Jet Li’s Fearless is, purportedly, the last martial arts picture that the titular martial arts star plans to make.  For his farewell to the genre, Li has chosen the legendary story of early 20^th century wushu fighter Huo Yuanjia, who rallied a crippled China against the invading West that had humiliated, demeaned, and referred to the country as the “Sick Man of Asia.”  Great liberties with historical accuracy are taken in the screenplay by debut scribe Chris Chow, but Fearless still represents, by far, the least embarrassing picture Ronny Yu has made since ditching Hong Kong for the US.  However, in terms of a farewell, statement, Li would have been better off calling it quits with last year’s Unleashed.

The film begins in 1910 Shanghai with Huo Yuanjia (Li) making pretty quick work of fighters from Germany, Spain and England in a competition created by the Foreign Chamber of Commerce in an attempt to further debase the Chinese.  Before facing his final opponent, we’re yanked 30 years in the past to learn about the protagonist’s childhood in Tianjin, where an asthmatic condition forced Huo’s wushu-master father (Collin Chou) to push his son toward things like studying and calligraphy instead of martial arts.

Flash-forward to Huo as a young adult, where his asthma has miraculously disappeared after learning the wushu fighting style of his now deceased father (40 minutes of his training, including every frame involving a character played by Michelle Yeoh, have been lopped off of this final product).  After beating a string of rivals, including his childhood enemy, Huo develops a huge following and gets a little cocky.  When Huo mistakenly kills a man because of misinformation, he’s devastated.  The devastation grows exponentially when the murdered man’s protégé wipes out Huo’s entire family, sending our hero to walk the earth like Cain.

The following hour progresses as you’d expect, with Huo’s realization that Meaning of Life is about quiet reflection/back to basics/friendship/enjoying the little things like a cool breeze/all that hokum serving as a likely metaphor for China’s troubles of the day.  And it’s only a matter of time before Huo returns to a West-invaded Tianjin and we get to see the results of the big four-on-one competition from the opening of the film.

Fearless is a nice-looking period picture that could use only the tiniest of tightening in its current format (I’d still love to see the full version with Michelle Yeoh).  You certainly can’t fault the action scenes, but watching the 43-year-old Li play a younger version of himself almost made me laugh out loud.  I still fail to see what Li offers in terms of acting ability once he’s removed from the punching/kicking gig, and I hope he’s not giving it up to become a Serious Actor.

Genre fans might be aware of the continuation of this story in films like Fists of Fury (with Bruce Lee) and Fist of Legend (with –wait for it – Jet Li), in which a disciple of Huo Yuanjia seeks revenge after his mentor’s death.  There is also Legend of a Fighter, which tells essentially the same story as Fearless and was directed by Yuen Wo-Ping (The Matrix, Crouching Tiger), who serves as action choreographer here.  In this eighth collaboration between Li and Ping, there is much focus on the footwork in the various fight scenes.  It’s not the finest work from either participant, but you can hardly go wrong with any collaboration involving these two men.

1:44 – for violence and martial arts action throughout