He plays Huo Yuanjia, a famed Chinese martial artist. Initially Huo is intent on being #1, challenging other masters to duels and defeating those who would challenge him. As his string of wins continues, he picks up quite a following, as many seek him out to be his disciple. He kills one master, whose adopted son takes revenge and kills Huo's mother and daughter. Of course Huo kills him, but stops short of killing the master's wife and daughter. He runs away, and is discovered floating in a river by some people. (Not sure what ethnicity they are supposed to represent--they didn't look Han.) There he makes peace with himself, learns the value of life, etc.
Perhaps the philosophical underpinnings of his moral conversion merit a second look, but I may have to wait until I find a edition of the movie with English subtitles, as my Chinese is not so good.
Anyways, he returns home, and decides to put his skills to use challenging foreigners, defending national pride against those who would call the Chinese "the sick man of Asia." He's given up dueling for the sake of enhancing his reputation; but is fighting others for the sake of China that much better? Is this patriotism or nationalism? It seems like it is patriotism, insofar as he respects his opponents, and some learn to respect him; there is no sort of chauvinism here, with Chinese being superior to Westerners and Japanese simply because they are Chinese.
The movie is directed by Ronny Yu and the choreography is by Yuen Wo-Ping. The action sequences are good, though I might prefer something more realistic, especially seeing Huo go against a Gracie. The use of wires isn't so pronounced in this movie, like it is for Once Upon a Time in China, but still obvious. Would UFC or Pride or shoot-fighting be realistic enough? Bob Charron enjoys the UFC fights and thinks they are pretty good. Sammy Franco and others, they would probably disagree. What's the state of unarmed combatative skills in the U.S. military? Hm...
Costuming and set design for the movie are first-rate; not sure what technical details or practices set this movie apart from something like Fong Sai Yuk, but the colors of the film are very attractive, comparable to Crouching Tiger, if not better.
MonkeyPeaches page for the movie. Movie website.
Jet Li's next project? A movie with Jason Statham called Rogue. An interview with Mr. Statham. IGN interview with Mr. Li. His official website.
2 comments:
Actually, skimming over your plot summary, Huo's story kind of reminds me of that of Miyamoto Musashi, at least until Huo starts fighting for national pride; it doesn't appear that other nations played much of, if any, role in Japanese history or culture when Musashi was alive.
Although this is supposed to be Jet Li's last martial arts/wuxia movie (I'll have to dig up the news articles that explains what exactly he meant by it--I think martial arts movies with a spiritual/philosophical bent; he will continue to do action movies...)--
I found the movie to be rather shallow; yes there is regret, and he learns that revenge does not pay or bring back the dead. But the movie doesn't convey the profound meaning of martial arts that one might hear from a (pretentious?) martial arts instructor. As far as the movie goes, martial arts has very little to do with his spiritual conversion, in comparison with living the simple life out in the country.
I suspect much of that 'spirituality' is linked to Buddhism and other traditional Eastern religions/spiritualities epmhasizing meditation and cultivation of spirit and qi, as if all one needs to do to cultivate one's self is to strengthen one's qi (and thereby be one with the universe?).
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