Fearless

Director: Ronny Yu
Screenwriter: Chris Chow
Starring: Jet Li, Dong Yong, Shido Nakamura, Betty Sun Yi
Running time: 104 mins
Certificate: 15

Jet Li stars as real-life martial arts master Huo Yuan Jia who, after his father is defeated in a public duel, vows to become the most skilled fighter that he can be. This he manages, but his success results in the slaughter of his family in a revenge attack. Off he goes into the wilderness for some soul-searching where he changes his ways and goes to fight for worthier causes and found the Jin Wu Sports Federation.

Widely billed as Li's last martial arts epic (though not action movie), it gives him every opportunity to show off his skills, and the action throughout the film is impressive as ever and reasonably diverse, including a number of weapons and styles. Choreographed by Yuen Woo-Ping, such sequences are artfully done, in the process borrowing a short sequence from his own Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, although the use of his favoured bullet time technique, infrequent as it might be here, feels over-used and belies the fact that this is a biopic of a real person rather than one with superpowers.

However, though the film serves perfectly well as a martial arts movie, it's sadly a little less impressive in the plot department. Whilst the story of Huo is an interesting one, this biopic simplifies his life into a cock-sure fighter phase and then a more enlightened phase. The transition takes place during his stay in a idyllic village with Sun and Moon, though we're not really shown exactly how; the depiction of this process is shown by seasons hurrying by before we again hurtle towards more fighting.

The cinematic version of the film is actually missing forty minutes, including a part played by Michelle Yeoh. Whilst continuity isn't spoiled by the removal of these sections, perhaps they would have helped punctuate the action with more narrative.

Fearless, to a greater extent than many of his roles, requires Jet Li to flex his acting muscles. While the film is comparable to his more light-hearted Once Upon A Time In China movies, here he is required to give a more emotional performance. To claim that he acts wonderfully would be inaccurate, but his performance is certainly less wooden than it has been, coping well with what's expected from him. By the end of the film, having seen the character develop (albeit in fits and starts), the audience feels for him.

All in all, Fearless isn't likely to be remembered as a classic, and it's unfortunate if this truly is Li's last martial arts epic since, despite his contribution being at his usual standard, he deserved better than the weak plot that he was dealt, which is the film's only real failing.