Fearless

I am leaving really quite soon and I need to start doing things like packing. Tonight I took the first step and went to see a martial arts film. Yeah!!!

It was Fearless, touted as Jet Li's finest martial arts film ever. I've got to say, despite the sometimes wooden screenplay, occasional OTT acting, obvious wires here or there and a complete disregard for historical veracity (thankyou wiki and google) it's an affecting film. For a martial arts epic that's saying something.

It's set in the early 20th century, a time when China under the Ching dynasty was at its lowest ebb and at the mercy of foreign powers. Huo Yuanjia is the child of a martial arts family - physically weak his father won’t train him, so he trains in secret, learning by spying on his father teaching his disciples… If that’s not the start of an epic, what is? Add a challenge to pit the best of the West against the meanest in the East, enemies intent on revenge and honour and an arena where combatants must sign “death waivers” and you’ve got a direct ticket to kung-fu heaven!

Huo Yuanjia will rise to become the founder of modern wushu but the way is not easy. We see Huo's highs, including the somewhat ambivalent high of being a big fish in a small pool in his native village, and we see some terrible lows. We see him go from physically weak to physically strong, and then have to go through the same journey with his spirit. We also see him kick a lot of ass with that inimitable Jet Li magic.

History of course gets chopped up to fit the mould of an epic. The setting is simplified to a clear-cut clash of cultures - weakened East and overbearing West - and leaves out the corruption and tyranny of the Ching dynasty’s waning years. This was a time when Chinese men were forced to adopt identical hairstyles on penalty of death (rather similar to the Taliban’s insistence on beards) among other oppressions. Many, including some of the Huo family’s friends, dreamed of the Chings’ overthrow – but this muddies the waters too much to rate a mention.

Likewise people in Yuanjia’s life get reinvented as more epic characterisations - the life changing love interest, the childhood friend / lifelong companion etc - and events get inflated to suitably dramatic proportions. Two of Huo's early opponents, a Russian wrestler and a British boxer, are combined into an American hulk (in so doing, gaining the courage to face him in the ring, which neither of the real guys did.) The hulk’s improbable name – Hercules O’Brien – is actually the only accurate part of the sequence.

Historically, Yuanjia's prowess against foreign challengers - from British colonial thugs to Japanese judo masters - restored Chinese national pride at a time when it was under attack. The film emphasises this fact grandly, with a liberal dose of communist symbolism sprinkled in. While the themes of the film aren’t played with subtlety, they nonetheless manage to be compelling, and while the film may fall into a predictable rhythm in parts, I did not expect in the early reels to be taken on the emotional journey the film became.

For me, this movie fills a similar role as Dragon, the Bruce Lee biopic. Like Bruce Lee, Huo Yuanjia was a genuinely inspiring man and both are inspiring films. I find their real stories more interesting than their simplified onscreen parrallels but without the movies might never have heard either story told at all. Fearless is not without its faults but it does pack a punch. A big Jet Li punch and you know you’re not walking away from that without feeling it for a long time.