Kita ze Inbou! - キタぜ陰謀!

After watching it I say it is a fairly decent movie. Not great, but not bad….well not as bad as his other movie, “Hero.” Still as Hero started Fearless starts in the same way. The movie starts off with the last scene. A progressive fight, 4vs1. In the first 3 fights Li fights what I would guess to be Americans. When the fourth fight is about to start, we see and hear that the fighter is Japanese.

At this point the movie goes back in time 30 years to Li’s character as a child where he is practicing Wushu, a martial art style even when he is not suppose to be fighting. He is the typical youngster, doing what he wants and getting others to do his homework. Eventually he enters a dojo like setting to supposively give his father tea. Apparently he isn’t suppose to ever enter the place and his father scolds him. So the whole tea thing was a ploy to learn new things as he enters trying to follow the line drill that the disciples are doing. Around this point in the movie Li’s character is practicing a line drill as his friend is doing his homework. He invites his friend to go watch a match. The match is between his father and a “rival” master. At the end his father holds back a supposivly lethal attack only to be blown off ring and lose. In attempt to regain his honor from boasting to the son of the “rival” Li’s character gets worked up when the other son starts to rub in his father’s victory against Li’s. Li loses the fight horribly. At the end of the scene he swears he will never lose again.

About now the movie skips forward in time, Li has a family. His wife died at some time which is never explained in detail, but he doesn’t seem to mind too much. His father is also dead and he lives with his mother and daughter. They portray his life as a carefree happy life. Most of the fights in the movie take place in this time. About 38 fights more or less all victories. Eventually he fights the father who I think was the one who defeated his father. The fight takes place in his best friend’s resturant. His friend has become a very successful businessman despite the huge bills that Li’s character has built up there. Well, they practically destroy the place and in my opinion this fight was the best in the movie ending with Li delivering a lethal blow to the heart region. Upon impact the camera changes to a angle behind the other fighter and shows the force of the blow pushing back his bones. A day or two later Li recieves word that the man died. Apparently Li has never killed anyone and vomits. After wandering around for what seems like hours he comes home to find his daughter and mother murdered. When he eventually leaves for revenge he goes to the murderer’s house, which belonged to the master he had killed. His son/grandson claims responsibility for the act of hatred/revenge and takes his own life or Li kills him….I was spaced out in that scene. The thought of killing the family before him came to his mind, but it seems the overall shock of what he was planning made him run out of the city.

Later he somehow ends up in a cliche setting where he is in the middle of nowhere and lives among a small village. He does everyday chores living as a farmer. Most the time he hardly talks, he makes lots of mistakes and is living with a blind woman. It is my belief that if he had the chance he would probably love the girl and marry her. After a few years there he has learned from his mistakes and returns to his home although he promises to return. When he arrives he finds that his homeland is much different than before. The raised fighting platform is now a market place and there are foreigners all over. He eventually ends up back at his old house which is in bad shape. After making some changes to one of the few rooms remaining the way it was he leaves to find his friend to ask for travel money to defend their country’s honor from American insults.

Sometime around that point in the movie it resumes where the begining left off. We learn that the Americans and the local government have placed a bet on the match. Plus we see that the Japanese man, Takana(name may be incorrect) had tea with Li before the match started where he asked Li several questions on tea. Li on the other hand awnsered in a “poignant” manner. He was saying how he didn’t want to judge the teas. In his mind all the tea is the same, that if you are happy the quality of the tea you drink doesn’t matter. Either way Li had made an impact on the man. The last fight starts and you’ll have to either watch the movie for yourself or go read another review cause I ain’t gona ruin it further for someone else.

Overall the movie is fairly decent. Jet Li fans should enjoy it better than Hero and if you’re bored it isn’t a bad choice to watch.