Huo Yuan Jia 霍元甲

After Fun with Dick and Jane yesterday, I went to see Fearless today.

The plot is predictable. But what made this movie worth my money is and fight scenes and the fact that it's based on one of the most famous chinese martial arts heroes who left a lasting impact on the chinese people.

As usual, after watching a movie based on a historical character, I searched the internet and dug up all the juicy stuff about him. The site that best describe his life and the JingWu philosophy will be the chin woo or 精武 organisation site which I believe is the most accurate I can find. It also mentioned that the early Chin Woo Association in 1920 sending the "Five Northern Dragons" to spread it's influence in Singapore and Malaysia, cool!

The movie also matches the historical description that Huo was lethal and decisive in combat, taking on many at once, and often breaking the arms and hands of his opponents, all the while remaining un-defeated.

Today, Chin Woo Association 精武门，has branches all over the world, in Europe, America, Japan, Asia, even NZ and Canada!

Tragically, like many other heroes, he was killed by dispicable means, poisoned by his enemy (his Japanese Doctor, who also was a Judo teacher) and died at the age of 41 (or 42 as mentioned in the film) after Huo broke the hands of ten Judo practitioners who rushed him together.

Another surprising find was that a Chin Woo Grandmaster Lin Bo Yan (1903 - 1990), besides teaching wushu, had actually taught Chinese and Geography in Chung Cheng Middle School in Singapore in the 1940s!

And for what it's worth, from this site about Mi Zong (Lost Track) style, it also seems that Huo's great-grandfather Huo XuWu was taught the Mi Zong Boxing style by Sun Tong.

All I can say is, 霍元甲大侠，请受小人一拜！kowtow