Rating: NNN
Jet Lis Fearless: Directors Cut (Alliance, 2006) D: Ronny Yu, w/ Jet Li, Betty Sun. Rating: NNN DVD package: NNN.
If all you want are the fights, stick to the unrated version that came out just before Christmas 2006. All you get from the extra 36 minutes in the directors cut is character development. It does, however, improve the movie considerably.
You dont expect character in a kung fu flick. Villains in particular get short shrift a sneer, a taste for killing and maybe a little greed or ambition thrown in. Fearless spends its first half detailing exactly how young Huo Yuanjia (Jet Li) grows up to become a complete asshole a doting father but a bad son, bad friend, terrible teacher and vicious competitor besotted with the crowds adulation.
In the best kung fu movies, fighting reveals character. Yuen Wo Pings choreography, Jet Lis performance and Ronny Yus direction do that beautifully, with challenge matches that move from exhilaration to contempt without ever losing a sense of spectacle.
When Huos life goes in the toilet, the movie shifts to his gradual redemption in an isolated village. This is the part that the other versions severely chop. Its slow, pastoral and direct in its life lessons. Its the heart of the movie. Its also as handsome as the city scenes this is a high-gloss effort and moves gracefully. Jet Lis acting is adequate to the role.
The real-life Huo Yuanjia (1868 1910) was central to promoting the philosophy of kung fu as mind-body-spirit development, a key element in moving the practice into the 20th century. The movie reflects this notion very well, though much of Huos life has been fictionalized.
Jet Li, in the otherwise nothing-special making-of doc, talks a little about his similarity to Huo and his own spiritual beliefs, a nice touch for those who like that kind of stuff.
EXTRAS Disc one: Directors cut. Widescreen. Mandarin audio. English, French, Spanish subtitles. Disc two: Theatrical version, extended version, making-of doc, deleted scene. Widescreen. Mandarin, English, French audio. English, French, Spanish subtitles.
