Film Reviews

Fearless

• Rating:
• Director: Ronny Yu.
• Starring: Jet Li, Shida Nakamura, Jon T. Benn, Nathan Jones.
• Details: Hong Kong, 104mins, 15A.

Jet Li, in what is rumoured to be his last martial arts movie, plays Huo Yuan Jia, the Chinese martial arts master who was the founder member of the now worldwide Jin Wu Sports Federation. Since he was a little boy, Yuan Jia had always wanted to be the champion of Tanjin - the town where he grew up. After watching his father humiliated in a fight, the young Yuan Jia vowed never to lose a fight and grew up to be unbeatable. However, when his cockiness and strict honour code lead him to kill another master, he is forced to put his wayward life into question. With Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, House Of Flying Daggers and Hero, martial arts movies have come a long way and have become increasingly ambitious in plot, action and cinematography. Fearless is no different and maybe that's the problem as it retreads the same ground as previous breakthroughs without offering anything new. With more fight scenes in the opening half hour than you can poke a Bo Staff at, Fearless soon gets muddled up in the epic style plot while blood-hungry enthusiasts are left salivating waiting for the next bout. After this explosive half hour however, the fight scenes are few and far between. Again, it looks beautiful and awash in bright colours, the set design is stunning and the fight scenes are incredible but we've seen it all before and boredom soon sets in. Fearless will satisfy passive fans, frustrate hardened fanatics and fail to gather more devotees to the martial arts movie.

Review by Gavin Burke