by Won Kim

Part I:

Real Life Kung Fu Heroes.

Be forewarned, spoilers follow in the detailed discussion of Fearless below.

Many of us think fondly on the Hong Kong Action Cinema of the late ‘80’s and early ‘90’s. For approximately ten years, the colony churned out a nearly unbroken stream of fun popcorn movies, films whose sheer entertainment value an unabashedly sentimental and resonant themes appeal to audiences across the globe. I quickly became enamored of John Woo’s urban “bullet ballets (like The Killer), Johnnie To’s triad stories (like The Mission) and the art films of Wong Kar Wai (In the Mood for Love). These films showed us that Asians could blow up cars, shoot each other, and break each others’ hearts, as well as anyone else, and look good while doing it too. However, when it came to martial arts movies I retained a stodgy preference for the ‘bricks and baseball bats’ kung fu films of Chang Cheh (Five Venoms), Lau Kar-leung (Thirty Sixth Chamber of Shaolin), and Sammo Hung (Prodigal Son) over Jackie Chan’s comedies and wu xia epics in which daoist supermen spun around so fast during fight scenes you couldn’t see what the performers were doing. It wasn’t until fairly late in the 90’s that I finally turned onto one of the great pleasures of the period: the kung fu films Yuen Woo Ping and Jet Li worked on together in the 90’s.

Jet Li as Hung Gar Kung Fu master, Dr. Wong Fei Hung in Tsui Hark & Yuen Woo Ping's Once Upon a Time in China series.

Working with Maverick writer-director-producer Tsai Hark, Yuen and Li collaborated on four of the six films in the wildly successful Once Upon a Time in China series, that set a new standard for kung fu films of the era. Instead of a skeletal plot that served as a vehicle for one set piece after another, Once Upon a Time in China and its sequels featured appealing characters and fully developed stories mixing proud nationalism, broad comedy, social commentary, romance and breathtaking action sequences that artfully blended the usual brutal exchanges with wire-enhanced moments of physical grace. Li's Wong Fei Hung (only the latest in a long line of stars who played the role, including Jackie Chan) battled prejudice, ignorance, fanatics, violent colonial carpetbaggers, agents of the Imperial powers, government officials, desperate martial arts masters, gangsters and dangerously deluded cultists. He led a group of students (who provided most of the comic relief); was romanced by his youngest aunt by marriage and met major figures of the day, including Dr. Sun Yat Sen, the father of the short lived Chinese Republic. (I highly recommend the first two films in the series.)

Though Li eventually broke with Tsai, he and Yuen Woo Ping continued to work together on Fist of Legend (a remake of Bruce Lee’s Fist of Fury and probably Li’s most popular film in the West) and Tai Chi Master, a wonderful send up of the legends surrounding Daoist sage Zhang San Feng, credited in legend with creating the exercises that evolved into Tai Chi Chuan among other things.

Jet Li as Hua Yuan Jia, here facing off against Hans, Head Coach of a Unit of Guardsmen from one of the European Colonial Powers in Fearless.

The imminent release of Yuen Woo Ping and Jet Li’s most recent collaboration, Fearless, China 2006 gives us an opportunity to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of that marvelous period as it’s almost impossible to watch Fearless without comparing it with their previous work together. One drawback of the 90’s kung fu films was the combined effect of low budgets and breakneck shooting schedules. Despite bravura camera work and lighting, you couldn’t help but notice the occasional minor gaffe, a discordant background detail, inopportune glimpses of people gawking at the filmmakers in the background, etc. Today, films like Wong Kar Wai’s 2046, the crime thriller Infernal Affairs Hong Kong cinema attest to how far the Hong Kong filmmakers have come, despite the East Asian currency crisis of the mid-nineties and gradual re-absorption into China, while recognized directors from the Mainland have always had the resources to mount grand epics like Farewell My Concubine and Hero, but operate with far greater restraints on subject matter.

In this sense Fearless is a Mainland film. The period detail is perfect, and the outdoor photography and aerial tracking shots of action scenes are beautiful and stunning. There are numerous fight scenes, and action fans will be glad to know Li puts down his opponents hard in this one. If Fearless does turn out to be Li's last martial arts movie, (reportedly old injuries threaten to put Li in a wheelchair if he continues) Li’s going out on a high note. (Many will not need to read further, in deciding whether or not to see this film.) As such the script demands a lot from Li as an actor. We're used to seeing Li play man children like the protagonists of Fong Sai Yuk or stoic bad asses, as in Kiss of the Dragon. Grafted onto some of the known facts about the life of a real-life martial arts folk hero of the early 20th Century, Fearless is the story of an arrogant bad ass, who pays dearly for his hubris, and after a wandering for while, earns a hard won redemption.

The historical Hua Yuan Jia.

