The Second Best Film In The World

I'm a bit more cheerful today.

The main reason is that I re-watched Jet Li's Fearless. I've got no idea why it didn't get better reviews - the fight scenes are incredible, and even the bits where the pace slows down are a heartbreaking counterpoint to the main action. The first time I watched it, I thought the best non-hitting scene was the bit where Jet Li and his Japanese rival Takada chat about tea, except that it emerges that they're really talking about their philosophies of fighting: Takada likes rules and grades when it comes to tea, but Jet prefers to just drink the tea and decide whether he likes it or not, which is exactly the same as the way Jet refuses to regard any single fighting style as better than the rest. Beautiful.

Anyway, I was wrong: the best scene is before that, when Jet's yet to develop this peaceful philosophy and he's all about drinking rice wine and beating people up. His friend doesn't understand why he loves fighting so much, so Jet takes him out to the fight platform where he's been kicking people all day, and says:

"You've only watched from below. Can you feel the difference? When you're down there [in the crowd], life and death up here mean nothing to you. It's all entertainment. When you're up here, though, you have to win. Losing is not an option."

And his friend, who's a much nicer person than Jet Li at this point, says:

"But you can choose not to be up here."

...

So, yeah, I'm thinking of giving up fighting again.