Friday January 20, 2006
Ronnie Yu's fearless return
By MICHAEL CHEANG
Ronnie Yu has come home. Having spent the past few years in Hollywood doing films like Freddy vs Jason and The 51st State, the experienced director has returned to Asia to direct actor Jet Li in what the martial arts superstar has proclaimed to be his final wuxia movie – Fearless (Huo Yuanjia in Mandarin).
Having tackled the roles of legendary kung fu masters such as Wong Fei Hong and Fong Sai Yuk, this time around, Li plays Huo Yuanjia, the legendary founder of the Jing Wu Men School of martial arts.
Besides being one of the legends of Chinese martial arts, Huo was also known as a patriot who gained fame from promoting martial arts and patriotism in China when the country was suffering from corruption.
Fearless marks a homecoming of sorts for the vastly experienced Yu, who had previously made Chinese movies like The Bride with White Hair and Shogun and Little Kitchen before going over to Hollywood. He was in the midst of pre-production on another Hollywood movie when he got the call to make Fearless.
 |
Director Ronnie Yu was happy to work with Jet Li in Fearless. That has nothing to do with his neck brace, though. |
“He was ecstatic when I mentioned Jet Li’s name, because he happened to have a script that was being written with Jet in mind at the time. As soon as he told me that, I decided to stop pre-production work on a movie I was doing in the US, packed my bags and came back to Asia to start work on Fearless.”
According to Yu, Fearless’s main message is about how one needs to be brave enough to take on failures and disappointments, and face them head on. He also thinks that the movie will appeal to a lot of people.
“I think Fearless transcends location, culture and all other barriers. No matter where you’re from you will understand what this film is trying to tell you, which basically, is the life story of a great man – Huo Yuanjia.”
In the movie, Huo is an honourable man who runs his family’s martial arts school in China and teaches his students that all their actions must always uphold his family’s reputation.
He also aspires to become the top martial art exponent of Tianjin, but a ruthless fighter called Qin Lei stands in his way. While striving towards his objective, Huo eventually realises the true meaning and spirit of martial arts. At the same time, he faces a battle that’s going to demand more spirit and courage than any he has ever known.
Yu praised Li’s work on this film, saying that it surpasses all his other martial arts movies. “You can see very clearly what he is giving to this film both spiritually and physically. And frankly I was very, very impressed. To me, Jet Li is Huo Yuanjia,” he said.
Fearless also reunites Li with fight-choreographer Yuen Wo-Ping, who, before working in Hollywood blockbusters like The Matrix and Kill Bill, also choreographed Li’s fighting moves in Once Upon a Time in China, the first time Li played Wong Fei Hong.
“We decided very early on that we were not going to use too much wire work and do many ‘flying’ scenes, because it’s been used too much lately. Because Jet knows martial arts, we wanted instead to let the audience see him fighting for real,” Yu said.
The combination of Yuen’s choreography and Li’s formidable martial arts ability had the director shouting with excitement during shoots.
“I’ve never seen him fight this well before. One day we were shooting a long tracking shot of Jet showing off his martial arts in one long sequence. At the end of it I got so excited I stood up and cheered,” said Yu. “It was just so beautiful to see his total control over his movements and technique. I truly think no one else in the world could do this like he does.”
If the final product can entice a similar reaction from its audience, Yu would be a very happy director indeed.
“I strongly believe that movies need to be entertaining first and foremost, and I always put the audience on top of my list of people to please.
“Enjoyment comes first and if they learn a lesson from it, that would be a bonus.“After all, I think that the highest form of filmmaking is when you can entertain as well as impart an important message to your audience at the same time,” he said.
Fearless opens in cinemas nationwide on Jan 26.
RSS
