Interview. Jet Li.

"The philosophy, honor, responsibility, what kind of person learns martial arts, how to use martial arts to help people. It's more important than just kick ass, beat up somebody... I put everything already in this movie, so I having nothing to say in the future. That's why it's my last martial arts film." Jet Li tells Sean Axmaker about Fearless.

Related: Grady Hendrix not only interviews Fearless director Ronny Yu, he also reviews the film, finding it "a red-blooded, full-on, go-for-broke throwback to Hong Kong moviemaking of the early 90s" but also "one of those movies with a limp" - and points to yet more reviews.

"Li - as well as many of his martial arts contemporaries - is usually misinterpreted as a tough guy, a superbad fighter that can kick any behind in the room," writes Jeffrey M Anderson at Cinematical. "But in reality, he's a poet, a dancer with the grace and sophistication of a Fred Astaire. Moreover, Li shares the same critical reception as most dancers or comedians, or artists who accomplish their cinematic work through physical means; he is ignored. But I maintain that in Fearless he has given performances worthy of awards." At Combustible Celluloid, Jeffrey interviews Li.

Updated through 9/24.

The LA CityBeat's Andy Klein likens Li's retirement from onscreen martial arts to "Gene Kelly permanently giving up dance for dramatic roles." As for the film, "I've seen Bergman films with more comic relief.... Leaving issues of tone aside, Fearless is, not surprisingly, beautifully crafted."

Andrew Wright finds that this film "serves as a rousing, philosophically high-minded reminder of the actor's glory days. If the subject matter occasionally cries out for a longer length - and how many action movies can you say that about? - it still feels like an appropriate capper to a career routinely defying the laws of physics." Wright also talks with Li.

"For the moment, the notion of a Chinese freedom fighter defending the honor of his nation against a seven-foot Yankee muscleman named Hercules O'Brien (Nathan Jones) remains more or less credible. But tomorrow?" asks Nathan Lee in the New York Times. "Such narratives may lose their punch when China rules the universe."

Steve Lillebuen, writing in Vue Weekly, finds Fearless "a satisfying swan song" though it's "not Li's best or most memorable performance."

And Kimberley Chun, too, has a quick chat with Li in the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Earlier: Reflecting on Li's career in the NYT, Terrence Rafferty is also reminded of "sitting through a Hollywood studio musical of the 30s or 40s: you wait for Astaire and Rogers, or the Nicholas Brothers, or Donald O'Connor to take the stage, and you learn to endure the witless banter and clunky farce that fill the long minutes between numbers."

Updates: Yes, it's "a genre picture, with all the energy and life the adjective genre implies (it's never a pejorative in my book)," writes Salon's Stephanie Zacharek. "Fearless is also one of the most beautifully made pictures of the year: The story is told so simply and clearly, and in such striking visual terms, that I can already hear people carelessly accusing it of being clichéd - although sometimes the things we so comfortably identify as clichés are also the very things that give us our purest movie experiences, allowing movies to reach us in the deepest and most essential way. And Li's performance - both in terms of its physicality and its emotional pitch - puts much of what's lauded as great contemporary movie acting to shame."

Nick Schager at Slant: "Beginning as a polished, visually ravishing capper to Li's illustrious action career, it ultimately sermonizes itself into something of a bloodlust-denigrating wet blanket."

Mike Russell: "It's simple stuff, but - and this is crucial - it's not dumb simple stuff."

Update, 9/24: Mike Russell not only has a good long talk with Jet Li, he's also got a good loooong talk with Ronny Yu.

Posted by dwhudson at September 22, 2006 12:37 AM