Jet Li's Fearless

Release date: October 2006

A fast paced, bold exposition on turn of the century orient. Director Ronny Yu (Freddy vs. Jason his biggest western feature) combines amazingly captured high speed movement with methodical asian humility.

Listed as Jet Li's last martial arts movie is too bad, his twenty year body of work is impressive even if America has only embraced him in the last ten years of career.

Jet Li plays Huo Yuanjia a real life warrior who embodies the old traditions of Chinese culture and the huburus of any warrior who is at the top of his game and full of ego. Yuanjia is the son of a famous fighter. As a youth he watches his father train and practice a form of martial arts taht is quite deadly yet in competition his father shows mercy. At times this mercy is accepted in their defeat and other times seen as a form of weakness.

Yaunjia grows to become the greatest fighter is his province yet he does not show the mercy of his father, instead he is concerned with fame, money and the trappings of success including heavy amounts of alcohol.

After humiliating himself, Yaunjia travels to distant lands and learns to accept the peace that is the power of the true form of martial art he creates based on his fathers style. Upon return to his ancesteral home, he finds that Western culture has beat the Chinese culture into a submissive hold. He finds a new calling in perserving the strength of the Chinese culture and trys to rally them around a central cause.

The beginning and final sequences of the movie involve an intricate plot to kill Yaunjia and crush the Chinese culture. How the movie ends establishes the moral fiber of a country for several decades.

The protagonists represented by the Japanese and the English show the potentials of imperialism that will truly shadow and overcome China from the 1930 and beyond. The Japanese characters, a business man and a samuari, show in action and conversaton the change that culture is making from honor to power and how those are attained.

Jackass 2

There are comedy's that must be watched in a theater with big crowds in order to get the necessary comedy vibration level for laughter. Admit it, without a laugh track most people have wildly varying levels of humor and obvious punch lines go flat. This is not one of those movies. I watched this in a mostly empty theater and could not stop laughing from start to finish.

Jackass 2 is as funny as the first movie though in fact it is quite a different version. This installment uses more work of sets than than random on the street stuff of the first movie. Even the interpersonal humor and personal immolation is more structured. This makes #2 a more fulfilling movie to watch.

Every time Johnny Knoxville is on camera you can't help but wonder what a steady hollywood actor is doing putting himself in so much danger and pain. And trust me he puts himself in danger and pain. Of all the Jackass characters, Knoxville not only leads the crew, he has their respect and he is not above proving his position by doing the stunts assigned to other people who back out.

Bam and Steve-O have big roles in this movie. Bam has more screen time but the physical torture that Steve-O subjects his body too when he is on screen will have you grimacing.

If you liked #1, you'll will really like #2

What's Playing the week of October 9, 2006

How life changes for a three year old. Now it's Power Rangers 24/7. How does that brand brainwash children so quickly? A few weeks ago a Lillian Vernon magazine showed up; it's for Mistress but I do admit browsing, and it was the Halloween edition with costumes. As a Mo is want to do he sits in my lap and we look through magazines so he can pick out visual items he recognizes- pumpkins, turkey's, ghosts, etc.

On the last page was Power Ranger costumes. This inquisitive three year old got very animated all of sudden and barely contained himself asking, "Daddy, Daddy, what's that! There coooool." "Those are Power Rangers, Mo"
"Pow'r Rang'r. Wow. Daddy, I a Pow'r Rang'r"

That was the end. No more Land Before Time, no more Disney. For now at least. The hard part that Mistress and I are learning is that there are several different Power Ranger shows and uniforms and accessories.