Fearless (2006 film)

Did You Know?

• The film's soundtrack was composed by Shigeru Umebayashi, and the ending theme song of the same name was composed and sung by Jay Chou.
• In the Japanese release, the ending theme song was changed to 'Crime' by High and Mighty Color, upsetting many Japanese fans of the original song.

Synopsis

The film opens in 1910 with Huo Yuanjia defeating three foreign opponents at a Shanghai tournament. While waiting for a fourth match, he looks back on his journey. As a boy with asthma, Huo learned martial arts in secret against his father’s wishes. After seeing his father lose with honor and then suffering his own humiliation, he resolved to restore his family’s name.

Following his father’s death, Huo became a famous lei tai fighter in Tianjin, but success made him arrogant and careless. He wasted his money, pushed away his friend Nong Jinsun, and killed a rival named Qin Lei in combat. In revenge, Qin’s godson killed Huo’s mother and daughter. Overcome with guilt, Huo fled Tianjin.

He wandered until Granny Sun and her blind granddaughter Yueci took him in. Living simply as a farmer, he healed both body and spirit, learning humility and compassion. In 1907, Huo returned to a Tianjin now dominated by foreign powers. He destroyed his trophies, apologized to those he had hurt, and made peace with Nong.

When Irish wrestler Hercules O’Brien humiliated Chinese fighters, Huo beat him fairly, lifting national spirits. He then helped establish the Jingwu School in Shanghai to teach martial arts as moral discipline. Threatened foreign businessmen arranged a final match against four fighters. One opponent, Japanese martial artist Tanaka Anno, became Huo’s friend.

At the tournament, Tanaka turned out to be Huo’s fourth challenger. Their weapons round ended in a draw, but before the unarmed fight, Huo was secretly poisoned. Despite his failing strength, he defeated Tanaka and spared his life, then collapsed and died. Tanaka declared Huo the true winner. In the epilogue, Yueci imagines Huo’s spirit practicing martial arts in peace.

Cast

Jet Li takes on the role of Huo Yuanjia, the martial artist credited with founding the Jingwu School. His childhood friend, businessman Nong Jinsun, is played by Dong Yong. Collin Chou appears as Huo Endi, Huo Yuanjia’s father, while Paw Hee-ching plays his mother. Betty Sun portrays Yueci, also called Moon, a village girl who nurses Huo Yuanjia back from a deep depression.

The Irish wrestler Hercules O’Brien is played by Nathan Jones. Anthony De Longis appears as Spanish fencer Anthony Garcia, and Brandon Rhea plays Belgian lancer Colonel Han Herzon. British boxer Peter Smith is portrayed by Jean-Claude Leuyer. Mike Leeder is match referee Randall.

Masato Harada plays Mr. Mita, the Japanese businessman who orchestrates Huo Yuanjia’s poisoning. Nakamura Shidō II appears as Anno Tanaka, a respectful Japanese fighter. In the director’s cut only, Somluck Kamsing plays Muay Thai kickboxer Beicha, and Michelle Yeoh voices narrator Ms. Yang.

Production

The film was originally approximately 140 minutes long but was cut to 105 minutes for its theatrical run, removing scenes of Michelle Yeoh and a fight scene between Jet Li and Somluck Kamsing. A special release in Thailand in March 2006 reinserted the Somluck scenes but not the Michelle Yeoh scenes, making the running time approximately 110 minutes. In January 2007, Ronny Yu's original 140-minute director's cut was released on DVD in Hong Kong, featuring the full Michelle Yeoh scene and the fight with Somluck Kamsing.

Within the Somluck Kamsing scene, there are two different endings: in the director's cut, the fight ends after Huo Yuanjia stops the Thai boxer from falling head first; in an alternate scene, the Thai boxer continues fighting and Huo appears to kill him, but the boxer resists and ends the fight. Universal released the full 140-minute director's cut on DVD in North America in July 2008, but the released DVD reportedly contained both the American theatrical version and the unrated version instead of the actual director's cut; many viewers obtained replacement copies after complaining. In December 2008, Universal released a Blu-ray version containing all three versions on a single disc.

Reception

Metacritic assigned the film a score of 70 out of 100 based on 24 critics, indicating generally favorable reviews. Empire gave two stars out of five, stating that despite impressive action sequences and an absorbing story, director Ronny Yu barely elevated the film above a direct-to-video fightfest. Fearless opened in Hong Kong on 26 January 2006 during the Lunar New Year and grossed HK$30,201,600 by the end of its run on 8 March 2006, making it the highest-grossing domestic film of the territory for 2006.

Released in North America on 22 September 2006 under the title Jet Li's Fearless, it opened in second place at the box office, grossing US$10,590,244 in its opening weekend. It was Jet Li's seventh film in a row to open to over US$10 million. The film grossed US$24,633,730 in North America, making it the sixth highest-grossing non-English language foreign film in the United States to date, with a worldwide total of US$68,072,848.