'Fearless' offers more than just fights

If you’ve ever wanted to see a man with a katana fight a man with a three-sectional staff, you should watch Jet Li’s “Fearless.” Though this film’s trailer boasts of its martial arts mania, it may surprise even the most eager viewers.

Jet Li plays Huo Yuanjia, the hero of the tale. Yuanjia’s father is a wushu fighter in Tianjin whose efforts to keep his son from learning martial arts only fuel the disobedient youth’s fire to fight.

When the estate becomes his, Yuanjia competes on a stone stage in the middle of town against all who will sign death waivers. Yuanjia defeats all who come his way, though he nearly kills his childhood rival during a fight atop a high wooden platform.

Yuanjia’s flaw is his pride, which fuels his obsession with defeating more and more opponents and becoming the champion of all Tianjin. He lets his bills collect and cares only about winning, allowing himself to be used by his “disciples,” who only follow him because of his generous partying. He soaks in his ego, boosted by their words; they drink down free wine.

When one of these false friends comes to him beaten, Yuanjia seeks furious revenge against the only fighter he has not defeated.

The action highlight of the film — a dark fight with broadswords that nearly destroys a building — proves fatal. Yuanjia loses his mother and daughter to revenge.

Without these figures of his past and future, Yuanjia disappears into sorrow and shame, realizing what his arrogance has cost him. But he finds life again in a small village, in the home of a blind woman who takes him in. He returns to his hometown to find it has been discovered by foreigners, whose fighters are insulting and defeating the Chinese.

Yuanjia must swallow his pride and return to his lifelong friend, Nong Jinsun, who runs a successful restaurant and to whom Yuanjia is deeply indebted. Jinsun agrees to help Yuanjia fight for China, and the two start the Jin Wu Sports Federation. Yuanjia then teaches and practices the principles behind the wushu he had earlier misused.

Yuanjia later challenges the foreigners, which leads him into a trap.

The foreign Chamber of Commerce sets up a contest in which Yuanjia must face a British boxer, a Spanish swordsman, a Prussian with a spear and, finally, karate practitioner and swordsman Anno Tanaka.

“Fearless” does have some unique fights, but if you go looking for unending action, you’ll be disappointed. “Fearless” is a tale of how pride cometh before the fall. It tells also of redemption and the remaking of a man.

The movie profiles an unbreakable friendship, perhaps the best part of the film. The audience finds itself on the side of restaurant owner and intellectual Jinsun, who cautions Yuanjia about his lifestyle before tragedy befalls. Jinsun suffers greatly because of his friend, yet in the end becomes his redeemer by great sacrifice. Jinsun’s morality becomes the means to save China’s reputation. The film’s great friendship is celebrated by a photograph in the movie, a black and white shot of the two proudly positioned with the students of their school.

The long fights and slow-moving plot are typical of Chinese cinema. Sometimes physically unrealistic, the fight scenes are what audiences have come to expect from Jet Li.

For a martial arts film, don’t expect the best. For a moving story about how a protagonist we don’t like becomes a new man and finds noble purpose, “Fearless” is a must.

Grade: B+