After watching his dad die in combat, Huo vows to become the finest martial exponent the world has ever seen and, true to his word, remains undefeated for the next 30 years.
But as his success grows so does his arrogance and, when he recklessly kills a man in a drunken brawl, his mother and daughter are butchered in a revenge attack.
Devastated by the loss, Huo tries to commit suicide by tossing himself in a river but is rescued by a blind peasant girl and taken to an idyllic rice growing village in the remote countryside.
Our man then gives up the booze, grows his hair, and falls in love, before returning home to take part in the last battle of his distinguished career - a WWE style four way tournament with the world's greatest fighters.
They say:
Empire: "Despite impressive, CG-light action sequences and an absorbing story, Yu barely elevates this above the level of a direct to video fightfest.”
BBC: "Bland and crassly directed, Fearless strives for the serenity of Yimou Zhang but looks more like a tatty historical theme park: Ye Goldene Age of Kunge Fu.”
Total Film: "The sluggish second half, in which Li finds inner peace, is an extended wallow in sappy sentiment.”
We say:
Despite reportedly spending the last ten years developing the character of Huo, “Fearless” is a disappointing finale to Li’s martial arts career – he will be focusing on non combat roles from now on.
Even the involvement of legendary choreographer Yuen Wo Ping (“The Matrix”) fails to ignite the gravity defying fight sequences which have a seen it all before feel to them, and lack the humour of last year’s vastly superior “Ong bak”.
Blame for this must also go to director Ronny Yu, who continues in the same vein of form evident in his past classics “Freddy Vs Jason” and “Bride of Chucky”, placing the emphasis on witless fight scenes rather than the far more interesting story about Huo’s midlife epiphany and rehabilitation.
Also, for a film that extols the message of pacifism it seems strange that Yu displays such unbridled glee in bone crunching carnage.
Extras:
None
CAST
Jet Li, Nathan Jones, Masato Harada, Shido Nakamura,
Betty Sun, Dong Yong
DIRECTOR
Ronny Yu
TIME
104 mins
POSTED...
Fri 23 Jun 2006 at 7:58am
