Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6520 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-10-23
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
• Formats: Dubbed, PAL
• Original language: Mandarin Chinese
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 99 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
A moving and inspiring story of redemption and personal triumph in the face of great odds, Jet Li's Fearless is the based-on-facts story of Chinese folk hero Huo Yuanjia (Jet Li). The son of a martial-arts master whose greatest strength was his restraint, Huo grows into an unbeatable fighter whose pride and thoughtlessness lead to a chain of tragic losses. After a classic wanderer-in-the-wilderness penance, Huo reinvents himself as a mature instructor of Wushu, a martial arts system that embraces all forms of fighting without preference or pre-judgement. He also becomes a populist symbol, at the dawn of the 20th century, of China's refusal to entirely capitulate to the boot of Western colonialists. Taking on whatever European, American, or Japanese fighter the outsiders bring in to demoralize the natives, Huo becomes a legend that, in real life, is still revered. Thrillingly directed by Ronny Yu (Warriors of Virtue), Jet Li’s Fearless is a dazzling action movie that transcends its breathless fight sequences with Huo's sportsmanship virtues, i.e., knowing when you've won by example, rather than by the fist. Jet Li is superb in the role. --Tom Keogh

Synopsis
Following the death of his father in combat, Huo Yuanjia (Jet Li, Hero) vows to become a great martial artist and starts establishing himself as one of the greatest fighters in Tianjin, China. After a tragic incident that results in a number of deaths, Huo flees the region. When he returns to Tianjin he finds that the place is teeming with foreign merchants and soldiers. Huo challenges famous American wrestler Hercules O'Brien (Nathan Jones, Warrior King), resulting in the Foreign Chambers of Commerce challenging Huo to take on four foreign fighters. Billed as Jet Li's final martial arts epic, Fearless sees the Chinese superstar play the legendary martial artist Huo Yuanjia, the most famous Chinese fighter in the early 20th century. Yuanjia was the founder of the Jin Wu Sports Federation and challenged foreign fighters to bouts. As with Jet Li's Once Upon a Time in China films, Li plays a character that stands up for the Chinese people at a time when Western influence was having a significant impact on China. Fearless benefits from the teaming up of Jet Li's dynamic skills with Yuen Woo-Ping's inspired martial arts choreography--the pair had worked together with similar effect in the first two of the Once Upon a Time in China films--to create a stunning action-packed film that serves as a fitting finale to Jet Li's epic martial arts film career.

Customer Reviews

Destined to surprise you
Even including the vibrant and polished martial arts film `Hero' in which Jet Li also stars `Fearless' is, if not the most exciting martial arts film I've seen in recent years then it's definitely the most original and poignant. The film begins with a tone that's quite playful and humorous as Jet Li's character Huo Yuanjia is a young boy and with aspirations to follow in his father's footsteps and train in the ancient fighting style known as wushu. At that point my expectations weren't particularly high for a film that would offer anything other than the familiar martial arts' surface gloss. Forever accompanied by his faithful friend Nong Jinsun there are liberal doses of comedy (albeit with equal helpings of bloodshed and brutality) and you might begin to wonder as I did if there's likely to be any exploration of a warrior's psyche implied in the film's synopsis, or if it will simply be another empty vessel of high kicks and upper-cuts. But this film is destined to surprise you...

Gradually and grippingly the film begins to build a slightly darker, but also more touching tone, as a tragic fate befalls Huo's family thanks to his arrogance and eagerness to embrace conflict rather than peace. From that point on Huo goes on a journey of self discovery, finding himself in the end in a similar position but with the chance to make the right decision, even if it means making the greatest sacrifice a warrior can make. In fact `Fearless' explores the spectrum of human emotion from humour to grief, honour to forgiveness. If this is to be Jet Li's final martial arts movie, it's easily one of his greater achievements as an actor in this genre. Artfully and poignantly directed, well-acted and beautifully filmed. Stunning and moving.

a simple, great film
when i went to watch this film, i was expecting something similar to 'Hero' or 'House of Flying Daggers,' where everything is incredibly bright and colourful, and the fighting seems more like a ballet than anything else

with Fearless i was pleasantly surprised by what i saw; the fighting was fast, gritty and shocking, reminding me of the classic 70's kung fu films but with a much more polished, up to date edge. the story was not especially epic, but that's what i loved about it; there was an elegant simplicity to the whole thing that made it easy to connect with and enjoyable to watch. nothing pretentious or over-the-top.

so, if you loved the action in the 70's kung fu films (or just martial arts in general), if you enjoy a good story, and if you have the stomach for some tragic, shocking and violent scenes, then this film won't dissapoint.

Exquisite, Jet Li at his best once again
Do you remember the first time you watched Shaolin Temple, or the first time you had a look at Warriors 2 or even lets say Fist of Legend or Once Upon a Time in China 1? Well, this has to be by far Jet Li's best movie in the last 10 years, forget that, in the last 15 years or so, outshines anything he ever did in America or the last couple of films he did in China...this is definitely on par with the greatest of the greatest and it poops on a lot of other martial arts films that have come out in the last couple of years.

Firstly, the story is great and actually quite emotional in the sense that you do end up understanding what he is fighting for, not your typical revenge sort of thing, secondly, the cinematography is brilliant, the scenes are captured beautifully, lots of scenary and landscape etc. But most of all, the fight scenes, wow, seriously, the choreographers outdid themselves, there are some beautiful fight scenes in this, especially the section when he has to fight people from around the world with different fighting technques, its beautiful, the moves are so fluent and there isnt a lot of that flying about, just pure motion, he flows so sweetly from move to move and looks so realistic, you have to hit rewind a few times...look out for the fight scene in the house/restuarant at night, kind of similar to the fght with Iron Vest Yan in Once Upon a Time in China 1...

If you like martial arts movies and are into the beauty of the fight scenes, i urge you to buy this. Period.