When Jet Li's Fearless was released in Thai cinemas in 2006, a special, 111-minute edition was prepared that included the scenes in which Jet's Huo Yuanjia spars with a Muay Thai fighter, portrayed by real-life boxer Somluck Kamsing, who had previously been featured in Panna Rittikrai's Born to Fight.
The scene was cut from the 104-minute international release, and hasn't been seen anywhere else, except on a Hong Kong DVD, and possibly on the Thai DVD, which I never checked out because it had no English subtitles.
Now Somluck can be seen by North American DVD buyers, with the Universal Pictures' release of Fearless: Director's Cut. The 141-minute version includes the Thailand scenes, as well as a modern-day prologue involving Michelle Yeoh as an Olympics official. There is also more footage of Huo as a child and additional scenes with the rice farmers.
The film is directed by Ronnie Yu and also features Jet sparring in an exhibition match against a behemoth American wrestler, portrayed by Nathan Jones.
Fearless: Director's Cut was released on July 8. It's available at Amazon.com.
(Via Kung Fu Cinema)
Update: Kung Fu Cinema reports that the DVD has been shipped with defects and the actual Director's Cut is missing!
ReplyDeletei've seen the HK DVD extended cut. not much of an improvement on the original cut. the Michelle Yeoh prologue is totally unnecessary. before this, there was a rumour that the muay thai scenes featured Tony Jaa.
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