Frank Fradella, Newbie blogger for ChinesePod, comes to you every week with a brand new review of his favorite Mandarin movies. This week: FEARLESS, with Jet Li! In this exciting installment, Frank explores the virtues of wushu, explains why Joel Shumacher doesn’t deserve Pringles, and tells why making out in a Mustang is more fun than a barrel of Monkey Style kung fu.
Download the podcast by clicking here, or head over to iTunes and subscribe!
Hi Frank,
Entertaining as always! A highlight of my week.
A couple of points, if I may:
1) Jet Li is the best! He’s not the jumped-up show pony that Bruce Lee was. And he is a sweet smile. Poetry in motion, and almost all of his stuff in this movie is done without wires - he’s that athletic!
2) Before Ronnie Yu “went Hollywood” he did some major major stuff to be proud of. “The Bride With White Hair” is an absolute classic, for example, and although it is in Cantonese, is well worth the price of admission. I also have some of his Mandarin offerings, so I consider him a director to watch out for - if you’re in the Chinese DVD shop and say “Got anything by Ronnie Yu?” you should do well.
3) That ending is the worst! Does the Chinese version have the same ending? I’m talking about the very last scene before credits roll.
4) Watching Fearless made me feel as if I’d watched “Tai Chi Master” redone with a bigger budget. (Another Jet Li classic, watch it if you can.) I realise it is based on a true story, but there is a LOT of artistic license taken, so all you can take away from this one biographically, is that the guy did exist.
Enough of my whinging.
Can’t wait for the next installment!
Phoebe
Really enjoyed your review. I saw this movie but didn’t realize there was a director’s cut dvd.. I’ll have to check that out.
I just saw another great movie called 和你在一起.. the english name is Together.
Phoebe - Thanks, luv! Yeah, I’m aware that the film had some shortcomings, but this is the closest thing I’ve ever seen to a “mainstream” kung fu movie. Despite it’s trappings, it plays like a traditional hero story. I really liked it! (And yes, that horrible ending is still there. LOL)
Hotpot Mike - Hey, thanks for the great recommendation! Are you talking about the Wong Kar Wai film with Tony Leung?
mmm… Tony Leung.
Kaige Chen is the director of Together… it’s about a violin prodigy. I thought it had been recently released, but I just read that it came out in 2002.
I think I got Together because of Chen Kaige, but I haven’t seen it yet.
Phoebe
This one won’t seem to download in itunes.
This post has two mp3 files in the feed. iTunes is picking up the first, which appears to be invalid. Don’t know why the feed has two and the post appears to have only one.
It works in itunes ok now.
Bazza - Yeah, I realized the problem after you mentioned something wasn’t working. I had moved the file on my server to a different folder and updated the link, thinking that iTunes would automatically follow the updated link. That’s not so much the case.