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JET LI'S FEARLESS (PG-13)

Plot Summary: Huo Yuanjia (Jet Li) is a great fighter who is learning his place in life, and whose life we learn about throughout the movie

Reason for the Rating: Violence and martial arts action throughout.

As Jet Li’s Fearless starts, it begins right at the end. Colonialist powers have subjugated China and, in a show of dominance, have challenged China’s most powerful fighter, Huo Yuanjia, to fight in a competition that is obviously rigged against him. With the reputation of his people at stake, Yuanjia rises to the challenge with grace and power.

Yuanjia begins by fighting three American fighters, each of which has different rules and combat styles. The first fight is hand-to-hand combat, the second fight is with spears, and the third fight is with swords. After Yuanjia wins all these fights quickly, the fourth and last fighter – a formidable Japanese combatant –  is shown on his way up to the ring. Then the film flashes back and tells how Yuanjia came to this point in his life.

Overall this is a pretty decent movie. The best parts are, of course, the really cool martial arts. There is amazing choreography that has gone into all of the fights that are shown here. All of the action scenes are timed perfectly and are pulled off with an amazing sense of realness to them. Each fight is also very intricate and the little things that are important are shown very well.

For example, in one fight Yuanjia’s sword breaks, and so he takes his opponent’s sword by putting his finger into some loops that are on one edge of it. This is not only pulled off well, but it also shows in a slow motion close up what he just did so that the viewer knows exactly how the sword was taken.

The story is OK, but there isn’t really much of it, honestly. The plot mostly centers on the fighting, but during one part Yuanjia sails off and is lost, but found by some people in a small village. These people take him in and here he learns some of the errors of his ways and learns to be calm and disciplined in his approach to life and combat. Through this healing village, he learns to restore himself to his previous greatness as a fighter – and to live a more satisfying inner life.

Although this movie certainly not a bad film, there were some parts that made it a little bit of a chore to watch. One of these was that the entire film, except for a couple sentences here and there, was spoken in Chinese so there had to be subtitles. This was not something I expected when coming into the movie, so I was thrown off at first but I got used to it pretty quickly. I also was a little disappointed in the slowness of story line, especially when Yuanjia is “lost” the small village after the people take him in. I realize it was important for character development, but it was mostly boring and some of what was happening didn’t always make sense.

FAMILYFANS RECOMMENDS:

Not perfect, but still a fun movie for teens and parents… OK, for Dads and sons mainly.

Some younger kids (10 and up) might enjoy it, but would have to be able to read well and pretty fast in order to keep up with the subtitles.

AFTER THE SHOW: 

• What did you like best about Jet Li's Fearless? What did you like least? Explain.

• What do you think was Huo Yuanjia's greatest strength? His greatest weakness? What do you think are your greatest strengths and weaknesses in life?

• Which character in this film was the most Christlike, or redemptive, toward Huo Yuanjia? Who has acted in that way toward you?

TN

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