In his youth the historical Hua Yuan Jia (1867 - 1909) was a sickly child, and was bullied by older children. Compounding matters Huo’s father judged Huo too frail to ever develop sufficient skill and strength to master his martial arts and refused to teach his son. Huo’s response was to observe while his father taught others, and practice what he managed to pick up on his own for ten years. After Hua prevailed against his peers in street fights, his father finally accepted him as a student. By the time Huo was an adult China was in disarray. The central government was in decline, and warlords, gangsters, competing political factions and the colonial powers, including Americans and Japanese, came to China, seeking to take advantage of the central government’s weakness for economic gain, and carve economic niches for themselves out of sections of the country. Before long it became common for people to refer to the Chinese as “Sick Men of Asia”, and Chinese morale was at an all time low.

Jet Li's Hua sizes up an afternoon's challengers.

Accustomed to fighting public challenges against his countrymen, Hua accepted challenges from a number of foreign fighters and won, gaining immediate fame. He then sought to make use of his newfound renown and founded the Chin Woo School. He opened the door to all Chinese so they could strengthen themselves, improve their self-image, and some day help defend the country from further foreign encroachment.

The historical Chin Woo in its' early days.

Soon however Huo died. He had ingested medicines prescribed by a Japanese physician (who left China the day before Huo died) which gradually destroyed his lung tissue. Many Chinese believe Hua was poisoned on the orders of Japanese Imperial government who wanted further demoralize the Chinese. However, Huo's legacy outlived the Imperial Powers. After Huo’s death, branch schools were opened in other parts of China and across Southeast Asia, and in time, Europe. The organization survived the Japanese occupation of Manchuria and Shanghai, World War 2, the Civil War between the Nationalists and Communists, and repression during the Cultural Revolution. Chin Woo still exists today as something akin to the YMCA, a chain of gymnasiums open to the public where members can learn basketball, baseball and other western sports as well as the dozen or so kung fu forms that formed the basis of Huo’s fighting style.

Jet Li as Hua's student, Chen Zhen in Fist of Legend, a remake of Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury.

Long time action film fans will be interested to know that Fearless is a dramatic prequel of sorts to Bruce Lee’s Fist of Fury (and of course Li’s version of the same story Fist of Legend). Both of these earlier films told the story of Chen Zhen, a student of Master Hua, who seeks revenge on the Japanese for his teacher's death. In Lee’s version Chen Zhen succeeds in striking a blow against Japanese Imperialists, but pays the ultimate price for his rampage. (In Jet Li’s version, Chen Zhen lives on to wreck more havoc on the Japanese in Manchuria). Rather than glorify violent revenge Fearless dwells instead on the high price paid for arrogance, emotional immaturity and a lust for ego-gratification, which puts the onus on Li to expand his range as an actor. In Fearless he brings an intensity of feeling to Huo’s brutal rise to prominence and the inevitable fall. If Li is undercut at all, it's due to decisions the directors and editors made during the latter two thirds of the film. But here, in the first third of the film, Li shines as a fighter and as an actor.

Bastard!

It’s quite jarring to see Li play such a bastard. His Hua keeps pushing his luck, and pays a terrible price for his hubris.

Shattered over his grievous losses, Li's Hua stumbles off into the countryside. We next see him near death in rural Thailand where rural villagers take him in.

Here the film's weaknesses become readily apparent. Here Director Ronny Yu stages shots evoking scenes in other films, using them as emotional indicators instead of actually telling a story. For instance, there is a shot late during Hua's interlude in the village, where Hua tells a villager who cares for him that he has to leave. By this point in the film even Hua has our sympathy, and the actors (and the director) could have chanced more. Instead we get a compositional swipe of a shot from in Peter Weir's Witness where Harrison Ford's detective bids Kelly McGillis' Amish woman farewell. The same could be said of the blurred point of view shots in the last third of the film which recall the use of the same technique in Ridley Scott's Gladiator. This kind of cinematic short hand is becoming more and more common and never fails to annoy. However I am sure genre fans will likely forgive these failings. Fans of Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest films of the 70's have forgiven worse, and Hua's quest for redemption will resonate with viewers.

In this Fearless is more than a throwback to the 90's. The majority of the films of the “Hong Kong New Wave” were about entertainment pure and simple. However successful the new big budget films from Mainland China, Hero, Warrior of Heaven and Earth, House of Flying Daggers, The Promise and now Fearless, aren’t made solely to please audiences, or even make a return on the producers' investment. These films are products of China’s ongoing quest for a new place in the community of filmmaking nations.

Jet Li in Zhang Yimou's Hero.

Since Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, filmmakers on the Mainland have been searching for the right formula for their own crossover martial arts films, a grand big budget epic that will please critics and audiences, East and West. (It didn’t surprise me to learn that expatriate HK director John Woo recently bought a house in Beijing. The man goes where the work is.) In this context Fearless is an attempt to bring together the entertainment value and crossover potential of the kung fu film (as distinct from the wuxia, or historical drama) with a sober, mature examination of the costs of violence and a story of human redemption.

In this Fearless is hardly unique: dozens of kung fu films play with the same themes. However, in most cases, however resonant, those themes were subordinated to the need to string one fight scene to another. Fearless is an attempt to push the kung fu genre into the realm of cinematic biographies like Spike Lee’s Malcolm X. Li’s Hua rises and falls hard. He goes into exile and achieves a kind of awakening. In the last third of the film Li’s Hua returns to public life. He finds a way to turn his dangerous skills to a larger, higher purpose, and is cut down for his efforts. It’s a testament to the power of such themes that the film works. As part of China's quest for recognition Fearless is a step in the right direction, but the Mainland filmmakers aren't quite there just yet.

