Fearless (film)

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Movie
German title Fearless
Original title Huo Yuan Jia
Country of production Hong Kong , USA
original language Chinese
Publishing year 2006
length 105 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Ronny Yu
script Chris Chow
production William Kong
Philip Lee
Jet Li
music Shigeru Umebayashi
camera Hang-Sang Poon
cut Virginia Katz
Richard Learoyd
occupation

Fearless (original title: Huo Yuan Jia ) is a martial arts film by Ronny Yu ( Hong Kong / USA ) and tells the story of Huo Yuanjia with Jet Li in the lead role.

action

China at the turn of the century: Since the first opium war in 1842, China has lost its years of supremacy and is under western control. During this time, Huo Yuanjia was born in Tianjin , the son of a great Kung Fu master . Huo Yuanjia has been in contact with martial arts since early childhood, but since he has asthma, his father forbids him to train. However, he does not adhere to it and even eventually overcomes his illness through training. Soon, the ambitious Huo Yuanjia becomes obsessed with becoming the best fighter in Tianjin. With great success: Thanks to his uncompromising fighting style, he became a legend during his lifetime and remained undefeated even after many fights. He gathers many students around him, but he takes them all in without having to pass exams by drinking a schnapps with them. But success makes him arrogant and hot-headed, his fighting style remains soulless. Huo Yuanjia's students also devour immense sums of money because they drink and celebrate excessively, but the great fighter doesn't care, even in the impending bankruptcy he pays the bills without questioning them. Only a great misfortune brings change - in struggle as in life. In a fight provoked by his students against another master, the only one who has not yet been defeated by Huo Yuanjia, Huo Yuanjia wins, but his opponent dies during the night from his injuries. A student takes revenge on Huo Yuanjia for the death of his master by killing his mother and daughter and then committing suicide. Huo Yuanjia finds refuge in a small village, where he understands the respect for nature and people. He refines his fighting technique, finds his own style and inner peace. As he matured, Huo Yuanjia found a new attitude towards life and soon faced his greatest challenge. In order to weaken the will and the cohesion of the population, the four occupying powers are holding a competition, which is supposed to prove that the Chinese fighters cannot keep up with the elite of the western powers. Huo Yuanjia accepts the invitation. His legendary fight will go down in history and forever change the spirit of martial arts. Huo Yuanjia clearly has the upper hand. But the mighty see a danger in his impending victory, they poison him so that he is weakened, thus losing the fight, and dies. In his last fight, Huo Yianjia suffers from the poison, but then has the opportunity to decide the fight in his favor with a powerful blow that had previously killed the master, but with a smile he lets go of it. He eventually dies, but his teachings are carried on.

The real Huo Yuanjia

The film tells the story of Huo Yuanjia , who actually lived between 1867 and 1910. He was the founder of the Jin Wu Sports Federation and is still a hero in China for allegedly holding his own in spectacular fights against several foreign fighters and remaining undefeated during the period when Western influence rose in China. Because of his heroic status, legends and myths about events in his life are difficult to tell from the true facts. The film only partially adheres to actual historical events, especially since there are hardly any records of the nature of the fighting or the opponents of Huo Yuanjia.

In February 2006, a descendant of Huo Yuanjia gave an interview in which he described the film as "stupid" and "not true". The descendant stated that his ancestor Huo Yuanjia had many children and not just one, as shown in the film. The incident also caused a stir abroad. The film's producers and creators stated that the film was "actually not based on historical records, but rather on legends."

useful information

  • Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury and the remake with Jet Li that was filmed for it tell of a (fictional) student Huo Yuan Jia. So Fearless acts like a prequel to it, so to speak , and at the end of the film there is a connection to it.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for Fearless . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , September 2006 (PDF; test number: 107 580 K).