International kungfu star Jet Li has been busy promoting his new
martial arts movie Fearless since its premiere at
Beijing's New Oriental Plaza last Friday. The movie is scheduled to
hit screens today and he considers it his "most important martial
arts picture."?
Li himself describes it as a labor of love and hopes to convey
one main message through the movie: live your life positively.
Fearless is a story about Chinese martial arts guru Huo
Yuanjia (1869-1910), who founded the Jing Wu Men (Chin Woo) martial
arts school in Shanghai. He practiced and taught "mi zong quan,"
also known as "my jhong," a Shaolin style kungfu based on
deception.
To the Chinese, Huo is a national hero because he competed and
won many judo and kungfu competitions. His victories were
particularly important because they occurred at a time when China
was under the heavy influence of foreign powers.
Li explained that the movie is less a story of Huo Yuanjia the
man than it is an expression of his spiritual path.
Preparations for the movie started in 2003. It was also
incidentally the time that Li discovered that 280,000 people in
China commit suicide every year. He hopes the movie encourages
those who have lost faith in life to be strong again.
As big a national hero as Huo might be, there are few written
records of him or his life. Li admitted that much of the movie's
plot is fiction, although settings and time periods are based on
fact. "We just want to tell a convincing story in which Huo is
portrayed as a human, not a god," Li said.
Li can relate to Huo's story because he, too, has been through
his fair share of ups and downs, having worked hard to make his
mark in Hollywood and Hong Kong.
"Huo's attitudes towards life, the world and martial arts
depicted in the movie are similar to mine," Li said. "He died at
the age of 42, and I am 42 now. I've tried to reflect the
philosophies of people my age in the movie. And the main message
that I hope to convey through the movie is: live your life
positively," Li said.
Fearless will be his last movie that has martial arts
as its core subject matter. Li said he no longer wants to make
movies in this genre because he has said all he has to about
martial arts through movies. But he will continue doing action and
kungfu movies because, to him, the three are of different
genres.
"Action and martial arts stories only use the form of martial
arts. Kungfu represents a concept of time. You spend time
practicing it, and you learn new skills. Martial arts are an
overall concept, which also includes nurturing the soul.
Shot in Shanghai, Fearless was directed by Ronny Yu
Yan-Tai, a much sought-after Hong Kong director in Hollywood.
Collin Chou, who gained Western popularity for his performance in
The Matrix Reloaded, plays Huo's father. Sun Li, a rising
Chinese starlet, plays Yue Ci, a fictional blind character who
supports Huo when he is down.
Other members of the cast include Japanese actor Nakamura Shidou
and mainland actor Dong Yong. The movie's stunt director is the
respected Yuen Woo Ping, who has many of Hong Kong's great kungfu
epics under his belt.
Unfortunately, fans won't see any of Li in the movie. For the
sake of keeping the action-packed pace of the movie, the movie was
cut from its original 143 minutes to just 103 minutes, leaving a
fight scene with Li and a Thai fighter, and another with Malaysian
former Bond Girl, Michelle Yeoh, on the cutting room floor.
Huo Yuanjia: Facts and Fiction
Foreign audiences might recall having seen Bruce Lee play Huo's
apprentice in the 1972 production of
Jing Wu Men.
Huo hailed from the Tianjin countryside. He founded the Jing Wu
Men Marital Arts School. He died on September 14, 1910 at the age
of 42, just after he defeated 10 Japanese judokas. Rumor has it
that Huo was poisoned in a conspiracy by the Japanese, a tale that
was confirmed by Huo Zizheng, his great-grandson, in an interview
with International Herald Leader on January 23.
The only piece of written documentation on Huo is Biography
of Modern Heroes, a novel by Ping Jiang Bu Xiao Sheng written
in 1923. Later stories, TV and movie scripts were all based on that
novel.
The Chin Woo Athletic Association in Shanghai is the only proof
of Huo's existence and story. The organization, which now covers
many continents with branches in many parts of China, Malaysia,
Hong Kong, England, Australia, the United States and Russia and
organizes major kungfu and sports events, is nearly 100 years old.
It remains faithful to the practice and instruction of my jhong
boxing.
(China Daily, China.org.cn by Zhang Rui January 25,
2006)