The film's biggest problem is the result of choices made by the filmmakers while assembling a cut for distribution in the West. The European and American editions of Fearless begin with a public challenge match where Hua battles the first three of four martial arts experts from the colonial powers: a barehanded boxer, a spear fighting coach, and a master fencer. Then the film takes us back to Hua's childhood. We travel the whole of the protagonist's life before the film concludes with the fourth match, when Hua faces Shido Nakamura's Anno, a master swordsman and karateka. This kind of narrative structure is a time-honored story telling device, and usually works fine. However, the lack of build up to Hua's final match deprives the film's climax of its potential power. Also, coming as it does so soon after Hua's quick rise back to the top of the martial world, and the founding of the Chin Woo organization, it all seems rather sudden.

This was a late editing decision, made to cover for scenes cut from the original version. As is often the case with big budget Asian productions, 40 minutes of material were cut from the film, ostensibly to make the film more attractive to distributors in the West. Lost was an entire framing sequence where Michelle Yeoh, playing a diplomat who makes a pitch for wu shu (an athletic performance art based on standardized versions of the old kung fu forms) being accepted as an Olympic sport. Also cut was an entire subplot set during the Thai interlude, one that climaxes in a major battle scene that has been described as “pivotal” online. (Images on the net indicate a night time battle with Thai warriors at night).

Missing in Action: Li's Hua takes on Thai warriors.

All I can hope is that the original cut (that will be available in Chinese and Thai, without English subtitles, will someday be made available here, with English subtitles, in the US. If nothing else I want to see Li's Hua's battle with the Thai warriors. The few images available on the net look great.


Jackie/Jason Wu Jing as Yang Luchan in Tai Chi Master.

For those who really need a taste of entertaining spirit of the pre-takeover, pre-currency crisis Hong Kong filmmaking, I suggest checking out Tai Chi Master (China, 2005). Please note: I am not speaking of the 1993 film, also titled Tai Chi Master starring Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh, based on legends about Daoist immortal Zhang San Feng (also called Twin Warriors) but a marginally more fact-based movie film (actually a two-hour compilation of major plot points and fight scenes from a successful 2002 TV series) about the youth of Yang Lu Chan, founder of the Yang Style of Taijiquan.

The historical Yang Luchan (1800-1873) sought to become a great martial artist. He’d heard that the Chen family practiced a formidable art called taijiquan but clan rules forbade teaching the art to outsiders. He became a servant of the Chen family, spied on practice sessions and practiced on his own. When discovered Yang trounced his captors and earned the respect of the teachers. He was accepted as a student, and given permission to teach.

Northern Praying Mantis expert Yu Hai as Chen Zheng-Ming, Yang Luchan's teacher.

Where Fearless is dark and serious, Tai Chi Master (2003) is breezy. It's an utterly enjoyable popcorn movie, leavened with generous helping of good humor loaded with fun fight scenes. The writers jazzed up the story to include cross-dressing daughters (likewise not permitted to study tajiquan at that time), battles to defend the village from attackers, challenges from rival martial artists, and much imperial intrigue. Wu Jing (often hailed as the neglected ‘should-be’ successor to Jet Li’s kung fu star crown) utilizes recognizable Chen style movements throughout the film - even more so than the heavily wire-assisted mix of Yang and Chen style technique that Jet Li employed in the 1993 feature film.

Featuring actual Chen Family Style movement!

This telling detail actually makes a lot of sense. There are readily distinguishable differences between the postures in the Yang and Chen style forms. This story takes place before those changes were made, so it makes sense that when Jacky Wu Jing fights in THIS film, he uses characteristic Chen style movement and techniques. Another treat for people practicing internal stylists is a series of matches between young Wu-Jings Yang Lu-Chan and Xu Xiang Dong, who plays Dong Hai-chuan, the founder of Baguazhang

Retired wushu athlete Xu Xiang Dong as Dong Hai Chun, founder of Baguazhang.

The character’s movements are clearly based on Baguazhang circle walking and ‘palm changes’ (strikes, throws and deflections). Even with soap-ish story elements cut from the re-edited, subtitled 2005 version, Tai Chi Master is a real treat to anyone who has studied Chen or Yang style for a year or longer, and has some knowledge of push hand applications drills, chin-na practice or sparring.

It’s also pretty damn entertaining. Whereas Fearless is not an entirely successful effort for a Mainland Chinese cinema that is trying to assimilate the lessons of the West and claim larger audiences worldwide, Tai Chi Master 2005 really is a throwback to the golden age of 90’s Hong Kong action cinema. A key element missing from the recent big budget martial arts films is humor, something Tai Chi Master 2005 has in abundance. I want to see the rest of the TV series. I hope it is subtitled in English someday.

Look for Part Two next week...

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