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Have Perseverance, Will Succeed

李渊 Li Yuan was born on August 7, 1982 in Shangdong to an impecunious peasant family of over 10 members, at the time when Jet Li's Shaolin Temple took the nation by storm. Growing up being a fan of martial arts films, Li Yuan started formal training in martial arts at the age of 12. When he was in primary 4, he made a bold decision to quit school in order to learn wushu. He was subsequently punished by his parents. But on considering that he wasn't doing very well in his academic studies, Li Yuan's parents finally relented.

Li Yuan was raised mostly by his wushu champion brother 李炳雷 Li Bing Lei, who also teaches him martial arts. Li Bing Lei is 8 years his senior. Li Yuan was brought up under very strict upbringing, and he matured earlier than most people. In his youth, he got only one rest day on Lunar New Year; on other days, he would train for four to five hours daily. There were times when thoughts of skiving did occur to Li Yuan, but on thinking of how hard his parents were toiling in the fields in his hometown, even in bitter winters, Li Yuan cast aside all weariness.

 The director's cut of Fearless, directed by Ronny Yu, is now up for grab on January 11. Mastered from HD mother tape and containing 20 minutes of extra footage, this DVD also contains making of featurette, as well as a photo gallery and brief notes on cast and crew. Starring Jet Li, Ngai Sing, Sun Li, Dong Yong, Nakamura Shido. Action by Yuen Wo Ping. Available from YesAsia | HK Flix

-- Fearless: Ronny Yu Interview --
The director of Fearless, The Bride with White Hair and Bride of Chucky recently made some time to speak over the phone to plug this Friday's release of FEARLESS. But despite the fact that this was a promotional event, Ronny Yu was an absolute joy to talk to. Unafraid of stating his opinion and eager to talk about absolutely everything the only criticism I have is that he didn't laugh at my Jean Claude Van Damme joke and that I didn't come better prepared with more controversial questions.  Kaiju Shakedown >>More<<

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Jet Li hopes 'Fearless' conveys the heart of martial arts Seattle Post Intelligencer

Martial-arts star Jet Li goes out with one last slam-bang KRT Wire

Fearless Director Ronny Yu Coming Soon

-- Fearless --

Fearless is soon to open in theatres across in most Asian countries on either Jan 25 or 26. In the movie in which Jet Li nearly exhausted all the Eighteen Arms of Martial Arts, most of Jet Li's martial arts exchanges take place in the arena. The movie, with an initial cut amounting to around 3 hrs, was edited down to 1 hr 40 mins for theatrical release, thanks to Jet Li's insistence on tightening up the pace.

In particular, a scene that was removed (or drastically reduced) that might be a killjoy is Jet Li's exciting duel with a Thai fighter. [Another reports says that it was the director Ronny Yu's decision to axe some scenes and reduce the movie length, including the removal of the cameo appearance by Michelle Yeoh as an Olympic committee member who narrates the story of Huo Yuan Jia.] Apart from providing his lifetime worth of insights on wushu and spurring today's youths not to give up life (after seeing reports of high suicide rate in China), Fearless is a reflection on the path that Jet Li had walked on - from the aspiring youngster who aims at becoming number one, through the various ups and downs in life, to his final realisation of the purpose of wushu.

-- Fearless Trailer/Behind-the-Scenes Footages --

Video: Yahoo TW

-- Fearless --

An extra who has been through almost the entire filming of Fearless 《霍元甲》 reveals that Jet Li had one drama and two stunt doubles in the film. The drama double was employed to help Jet Li explore various ways of acting. As age catches up with Jet Li, the more dangerous stunts were left to the stunt doubles, such as a scene in which Nathan Jones grabs and holds Hua Yuan Jia up in the air before giving him a powerful fling. At that time it, it took quite a while before the stunt double could get up and he was clearly in much pain. The most exciting and classic moments in Fearless are the end fights in which Jet Li single-handedly takes on four foreign wushu masters from Britain, Japan, Spanish and Germany, using Huo Family Fist, Chinese swordplay, spear, and three-section staff against his opponents. Many commended that his skills in three-section staff are on the par with Bruce Lee.  Shanghai Afternoon Post

