  We present the optical photometric and spectroscopic observations of the
nearby Type Ia supernova (SN) 2021hpr. The observations covered the phase of
$-$14.37 to +63.68 days relative to its maximum luminosity in the $B$ band. The
evolution of multiband light/color curves of SN 2021hpr is similar to that of
normal Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) with the exception of some phases,
especially a plateau phase that appeared in the $V-R$ color curve before peak
luminosity, which resembles that of SN 2017cbv. The first spectrum we observed
at t $\sim -$14.4 days shows a higher velocity for the Si II $\lambda$6355
feature ($\sim$ 21,000 km s$^{-1}$) than that of other normal Velocity (NV) SNe
Ia at the same phase. Based on the Si II $\lambda$6355 velocity of $\sim$
12,420 km s$^{-1}$ around the maximum light, we deduce that SN 2021hpr is a
transitional object between high velocity (HV) and NV SNe Ia. Meanwhile, the Si
II $\lambda$6355 feature shows a high velocity gradient (HVG) of about 800 km
s$^{-1}$ day$^{-1}$ from roughly $-$14.37 to $-$4.31 days relative to the
$B$-band maximum, which indicates that SN 2021hpr can also be classified as an
HVG SN Ia. The evolution of SN 2021hpr is similar to that of SN 2011fe.
Including SN 2021hpr, there have been six supernovae observed in the host
galaxy NGC 3147, and the supernovae explosion rate in the last 50 yr is
slightly higher for SNe Ia, while lower for SNe Ibc and SNe II it is lower than
expected rate from the radio data. Inspecting the spectra, we find that SN
2021hpr has a metal-rich (12 + log(O/H) $\approx$ 8.648) circumstellar
environment, where HV SNe tend to reside. Based on the decline rate of SN
2021hpr in the $B$ band, we determine the distance modulus of the host galaxy
NGC 3147 using the Phillips relation to be 33.46 $\pm$ 0.21 mag, which is close
to that found by previous works.
