Huo Yuan Jia (2006)

Director:

Ronny Yu

Writers:

Chris Chow (written by)
Chi-long To (writer)

Release Date:

22 September 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | History

Tagline:

"Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself makes you fearless." - Lao Tzu

Plot:

This film tells the story of Chinese Martial Arts Master Huo Yuanjia (1869-1910). Huo Yuanjia was the founder and spiritual guru of the Jin Wu Sports Federation.

Plot Keywords:

Grave | Birthday Dinner | Fantasy Sequence | Calligraphy | Friendship

Awards:

2 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Jet Li	...	Huo Yuanjia
Shido Nakamura	...	Anno Tanaka
Betty Sun	...	Moon (as Li Sun)
Yong Dong	...	Nong Jinsun
Hee Ching Paw	...	Yuanjia's Mother
Yun Qu	...	Grandma
Nathan Jones	...	Hercules O'Brien
Brandon Rhea	...	Belgian Fighter
Anthony De Longis	...	Spanish Swordman
Jean Claude Leuyer	...	English Boxer
Mike Leeder	...	Fight Referee
Jon T. Benn	...	American Businessman
John Paisley	...	English Businessman
Collin Chou	...	Yuanjia's Father
Masato Harada	...	Mita

Also Known As:

Fearless (International: English title) (USA)
Jet Li's Fearless (USA) (complete title)
Legend of a Fighter (Hong Kong: English title)
Untitled Jet Li Project (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violence and martial arts action throughout.

Runtime:

USA:103 min | Argentina:104 min | Hong Kong:141 min (Director's Cut DVD) | Thailand:111 min | Philippines:105 min | UK:104 min

Country:

China | Hong Kong | USA

Language:

Japanese | English | Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:M | Finland:K-15 | South Korea:12 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Singapore:NC-16 | Germany:12 | Ireland:15A | Portugal:M/12 | USA:PG-13 (cut) | Malaysia:U | Netherlands:16 | USA:Unrated (uncut version) | UK:15 | Sweden:15 | Peru:14 | France:U (with warning) | Hong Kong:IIB | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Norway:15 | Argentina:13 | Philippines:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Shanghai, China

Company:

Beijing Film Studio

Trivia:

The lotus pond scene was filmed in a lake two hours out of Shanghai, and that lake had no lotus. Over 200 lotus plants was air shipped from Hang Chow to ensure they will flower during filming.

Goofs:

Continuity: During the climactic fight scene, Huo Yuanjia wipes his face on his sleeve, and some vomit gets on the chest of his shirt. The next time you see his sleeve, it is clean, and the next time it is also clean.

Quotes:

Moon: because, "If you're sad", my Grandma told me "then cry", "After you cry, you still have to live life"

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Best! Movies! Ever!: Fights (#1.6)" (2007)

Jet Li's paean to martial arts

Make no mistake about it, Fearless is the best straight-ahead martial arts film since Jackie Chan's seminal Drunken Master 2. Director Ronny Yu crams more bone-jarring, well crafted fight scenes into the first forty minutes of this movie than most films can match in their entire runtime. This is a canny move, as it pulls in the viewer via the blurring action before beginning to develop the film's narrative in the middle third. While the story is a well used one (kung-fu bully comes to realise his skills can be used to educate rather than brutalise), it's a perfect structure on which to hang the film's many excellent confrontations. It's obvious that this film is Li's love letter to his Wu Shu background and martial arts in general. In dramatic terms, Fearless never reaches the heights of recent wuxia movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or Hero and so is unable to feel truly fulfilling as a great movie per se. It is however up there with Jet Li's very best work in the genre, OUATIC & Fist of Legend for example, and if it is (sadly) true that it is to be his last period martial arts picture, it's a hell of a bang to go out on.