Jet Li's Fearless (2006)

Director: Ronny Yu Starring: Betty Sun, Shido Nakamura, Jet Li Genres: Action-Adventure, Period Drama, Biography Origin: China Certificate: M Languages: Japanese Running Time: 104 min

synopsis

A young mainland boy living with his family in Tianjin and forbidden by his father to practice martial arts grows up to become the founder of the Jingwu school of fighting in a lavish biopic detailing the remarkable life of turn-of-the-century martial arts legend Huo Yuanjia. Bullied on the schoolyard and determined to fight back despite his father's disapproval, Yuanjia steals his father's Wushu manual and begins teaching himself to fight on the sly. Soon powerful enough to take down his childhood tormentor, the increasingly arrogant Yuanjia eventually begins to abuse his considerable skills by using his strength to torment others. Yuanjia later finds out just how much damage hatred can do, when, after discovering that master Qin Lei has injured one of Yuanjia's prized pupils, the young hothead hastily challenges the respected master to a duel to the death. When Yuanjia mercilessly kills Lei in the battle and subsequently returns home to discover his mother and father brutally murdered as a direct result of his violent actions, he wanders the countryside a broken man until he is eventually taken in by a kindly woman from a peaceful remote village. Convinced by the kindness of a stranger that the true future of martial arts lies not in brutality but instead in sportsmanship, Yuanjia returns to his hometown of Tianjin to make amends for his past and repair the blight he brought upon the once-revered family name. Redemption doesn't come without a high cost, however, and after becoming a respected master of the Mizong Fist method and forming the progressive Jingwu Sports Foundation, the newly self-assured fighter and teacher is forced by the Foreign Chamber of Commerce to do battle against a British boxer, a Spanish swordsman, a Belgian soldier, and a Japanese martial artist in a deadly Shanghai fighting tournament that could very well cost him his life. A huge hit in Hong Kong when originally released into theaters in 2006, Fearless was often touted as Jet Li's final film in the traditional martial arts genre.