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Fearless, despite it's predictability, is a much better movie than Flyboy. The acting and characters were well drawn, the cinematography, gorgeous. even though this is a stock plot, they took a number of risks, particularly by making the main character so flawed and in that particular way. I loved that you could make a whole other movie from the point of view of the Chin's Godson and it would be good cinema and make perfect sense. It wasn't as cool as say, Hero but it's a beautiful film.

Both are claiming to be "Based on a true story." Very, very loosely based, I might add. Interestingly, Flyboys had the standard disclaimer "Any similarity to persons living or dead is purely coincidental." This caused me to wonder how both statements could possibly be true. I was led to decide that "Based on a True story" must be a lie. Fearless had a much more complex disclaimer, basically admitting they combined, renamed, and generally messed with historical figures, which I am assured they did. This strikes me as much more honest.

It occurred to me that these are both musings on the honor or lack of it that warriors have. In Flyboys, the conflict centers on what is acceptable behavior in war. There is tension between practicality and the old values of honor and chivalry. On these terms, the movie, might have been slightly more satisfying, but it did have things to say. There's a good guy answer and a bad guy answer and some grey in between. Again, they could have made this part more complex and had a more interesting time than presented by the tacked on love story. Instead, they set up a simplistic contrast between the two top German aces and let Cassidy and the main character think and talk about it a little. Another missed opportunity.

One of the most interesting things about Fearless is where it locates the honor. I think Chinese cinema and thinking have grown a lot over the last few decades. They used to present the Japanese and Japanese culture as entirely evil and derivative. This was a result of the evils of the occupation. This movie correctly aligned Japanese exploiters and moneyed interests with Western Imperialists, but acknowledged the positive aspects of Japanese culture. Similarly, there was honesty about the imperfections of turn of the century China. The hero's still the hero, but it's a journey for him to get there. It is still ultimately a communist and nationalist film, but it is nuanced, rather than propaganda and the design of the film makes clear that virtue doesn't solely reside it Han culture.