Jet Li calls Fearless his most important martial arts movie and has made it known that this will be his last Wushu film.
Jet Li’s Involvement with Fearless: “The story’s in my mind already 10 years. I remember the first movie I saw, action film, was Bruce Lee’s movie in 1974. It talked about this master’s students, after the master died, he comes back for revenge - the Bruce Lee movie. 10 years ago I made Fist of Legend, [which] also talks about the same character. After the master dies, he comes back for revenge. Nobody makes a real master story, so then I found the story I believe in the philosophy in the physical and the mental, both ways, so I decided to make this film. I produced this film. I made everything happen. Find the writer to write a script, and the director, martial arts director, pulled everybody together to make this film.”
Working on the Fearless Script: “I feel sorry to a lot of writers. I fired 10 writers around the world. Each [person] just writes something, I have a very strong feeling about the first part and third part. I don’t feel right in the middle of the story: the farmer, how to recover, the character goes to the bottom and how to recover. Finally, Ronny Yu, the director, he had the solution to make those things happen. I think it’s perfect but a lot of writers they write, write, write the story and then it goes back to the normal action film. Not 100% understanding what I really want to show to the world, what I believe and the journey. Even, I think, in the first 10 days shooting, we’re still working on the script.”
Fearless is a Very Personal Story for Jet Li: “I think this master died at 42 years old. He learned martial arts through his life journey and my personal [story] also, I made the film when I was 42. In my life [I’ve] also 34, 35 years with martial arts. This is my life journey. I just made the two become one. Like the first 30 minutes is probably my personal feeling. I was five years [the] champion and famous, then suddenly I make a movie and become a well-known actor in Asia. Then you have a lot of people around you, you feel very good and then you become selfish, aggressive. You don’t want to listen to mom, friends, costars. You don’t want to listen. You think, ‘I’m the one. I can make everything happen.’ People, if you're successful at a very early age, you have that feeling and you make a lot of mistakes at that point. Even not just me…
I see a lot of actors in Asia, they go through the same journey. If you’re successful very early, then you go to the bottom and you made a mistake. For sure it’s not because your whole family died. That’s a movie drama. It kind of hurts, then you go to the bottom, recover, learning from life. Then [you] know that a movie is teamwork. Either with the writer, costar, director, everything, marketing, the right way, the movie will be successful. Not just you - yourself. Then you appreciate the people who work with you and listen to different good opinions in your life.”
Is Fearless Really Jet Li’s Last Martial Arts Film?: “It’s the last Wushu movie. That’s it. Because Wushu has many levels, I just make it easy to understand. First level is the physical contact. Use your physical skill against your enemy. That’s most action films doing this kind of genre. The second level is use your knowledge, languages, strategy. Everything you could before physical contact to stop your enemy. Third, use your honor, belief, your love, show it to your enemy. Turn your enemy into your friend. I tried to share those three levels in the movie. Everything I believe, the physical part, the mental part, I put everything in the film. That’s why I say this is my last Wushu movie.
In the future I will continue to do acting or do some kind of movie. Like a few months ago I did a movie, FBI, cops, fight with mafia gangsters. Of course, this kind of genre, you have a car chase, gunshots, people fighting on the street but I never know if this is a Chinese punch or American punch. …It doesn’t mean [it’s] martial arts because I think it’s just action in the film to develop the character, to help the story.”
Page 2: Inspiring China's Youth, the Status of A Monk in New York, and the Jackie Chan Movie
