a river but is saved by Granny Sun and her blind granddaughter, Yueci. They bring him back to their village. Guided by their kindness, and over the years, Huo learns the value of compassion and mercy. In 1907, Huo returns to Tianjin and sees the changes that have taken place. He apologizes to Qin’s family and reconciles with Jinsun, now a businessman. He challenges the American wrestler, Hercules O’Brien. Prior to the match, Huo requests that he and Hercules fight with honor and civility. Taking advantage of the language barrier, the Announcer deliberately mistranslates Huo’s request to “He wants to kick your butt”.

During their match, Huo saves O’Brien from being impaled on some nails and wins his gratitude. The match ends with O’Brien happily naming Huo the victor. Huo’s fame spreads with successive bouts against other foreign fighters. In 1909, with funding from Jinsun, he founds Chin Woo Athletic Association in Shanghai. The members of the foreign chamber of commerce fear that Huo’s victories might fan anti-foreign sentiments among the Chinese people, thus becoming a disadvantage to them. They propose a match between Huo and four foreign champions. Huo takes up the challenge, even though he will have to fight four bouts in a row. Before the matches, Huo meets the Japanese champion Tanaka for tea and strikes up a friendship, with the men developing a mutual respect for one another.

Production.

The film was originally approximately 140 minutes long, but to fit market demand, it was cut to 105 minutes, and scenes by Michelle Yeoh and a fight between Jet Li and a Thai boxer, portrayed by Somluck Kamsing, were removed. A special release of the film in Thailand in March 2006 reinserted the scenes with Somluck (but not Michelle Yeoh), making its new running time approximately 110 minutes. In January 2007, Ronny Yu’s original 140-minute director’s cut was given an official DVD release in Hong Kong, featuring the full Michelle Yeoh subplot as well as the fight with Somluck Kamsing. Within the Somluck Kamsing scene, there are two different endings. In the director’s cut, the fight ends after Huo Yuanjia stops the Thai boxer from falling head first. In an alternate scene, the Thai boxer continues to fight after this and Huo appears to kill him with the exterminating blow, only to see that he had resisted, in which the boxer realises this and ends the fight.

Reception.

The film holds a rating of 73% on Rotten Tomatoes with the consensus being, “Fearless is a brilliantly choreographed, beautifully filmed endcap to Li’s quarter-decade of epic martial arts glory.” Empire gave two stars out of five with a verdict stating, “Despite impressive, CG-light action sequences and an absorbing story which certainly stands another re-telling, director Ronny Yu barely elevates this above the level of a direct-to-video fightfest. Hero or Crouching Tiger it ain’t.” Fearless opened in Hong Kong on 26 January 2006 during the Chinese New Year holidays. The film played to blockbuster business, eventually grossed an exceptional HK$30,201,600 by the end of its run on 8 March 2006, making it the highest-grossing domestic film of the territory of 2006.

On 22 September 2006, Fearless was released in 1,806 North American cinemas under the title Jet Li’s Fearless. In its opening weekend, it placed 2nd at the box office to the sequel to Jackass, grossing US$10,590,244 (US$5,863 per screen). It was Jet Li’s seventh film in a row to open to over US$10 million. The film went on to gross US$24,633,730 by the end of its North American run—making it the sixth highest-grossing non-English language foreign film in the United States to date —and its total worldwide gross US$68,072,848.

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Controversy.

The descendants of Huo Yuanjia were so upset by how their ancestor was portrayed in Fearless, as well as by the historical inaccuracies in the film, that they launched a lawsuit against Jet Li and the film’s producers and distributors in March 2006. Huo Shoujin, an 81-year-old grandson of Huo Yuanjia, stated he was unhappy that the movie showed Huo Yuanjia causing “trouble”, which led to the deaths of his mother and daughter. Huo Shoujin also denounced the filmmakers for depicting his grandfather as a violent fighter. In December 2006, a court in Beijing dismissed the case, saying Fearless was an exaggerated and fictitious portrait of Huo Yuanjia but it “contained no defamatory or libelous depictions”.

Cast:

Jet Li as Huo Yuanjia.
Dong Yong as Nong Jinsun
Nakamura Shidō II as Anno Tanaka,
Collin Chou as Huo Endi
Betty Sun as Yueci
Nathan Jones as Hercules O’Brien,
Paw Hee-ching as Huo Yuanjia’s mother
Mike Leeder as Randall, the match referee.
Ian Powers as Dante
Anthony De Longis as Anthony Garcia
Brandon Rhea as Colonel Han
Jean-Claude Leuyer as Peter Smith
Somluck Kamsing as Beicha,
Masato Harada as Mr. Mita
John T. Benn as the American businessman
Philippe Millieret as the French businessman
John Paisley as the British businessman
Michelle Yeoh as Ms.

Fearless (2006) Biography, Plot, Production, Fight.