Last night we celebrated my wife’s birthday by eating out, and it is only for the woman I love that I will endure a half-hour wait at a steak restaurant.
Today, however, my day has been spent repairing the power adaptor for my laptop AGAIN while we wait for the replacement to be shipped, and doing my (urgh) taxes. Even though they are simpler this year than in those past – yes, there is an upside to doing the Hated Job to the exclusion of everything else – it’s still too complicated to finish off in an afternoon. I feel my brain approaching meltdown. Perhaps some kung fu is called for.
Oh, wait, I already did kung fu this week.
Jet Li’s Fearless is a pretty good movie, particularly if you’ve never seen any of the Once Upon A Time In China flicks. Some of the same ideas are covered, except that Li starts out as a character who is less than likable; a nice redemptive arc is drawn through all the butt-kicking. And because I’m still impressed that I can do this, here is the trailer:
In the featurette, Li supposedly goes over why this is his “last martial arts epic”, which boils down to bad philosophy espoused in most of them, Fearless presents his philosophy; His age does come up, early in the doc. A number of injuries over the years are doubtless taking their toll.
I wish I could give Fearless a breathlessly enthusiastic review, but I can’t, for a reason Li also enumerates: there are only so many ways to stage a fight, so many ways arms, legs and heads can move and make contact. The wirework and CGI are both kept to a minimum, and Li’s abilities are unmistakable; ironically, it is the realism the filmmakers were striving for (well, for the most part) that seems to get in the way of my enjoyment of their work.
Good movie, though. Not necessarily great, but very good.
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