Jet Li Decides to Stop Fighting

[ellisonz]

Jet Li Decides to Stop Fighting
The "Fearless" star hopes the film's message against violence takes hold.
By Susan King, Times Staff Writer
September 21, 2006

Jet LI has been distressed at his encounters with young people, not only in China but also around the globe.

"On the street, I see a lot of young teenagers saying, 'Hey, Jet Li. Beat up somebody! Fight! Fight!' It makes me think that they think Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li only know how to beat up somebody."

After making martial arts movies for 26 years, the 43-year-old actor is ringing down the curtain on that part of his career with "Jet Li's Fearless," which opens Friday.

It contains a message for those young people.

"In this movie and in my past three movies, I continue to say that violence is not any solution," the energetic actor said in a recent phone interview from New York.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/cl-wk-movie21sep21,0,2755062.story?track=mostviewed-homepage

He looks like a happy man in the photo with the article.

[geomon666]

1. Ok.

But the movie is full of violence. :shrug:

[ellisonz]

2. I suppose it depends on how you define "fighting" and "violence"

"The true meaning of wushu actually is "stop fighting," he said. So he felt Huo's life story was the perfect project to share his personal beliefs "and show the whole martial arts, not just as a physical . We have a lot of action sequences in the movie, but we also honor the beliefs. I say everything in the film."

""I sort of changed it from all of his previous drafts and made it simple," Yu said. "It's about a man's journey. I also gave him a lot of room to show his beautiful movements of Chinese wushu. I told the fight choreographer, Yuen Wo Ping, 'Let's go back to the roots of old Chinese wushu with longer takes.' We don't use tricks. We don't use wires or CG effects. We don't have to hide anything because we have the best wushu expert in the movie."

[Beetwasher]

4. Martial Arts Is Mainly About Meditation and Focus

Violence is to be avoided whenever possible. Violence should always be the absolute last resort and only used in defense of yourself or others when it is absolutely necessary and there are no other options. Kata is mainly a form of meditation and focus. At least that's how it SHOULD be taught and how my Sensei's taught me.

[Cozumel]

5. I agree...

When I was younger and took Tae Kwan Do lessons (parents urged me to take self-defense classes seeing as I was very short for my age and picked on greatly), mostly we did "forms" as they called it (i went to a VERY Americanized dojo, or whatever it's called in Korea), and meditation. We learned self defense as well, and we touched on sparring, but mostly it was meditation and the forms. Of course, being 10 or 11 at the time (and growing up in the late 80s/early 90s ninja craze), i grew bored. Now I find myself trying to relearn these things on my very low budget (that and around here there are TONS of corporate dojos, no real ones). I agree with Jet Li though. violence is NEVER the answer. I talked my way out of more fights growing up then actually being involved in them. It's amazing what can be resolved if people just open their mouths and their minds.

[daleo]

6. That may be, but people go to these movies for the fighting

They always seemed like soft-core fighting pornography to me. It seems hypocritical of actors to pretend otherwise.

[Beetwasher]

8. I Haven't Seen It

So I can't comment knowledgeably on this particular film, however, art is "allowed" to show violence in order to illustrate the ideological supremacy of non-violence, and it does so without being hypocrital. It's been done many, many times. There are plenty of examples of violent films that make very powerful anti-violence statements. This movie may in fact be just another violent "kung fu" flick, then again, it could be a good film, with a good message that uses violence to illustrate it's point. Having not seen it though, I wouldn't know. :shrug:

[daleo]

10. Granted, I haven't seen it either

And I agree that, for example, some war movies are powerful anti-war statements. Some even start out as pro-war, but end up anti-war by their very nature. For example, the folly of Viet Nam always strikes me very vividly when watching a re-run of "The Green Berets", even though the movie was intended as propaganda for the war.

Perhaps some "kung fu" flicks may fall into the category of "anti-violence through the portrayal of violence". The old "Kung Fu" TV series might be an example of this - lots of fight scenes, but always with a populist Zen message that wasn't actually conducive to an aggressive world view.

[calimary]

9. Mine, too.

That's how they teach it at our neighborhood dojo.

[GAspnes]

15. Same here

We studied a lot of unarmed forms (throws, holds, kicks, open and closed fist), but Sensei taught that the five stages of combat were -- walk away, run away, dodge, block and only as a last resort, strike.

I have to applaud Jet Li's choice as an example but I shall miss watching his skill.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

12. As someone who has studied the martial arts for 13 years...

the martial arts are not about violence. They teach you self-discipline and respect. You're taught how to defend yourself, how to take another's life if you must, but you are also taught that unless you or your family are in danger, not to fight. Fighting is a last resort, and when you do fight, use only the force that is necessary to stop the threat.

[Niche]

3. He's a dynamic actor without the fight scenes. eom

[JackDragna]

7. This is actually not quite correct..

Li will keep making action movies with martial arts in them, he just won't be doing the crazy wushu stunts we're used to seeing. He's already slated to be in several more such movies both in Hong Kong and the United States.

[Ian David]

11. Many war movies are at their heart meant to be anti-war.

Even the racist film "Birth of a Nation" was meant to be an anti-war film, and that, too, contained what were then unprecedented scenes of war violence.

The irony is that sometimes, in order to show the horrors of violence, you also have to show the spectacle of violence.

[w4rma]

13. Cool. (nt)

[sweetheart]

14. Cool...

Jet Li is brilliant, and for him to make the leap from master samurai to
musashi, putting down mastery for the greater mystery of life.