Want to see a Wuxia movie that actually has its own separate DVD release and only a fairly-crappy transfer? In fairness, it was released by Image Entertainment, the same company that made the version of Plan 9 From Outer Space that I own. Anchor Bay they are not, people. Anyhow, this DVD does give you a sign of how low kung-fu fans like myself have set our expectations by way of this sentence: 'In this DVD's defense, it does give us the original audio track.' That back-handed compliment aside, there is plenty more to say about this movie. Let's cut right to the chase and talk about...
The film begins with one of the oddest and silliest opening scenes in Wuxai history. Our hero slaps a tree, leaps through the air, lands (in typical two-shot fashion) and has a sword full of impaled leafs. He pulls them off of the blade and...throws them like ninja stars into a tree. How does...why does...oh, screw it. The film proper begins with a horse transport of gold being attacked by some robbers. The first guy fires an arrow, only to have it thrown back at him. Marvel at this film editing trick...the first of the 100 times it is used in this film. The lone good fighter is poisoned via an arrow (a different one) and flees. Unfortunately for our robbers, another person shows up and stops them. This man (our hero from earlier) takes the gold by just leaping up from the ground to the top of a hill with the chest in hand. Yeah, that makes sense.
The poisoned old man goes home, gives up his whip and then dies. Thanks for playing, good sir! Our hero hides the gold...at his house, which the villain shows up at...because he's his brother! Dun dun d...damn, I should have picked a better spot. The first lackeys throw daggers, so you can guess what happens to them, can't you? While the man is away, his family is killed, the gold is stolen and he is arrested for the crime. They jump ahead a month and establish our four heroes: the two children (one male and one female) of the whip-user, a lady who intercedes and the original lead...who has a beard now. The first lady wants to kill our hero because she thinks that he is the thief, while her brother is ambivalent to a fault. He never gets mad about the whole thing, which feels really forced and silly. The other lady...just happens to show up and save the lone kid left in our hero's clan, which is enough for her. The villain gets mad that his brother escaped and hires a bunch of killers. Do you want a scene of random guys showing off what their weapons can do? Good thing.
Fearless is basically just a semblance of talking, fight scene, a little more talking, a lot more fighting, etc. One scene really encompasses the tone and style of this movie: the field fight. Bandits show up and the bearded hero fights. More show up and the lady fights. A third shows up, you guessed it, the other guy fights. Literally once the assassin introduction scene ends, they are fighting our heroes. What kind of segue is that guys? Oh yeah, my favorite guy (the Solar Ray of Death guy) goes down after one guy throws 'leaf darts' at him and they stab him as he lies prone on the ground. Dammit! The guy with the Klingon swords gets kicked into one of his prone weapons against a tree. Kind of cool, but very telegraphed. The kick-ass One Man Army guy seemingly kills our hero, only for his old master to save him from the fall (not shown), graft a replacement arm and leg on him (also not shown) and send him on his way (shown). After the other three heroes go off and fight the lead villain,- who has a sword and claw gloves- he shows up and kills people using his knife cane and 'launcher limbs.' When all three go down to one man (they all suck, apparently), our hero shows up and whoops the man in two minutes. The End.
Yeah, it just ends abruptly like that. A lot of these movies do that. I don't know why.
This movie is a good example of everything that is both right and wrong about Wuxia. On the positive, the action is fun, the editing techniques used are silly and the plot is minimalist. On the negative, the action is full of cliches, the editing looks ridiculous and the plot is minimalist. There are more edits in this than a Dick Cheney letter! The focus on the weapons is neat, but is not as good as such films as The Legendary Weapons of China. This film is definitely not the best kung-fu film ever (I'll get to one of those tomorrow), but is fun- plain and simple. If you want to see what Wuxia looks like, I would recommend this movie. If you want a good plot that does not feature implausible action, bad matte paintings and an overabundance of editing tricks, go rent Ran.
Up next, a film that almost features more ninjas than it does lines of dialogue. So, yeah, I love this movie and you will too. Stay tuned...
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