Saturday, March 20, 2010

Jet Li's Fearless
Originally Posted to firesofcreation.gaia.com on Apr 27th, 2009


Warning: Contains Spoilers 

Just got to see this move for the second time and I've decided to move it to my top 15 of all time. This film is excellent on several levels. The cinematography and fighting choreography is amazing, the acting is fantastic and the story itself is deep, filled with metaphor connecting the viewer to higher consciousness

The main character played by Jet Li begins life as a child obsessed with greatness. After seeing his father lose a Kung Fu match he could have won to a rival clan's father, he sets out to become a master Wushu fighter and win back his family's honor. Years later, Jet Li's character, Huo Yuanjia is no longer a child but a fearsome Kung Fu master who has become fighting champion of his village, Tianjin. His mother tries to convince him to give up fighting and find a suitable wife to help raise his daughter from another marriage. She warns Huo that his worst enemy is himself and that if he wanted to stay undefeated and beat the greatest opponent, he would defeat himself. Huo ignores his mother and her advice to continue the uphill and never ending battle to remain on top of all rivals and any threats constantly rising to challenge his supremacy.

After celebrating a dramatic victory over his childhood nemesis, Huo and his best friend since they were kids, Nong Jinsun, finish the evening over tea. Nong speaks of China's need to learn from the West and improve her standing in the world through unity. Huo jokes that this kind of debate must be left up to the scholars and that his only concern was to remain the reigning champ of Tianjin. Because Huo is only concerned with winning, reputation and restoring the honor of his family name, Nong sees his friend as being self absorbed and not concerned with the bigger picture. 

Outside in the warm night, Huo brings Nong front and center to the fighting stage and asks him if he feels different not being a spectator, always looking at the action from the outside. For their entire childhood, Nong chose the path of the scholar where he improved his intellect and became a great businessman and owner of a successful restaurant. Huo on the other hand took the opposite course of his friend to become a Wushu master and skilled fighter. Nong answers Huo's question by saying that he felt nothing. Huo presses again by pointing out that audience members don't have to fear losing their life (or ego) so they are not confronted by the necessity of winning. Nong counters by pointing out that Huo could then choose not to be up on the pedestal where everyone takes a shot and wants to knock him down. Huo then questions his friend, "Do you hear that?" Nong hears nothing but to Huo, the ghostly sounds of cheering rise up over the silent and empty streets. Huo is in a trance thinking about the glory of the fight. We hear announcers speak, "Ladies and Gentlemen, the number one contender in the world."

What Huo tries to show his friend is that the scholarly course he chose for himself could never bring the adrenaline rush of the fight and the the ego gratification that comes from the illusion of seeing oneself at the center of the universe and number one in the world. In the next scene we see that this illusion is greatly contested. Huo stands on the fighting pedestal as he takes out his opponents one by one. After dismantling all competition, Huo offers any other challengers to approach the stage. A swarm of fighters jump up at the same time. Everyone wants piece of Huo because of what it could do for their status and reputation if they were able dethrone him as master of the Wushu universe. Huo doesn't let this happen though as he destroys all his opponents. 

After the match, Huo enjoys a cup of tea as the towns crazy many cryptically tells Huo that he will be champion of the entire world. Nong later rebukes his friend for his lifestyle and points out that he's already won 38 consecutive fights to be master of Tianjin. Huo replies that there is more to fight. Nong - "Then what about outside of Tianjin, Beijing, Guangdong, Shanshi, Hunan?" Huo - "I understand what you are trying to tell me, but I can't end it. I can only fight hard to prove I'm the real champion." Nong - "Even if you do all that, then what?" What Nong is trying to bring to the attention of his friend is the never ending circle one runs in seeking ego gratification. The battle for supremacy is a never ending and un winnable journey. One may be champion for a moment but there is always a bigger fish who will come along to knock you down. 

