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- First reviewNovember 12, 2008
- Last reviewNovember 15, 2009
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jimmyl's Reviews
![Curse of the Golden Flower [WS] [DVD] [2006]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/8263/8263559_sa.jpg)
Customer Rating
5
Classic Chinese Wuxia At Its Best
on November 15, 2009
Posted by: jimmyl
from Raleigh, NC
This is a great classic wuxia story with great scripting, directing, acting, and spectacular costumes and sets. For those of you expecting martial arts, wuxia always has a martial element, but it is a dramatic form, often tragic. For Chow Yun-Fat action fans, here's an opportunity to see his great dramatic acting skills, not often seen or well appreciated in the US market.
The story is a well woven tale of court isolation from the common world, intrigue and treachery bordering on sociopathic and the heroic pathos of ideals and honor of some in the midst of it all. It is the kind of story Shakespeare would have loved for one of his plays. Although, from the outset, it is a predicably tragic tale, the plot is not formulaic and predictable. It twists and turns in some very unexpected and caqptivating ways. The telling of these stories in China has its roots embedded in Chinese opera and it shows here.
The villiany is truly evil, the heroics genuinely selfless, honorable and endowed with great pathos. It all plays well into the viewers emotions, all without becoming overtly melodramatic. The ability to get the viewer to naturally identify with the intended emitional drama is what makes this a great dramatic presentation.
One of my all time favorite wuxia productions.
What's great about it: One of the best wuxia movies
What's not so great: For Chow Yun-Fat's action fans, it's not action, it's great wuxia and tragic drama!
I would recommend this to a friend!
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![Jet Li's Fearless [Director's Cut] [WS] [2 Discs] [DVD] [2006]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/8896/8896652_sa.jpg)
Customer Rating
5
Fabulous movie, beware of defective disc 1
on November 12, 2008
Posted by: jimmyl
from Raleigh, NC
Not everyone likes Jet Li or every one of his movies. This movie, however, is a really great dramatic adaptation of the start of the Jingwu school in the context of a China where over 1/3rd of the male population is addicted to opium. The school was started to help men beat their addiction and to physically, mentally and morally strengthen a population weakened by opium addiction, opium trade and colonial interferance by Japan and some western colonial and empire powers. Although the details in this dramatization are not wholly accurate, the overall story, with dramatic license, represents the essence of what happened. The death of Huo Yuanjia is not necessarily as attributable to poisioning as the movie implies and a fair controversy exists as to the exact cause. However, the objective that Japan and the western powers had in issuing the challenge to Huo is a reasonable representation of history at that time.
Jet Li's other movie about this school, Fist of Legend, an homage to Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury (mistakenly aka Chinese Connection in the US), is a dramatization of a fictional student's reacting to Huo's death. Like this movie, it too takes a fair amount of dramatic license, but is a reasonable representation of history at that time. Fearless helps build a fuller context for Fist of Legend.
Beware of getting one with a bad disc 1. Universal created thousands of copies that, although properly labeled, had the content of disc 2. The really sad part of this is that the director's cut is supposed to be on disc 1 so you get only the theatrical and unrated versions. Universal will replace the bad disc 1, but only after some e-mail and snail mail interactions. The release had been fixed already, but thousands with the bad disc 1 seem to still exist in retail distribution centers and stores as of this review. I had to go through more than 15 DVDs at 3 stores to finally find a good one. The one I finally found was shrink wrapped instead of cellophane wrapped and did not offer the free Mummy Movie Ticket on the outside but did have the Directors Cut sticker on the shrink wrap. This may help finding one without a bad disc 1. Every one I opened that was cellophane wrapped, had a certificate for the free Mummy movie inside and/or had the free Mummy movie ticket sticker on the outside wrapper had a bad disc 1.
The director's cut is amazing and it's sad that it was not released in the US theatrically and with dubbing. It's too bad the editors for the US market feel they have to cut and/or change so much from wuxia movies like this one. The only down side is that you'll have to listen to it in Mandarin Chinese and read the sub titles, but that's not a big deal considering it's a foreign film in the first place.
Highly recommended once you get the director's cut.
Jet Li's other movie about this school, Fist of Legend, an homage to Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury (mistakenly aka Chinese Connection in the US), is a dramatization of a fictional student's reacting to Huo's death. Like this movie, it too takes a fair amount of dramatic license, but is a reasonable representation of history at that time. Fearless helps build a fuller context for Fist of Legend.
Beware of getting one with a bad disc 1. Universal created thousands of copies that, although properly labeled, had the content of disc 2. The really sad part of this is that the director's cut is supposed to be on disc 1 so you get only the theatrical and unrated versions. Universal will replace the bad disc 1, but only after some e-mail and snail mail interactions. The release had been fixed already, but thousands with the bad disc 1 seem to still exist in retail distribution centers and stores as of this review. I had to go through more than 15 DVDs at 3 stores to finally find a good one. The one I finally found was shrink wrapped instead of cellophane wrapped and did not offer the free Mummy Movie Ticket on the outside but did have the Directors Cut sticker on the shrink wrap. This may help finding one without a bad disc 1. Every one I opened that was cellophane wrapped, had a certificate for the free Mummy movie inside and/or had the free Mummy movie ticket sticker on the outside wrapper had a bad disc 1.
The director's cut is amazing and it's sad that it was not released in the US theatrically and with dubbing. It's too bad the editors for the US market feel they have to cut and/or change so much from wuxia movies like this one. The only down side is that you'll have to listen to it in Mandarin Chinese and read the sub titles, but that's not a big deal considering it's a foreign film in the first place.
Highly recommended once you get the director's cut.
What's great about it: Great wuxia story about the Jingwu School and the man who started it, Director's cut fabulous
What's not so great: Universal pressed thousands of bad disc 1s that did not have the director's cut but the disc 2 content instead
I would recommend this to a friend!
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