Blu-ray Movie Reviews

When an ill-advised fight destroys the reputation of a renowned martial arts champion and his family, his difficult path to redemption will bring him face-to-face with the most ferocious fighters in the world.

This was originally touted as the last martial arts film for Jet Li. Of course the actor has delivered quite a few kung-fu films since this release but they haven’t been quite as focused on the martial arts as this production. Universal delivers three cuts of the film in this release including the first HD presentation of the director’s cut that I’m aware of. Instead of a big action fest Fearless loosely portrays the true story of one of China's most legendary fighters and school masters. The film shows that there is more to learn in life than fighting and comes off as more inspirational than action packed.

Since this is a newer film, it benefits from a very nice looking print to work with. Detail overall is quite good, and I was impressed with how clean the blacks look. Some of the outdoor sequences were a bit softer than I would expect, but I wonder how much of that was the DP's intent. I didn’t notice any noticeable differences between the different cuts, despite the fact that three versions were fit onto the same disc.

The audio side is what you would expect from this type of film. Action scenes have some nice punch to them, and surrounds are used aggressively. Dialogue is presented in native Mandarin, and the subtitles were placed well and legible. Atmosphere is delivered nicely and overall dynamics are good, but not quite to the level of high budget Hollywood films. I loved the film's score though. There was a noticeable increase in spatial design and low end punch with this new lossless mix compared to the previous HD DVD lossy soundtrack so those looking to upgrade will see an increase in audio performance.

Aside from having no less than three different cuts of the film, Universal hasn’t included any other features other than bookmarking.

This is one of the more enjoyable films in Jet Li’s library for me and I was impressed to see Universal include all of the cuts of the film. This makes it an easy recommendation for fans or anyone looking to trade up their HD DVD copy.