A Modern Day Classic
It’s worth noting at the outset that my favorite genre of film is Asian martial arts cinema; give me a Shaw Brothers flick over a Wachowski Brothers one, if you get my meaning. That said, Jet Li’s Fearless, or just Fearless, takes many of the familiar elements of these to provide a powerful, thrilling film.
What’s even better is that Fearless is based off of a true story. The premise of the story takes place in Shanghai, China, 1910. This is the type of film that begins in the present, spends most of its time showing us events from the past that lead up to the present, and then concludes in the present. Jet Li takes the lead role as Huo Yuanjia, son of a champion martial artist. Huo begins to study the martial arts at a very young age and as the years pass his fighting abilities become legendary. He dominates tournaments and seems unstoppable. Then one day he fights and kills another master. In retaliation some of Huo’s family is killed. The events shell shock Huo and he seeks comfort in a remote village. Here is is nursed back to health and learns to forgive himself before eventually coming back to full form and engaging in a tournament featuring the world’s best fighters.
The theme of the story may seem familiar or typical, but it’s told in such a beautiful and powerful way that it seems completely fresh. The film is very captivating by virtue of it’s fantastic fighting scenes, the impressive acting, and the heartwarming and sad story.
On Blu-ray
This Blu-ray release is very light on extra features, but you do get three versions of the film. Included on this disc are the Director’s Cut, Unrated Version, and the Theatrical Release. The Director’s Cut runs two hours and twenty-one minutes, and really fleshes out the character development of Huo, including more of his time in that remote village. The Unrated version comes in at one hour and forty-four minutes, just three minutes longer than the theatrical release, and is obviously just a bit more ‘intense’ than the PG-13 theater release. Ultimately the most satisfying and complete version is the Director’s Cut which includes the Unrated version (which essentially includes the theatrical version) but with an additional thirty-plus minutes of content.
All three versions of this film look and sound fantastic. The visuals areas sharp and crisp as ever and the colors are saturated and very distinct. It’s one of the best looking Blu-rays I have seen. The audio package is awesome as well; there is a Mandarin DTS-HD 5.1 track along with a English and French DTS 5.1 track.
Where this release falls short is in the extra features. There is just a sixteen minute making of feature and a single deleted scene that are presented in SD. It’s definitely worth a watch, but for such an epic film, I would have really appreciate a lot more additional content. The making of feature includes director Ronny Yu, Jet Li, and other folks talking about the film. The odd part about it is that a lot of reference is made to this being Jet Li’s final film, which as we all know didn’t turn out to be the case (thankfully).
Bottom Line
As a fan of Jet Li and martial arts films, Fearless ranks as one of my favorites. I consider it a modern day classic and a beautiful film in so many ways. This Blu-ray release doesn’t disappoint on the presentation quality, but the extras are sadly lacking. However, you do get three versions of the film, and it’s hard to be disappointed about that.