Metaphorically, Huo's battle becomes an epic struggle against his own ego. This battle comes to a head when one of his students returns to the dojo bloodied and beat up. He reveals that the rival master Chin was the culprit. Huo vows revenge and goes into the village to track him down where he finds Chin at Nong's restaurant. Huo demands that Chin kneel down and apologize for what he had done. Chin replies that Huo didn't have all the facts straight surrounding the incident with his student. Huo remains enraged and decides to fight Chin to the death. Nong pleads with Huo to take the conflict somewhere else during another time. Huo replies that he will pay for everything if his friend's restaurant is trashed. Nong ends his friendship with Huo as the Wushu masters battle it out with swords. Huo eventually gets the upper hand and kills his adversary. Nong sarcastically congratulates Huo, "...you are now finally champion of Tianjin."

Although Huo has won, he feels empty. He is mocked by the towns crazy man as he throws up outside, "When will you be champion of Tianjin? Today is your day." When Huo returns to his home, he finds both is mother and daughter murdered. Huo travels to Chin's home where his most trusted student stands vigil over his master's body. Chin's wife and daughter are weeping in the corner. Chin's student then confesses over the murders but before Huo could kill him with his sword, the student puts a knife to his own throat and kills himself. Huo is left standing over Chin's sobbing wife and daughter. He drops his sword and breaks down. On his way out, he discovers that the student who was beat up was engaged in an affair with Chin's wife. 

Huo becomes a wanderer, walking the countryside haunted by images from his now deceased family. He is overburdened by the weight of his misdeeds and their nearly unbearable consequences. Now at the end of his rope, Huo collapses in a river and sinks. But something pulls him back up. He is rescued by an old woman and her daughter; a beautiful young blind woman who brings food to Huo's bedside and nurses him back to health. Huo is a wreck and cries during the day but through the young woman's kindness, she restores his spirit and brings him back from the dead. Huo's hair is shoulder length and a beard now covers his face. The young woman brings him down to the same river he had collapsed in and offers him a perspective of hope and new beginnings. "As time goes on, hair will get all knotted. You should always wash it. Grandma told me that people should wash their hair often. There is no knot that can not be untangled."

Huo blends in with the villagers and settles for a life of rhythms and ritual by becoming a humble rice farmer. His relationship with the people opens him to a new life of beauty and simplicity, more alive and full of the beauty he was unable to know in the constant rat race for supremacy and ego gratification. In the beginning of his new life as a rice farmer, Huo again falls back into his old pattern of trying to be the best. He begins trying to beat out the other villagers by planting rice the fastest. The next morning, he sees the young woman uprooting his rice plants to space them further apart. When Huo comes down to her, she tells him. "Too close, they cannot grow properly, like people. We have to learn how to respect each other. We can all live in harmony this way." It is here that Huo begins to get it. He breaks the hold ego has over him as he watches the seasons come and go as a detached observer, no longer needing to strive and be something other than what he already is. When the cool breezes blow over the rice fields, he is no longer racing to plant more rice but able to stand up straight with the other farmers, close his eyes and connect to a greater reality, above and beyond the confines of one's self. 

The rest of the movie follows Huo back to Tianjin to make amends and find atonement for the bad things he has done. Finding his center, he pays a visit to the grave site of his parents and shows a new found respect for them. Lamenting the mistake of seeing his father's loss to the rival clan as a failure, he realizes that the final blow that could have knocked out his opponent was held back on purpose. His father had the understanding that those who have not yet defeated themselves and broken free from the snare of ego, can never accept defeat. They take a loss as a challenge and impetus for revenge which will continue to perpetuate a never ending cycle of violence, if not towards those that beat them, then on someone else who becomes the representation of their enemy. With this new realization, Huo calls his father the "true champion of Tianjin."

Huo has risen above the confines of his limited self to embrace a higher identity as part of something bigger than himself. This gives him a sense of concern for his nation and a desire to help raise the collective consciousness by starting a new Wushu school founded on the principles of unity and discipline. He also seeks to break negative stereotypes directed towards his people by challenging the imperialists challenge that none of his countrymen could defeat their greatest fighter. 

The rest of the movie is very good too but the first half is my favorite and illustrates the heart of Shin and Zen Buddhism which teach that even though the weight of our misdeeds and their nearly unbearable consequences may be too much to bear, great compassion of the universe doesn't forsake us. It always gives us another chance in each moment to be rescued from the river of despair and brought into new relationships of true life and higher calling towards higher consciousness. 

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