Prematurely billed as Jet Li's final martial arts epic, Fearless follows the -mostly- true story of Huo Yuanjia who rose to fame defeating foreign fighters in a time where China was facing encroachment from a militant Japan and Western colonials; he also founded one of the largest Wushu organisations in the world.The story traces his early life as an arrogant, ambitious upstart fighter to an upstanding humble defender of China and the moral values inherent in Wushu. The story told is an inspiring one, of co-operation over confrontation, which unfortunately is yet to become the wide consensus. Though engaging, the beats of the story could be drawn from the book of clichés. Both the imagery and the dialogue lack any form of subtlety, particularly in the first half of the film as Jet Li's character 'matures'.The film relies on Jet Li to carry the movie, both as the only truly developed character in the film and forced to portray a spectrum of emotions. Amid tragedies that his character faces, arrogance turns to humility in what is a relatively short space of time, yet Jet Li makes it believable and real. He is of course helped along from the already mentioned weathered old storyline. The quiet exile where one 'finds themselves' is particularly trite.This is still-somewhat- a martial arts piece, and some could argue that in such a film the story is irrelevant. Though with such a strong message that would be an unfortunate conclusion here. Nevertheless, Yuen Woo-Ping is on top form for the fight scenes here, bettering most of his 'Western' work at the least. The fighting switches from flamboyance to raw brutality, and sports a fantastic variety in one-on-ones. The fights between Yuanjia and Master Chin, and against Tanaka, are particular standouts.There have been some suggestions of 'Chinese propaganda' and a one dimensional role for the 'Westerners'. Of the former charge, I'd say its patriotic and disdainful of colonialism, but neither of these are crimes. Of the latter, I was quite enjoying the portrayal, solely as the evil moustache twirlers. This spoke more to me as a hypocritical attitude from some of the 'West', and the charges are certainly exaggerated.As a note, and it may be especially relevant to the last point on one-dimensional 'villains', but this is based solely on viewings of the theatrical edition, and not the directors cut, which adds a significant 40 minutes to the length. While it's been said to be unwieldy long, the film could have done with a bit more character development, as the film is a relatively tight 1 hour 40 minutes, and Jet Li's character arc is of significant length.Certainly, the film looks great, particularly with the action scenes, and the themes are solid. The film is just disappointing for lacking any originality with its themes, and worse, originality in portraying them. It doesn't stray away from the playbook, and repeat viewings serve to make this more obvious. It takes a safe route, but by no means a bad one.

Honestly this movie truly is a must watch. Contains a credible amount of action, as well as a good Life Lesson to be learned by our Hero. But if there is any critique I could give the movie is that the change in scenes were less than professional. Through out the plot of the movie you may notice fast change in scenes, which can get a little confusing. And there are many unnecessary scenes which the movie could do with out. I feel like the Director tries to explain the story but discontinues the scene for lack of time. The best example would be (spoiler alert) when he's on the boat, then all of sudden walking across a river. I understand what they are trying to explain, but it could have been better interpreted.Overall its a great movie! But for those few questionable scene changes, 9/10!

This movie is a great sense of how to learn about yourself in a pursue of happiness. It is uncommon for people in this day and age, for one, to find true happiness in what they do. Most die and never see real importance of life and their own propose. This movie is one of my favorites because, Huo dreams so big into being the best Wushu master and claiming his house name among china, that he not only forgets what is most important to him, but he sacrifices the lives around him for his own endeavor. After realizing what he has done, he leaves uncertain of his own motivation in his life. Then he is picked up, aged, and in a isolated place where he learns the meaning of life and how to grow. He learns here that not only is his dreams still worth chasing but the reasons why he does it is not for his own greed, but rather for the teaching of others. He realize through honorable competition he can find himself, learn who he is and in his place of happiness die with peace. For he has left others to do good. Unfortunately, my review probably still does not do justice for this film but I would recommend this movie to everyone in hopes that they see, what my words lack.

This was one of the first Martial arts movies i watched, after this i backtracked and saw Hero, and a few others movies featuring Jet Li, though i don't wish to compare them, this movie was the one that got me excited about this genre. Where unlike the usual need of fitting in romance, no matter what kind of movie it is, this movie kept to the plot, no distractions. Though I didn't really feel the whole theme of western oppression as much as it would have liked to be conveyed it still gave a strong story, with nice character development whom you root for. I am no martial arts expert, not beyond what I see in video games, but the stances used seemed really familiar to me, and that hooked me in even more, to see possible fighting applications. This movie stays on point, and although it has a theme, its ignorable, and everyone can enjoy it.