Official site: FearlessTheMovie.com - Story, Media, News, Cast, Crew, Teaser Trailer

-- Legend of A Fighter 2005 --

Legend of A Fighter (Fearless), directed by Ronny Yu and action directed by Yuen Wo Ping, has successfully completed filming on July 17. The cast includes Jet Li, Sun Li, Ngai Sing, Dong Yong, Nathan Jones, Masato Harada, Nakamura Shidou. Michelle Yeoh cameos as a Chinese wushu athlete who campaigns for wushu's inclusion in Olympics Games. Apparently, Legend of A Fighter reflects Jet Li's personal take on martial arts philosophy and through the movie, he hopes to tell the people not to give up easily, citing China's suicide rate of 280 thousand people in 2003 as an example.

According to Jet Li, Legend of A Fighter relates to a very simple person who aims at becoming the top fighter of Tianjin, and because of his blind pursuits for success, he suffers countless setbacks and ends up in despair. He must pull himself together, grow up, become awakened and be socially responsible. Jet Li is considering not doing action movies anymore, saying that in the future, he might perhaps only devote 50% of his time and energy on filming, for he has some other more important matter (The One Foundation?) that he is seeing to, and would announce it upon materialisation.  The Beijing News | 2 Nathan Jones vs Jet Li photos: Tom

-- Legend of A Fighter 2005 --

Dong Yong will be joining Legend of A Fighter (Fearless) 《霍元甲》 as Long Jin Sun, a highly successful businessman. Long Jin Sun is Huo Yuan Jia's buddy since childhood. This character is also the catalyst to Huo Yuan Jia's realisation of the true meaning of wushu.  Dongfang Daily

Legend of A Fighter  (Fearless)《霍元甲》 has finished filming in Shanghai, including the dramatic tournament between Jet Li and 2.1m tall Nathan Jones, and has proceeded to Zhejiang's Xianju to do location filming. Xianju will serve as the backdrop for the remote village that Huo Yuan Jia escapes to and lives anonymously for three years.  Fazhi Evening | Photos: DazhongWeb

-- Legend of A Fighter 2005 --

Ngai Sing has just joined Legend of A Fighter 《霍元甲》 recently. However, he is encountering two major hurdles on the set. The movie is shot with sync-sound but Ngai Sing has difficulty speaking proper Mandarin. So, he got a friend to guide him through his lines. Next is the martial arts style. Ngai Sing is trained in Southern Style of martial arts while Huo Family Fist has its basis in Northern Style. Southern Style relates to short and tight movements while Northern Style long movements. So, Ngai Sing spent a week to acclimatise himself with Northern Style, and is now able to handle it proficiently without giving anything away.  Jiefang Daily

-- Legend of A Fighter 2005 --

In Hero and House of Flying Daggers, the most common faults are the nondescript storyline and having more style than substance. Wang Bin says that actually, Zhang Yimou didn't want too much focus on character development and storytelling, for he thought that wuxia movies had already reached their very peaks and the only way to make a breakthrough was through style, not the story or the character development [which explains why House of Flying Daggers is so abysmal], which seriously impeded what the scriptwriters could do.

He says that he had the most satisfactory time working with Jet Li on Legend of A Fighter 《霍元甲》. They had great rapport, Wang Bin very much agreed with Jet Li's notion of expressing the growth of the protagonist and his discovery on the true meaning of Chinese wushu, "When I first saw the script, I thought it was of third-rate, and couldn't even be compared to TV productions. Jet Li told me that because of the inherent problems in the script, the production incurred a lost of 170 thousand yuan every day as they waited for the script to be amended. So, I [and Li Feng] spent 13 days to rewrite the entire script, and very little remained of the original. After the revision, the storyline is particularly interesting, with good pacing and heartfelt sentiments, and I incorporated my own thoughts on life, on people, on nationality, it was very thorough."  Dazhong Daily, Fazhi Evening

-- Legend of A Fighter 2