Fearless
Short description
Fearless tells the story of Huo Yuanjia, a martial artist in early twentieth-century China. The son of a respected fighter who did not want him to follow the same path, Yuanjia trains largely on his own and builds a reputation by defeating opponent after opponent in his home region of Tianjin. Success breeds arrogance, and a reckless challenge ends with a rival master's death; in revenge, members of Yuanjia's own family are killed. Overcome with grief and shame, he wanders the country, and in that time away he comes to a different understanding of what the martial arts are for. He returns home, opens his own school, and is called on to represent his school and his country at a major international tournament, where he faces four foreign fighters.
The film is directed by Ronny Yu, whose earlier credits include The Bride with White Hair, Bride of Chucky and Freddy vs. Jason, and it followed Freddy vs. Jason in his filmography. Jet Li stars as Huo Yuanjia and also produced alongside Bill Kong Chi-Keung and Ronny Yu, from a screenplay by Chris Chow and Chi-long To. Sun Li, Dong Yong, Shido Nakamura, Hee Ching Paw and Chen Zhihui appear in supporting roles.
Released in January 2006, the film took about 68 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.6 out of 10 from roughly 81,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.5 out of 10 from a much smaller number of votes. A critics' rating of 6.8 out of 10 from 109 reviews places it below both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Ho Yuanjia in the film has no descendants after the murder of his daughter. In reality, Ho is a grandfather of 7 grandchildren and a great-grandfather of 11 great-grandchildren.
- In one scene, Australian giant Nathan Jones slipped and lost several teeth. But this didn't throw him off course; he refused the help of dentists and continued filming.
- Nathan Jones truly got into his role. For example, in one take, he lifted and threw an actor onto the floor with such force that the poor man had to be taken to the hospital with broken ribs.
- Nathan Jones is 2.12 meters tall. Chinese hotels do not provide beds for such titans, so Jones had to move three beds together to lie down.
- To stay in shape, Nathan Jones ate six times a day, drank mineral water by the liter, and did 150 push-ups during the very first break.
- Jet Li refused to perform some of the fight choreographer's planned moves for ethical reasons. Elements such as a slap and a headbutt seemed too inappropriate to the actor with regard to Europeans and Americans.
- Sido Nakamura did not know Mandarin, but the role required him to pronounce phrases in it. Although Ronnie Yu advised the actor to simply memorize the phrases, Nakamura hired a tutor to learn the language. Ironically, he watched a Chinese channel at the hotel to improve his Mandarin, but after a while, the Chinese crew members told the actor that the channel broadcast in Cantonese.
- Anthony De Longis and Jet Li broke at least 6 swords during the filming of their fight scene.
- Anthony De Longis gifted Jet Li a real Spanish sword the day after filming wrapped.
- Brandon Ree fainted right during filming, apparently because his costume was too tight.
- Brandon Ree insisted that the weapon in the form of a thin, long stick, known as a 'mao,' be equipped with a sharp tip, otherwise it would just look ridiculous. He decided to demonstrate his accuracy using one of the stuntmen, who was supposed to hold a stack of newspapers three meters away from him. He lunged… and the weapon hit the center of the newspaper stack.
- Michelle Yeoh had a very small role that was ultimately cut to reduce the runtime.
- The scene at the lotus lake was filmed near a body of water located two hours from Shanghai, and interestingly, no lotuses grow there. About 200 lotus seedlings were flown in specifically to film this episode.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
