Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Plot Summary:Donnie Yen is living in a small village working for a paper mill. One day two notorious thieves show up to rob the place, and Donnie Yen ends up killing them. This prompts an investigation led by Kaneshiro, a detective whom doesn't emphasize with humanity and suppresses his feelings through acupuncture.After days of digging Kaneshiro dicovers Donnie Yen is from a family of assassins called 72 Dragons, and is wanted for the murder of a butcher's family. Donnie en has been in hiding for 10 years and has settled down with married life. But after rumors spread of his resurgance, the 72 Dragons want their son back.Because the Detective put both his family and the village in danger, he decides to help Donnie Yen capture the Dragons. They have a final showdown inside his village home when they both succeed in taking down the Dragon Leader, Papa Dragon. ---------------------------- Film pays homage to History of Violence, and The One-Armed Swordsman

I was intrigued by the original title, _Wuxia_, because some of the wuxia light novels. This movie turns out to be anything, but what I was expecting. I was expecting an action packed, fighting movie, because of Donnie Yen, but there was like only two decent fighting scenes. The movie turned out to be more of a crime, and mystery movie, like a Chinese Sherlock Holmes. It might be might fault, because this is what I think when I see Wuxia: The word "wuxia" is a compound composed of the elements wu (lit. "martial", "military", or "armed") and xia (lit. "honourable", "chivalrous", or "hero").What made dislike the movie the most, is the incident with the main villain at the end. I was screaming at the screen, 'are you serious?'

Remember Tom Stall in A History of Violence. You'll see the same thing repeated here.A quiet family man Liu (Donnie Yen) unflinchingly vanquishes two dangerous robbers and kills them. Who is this guy? What secrets are buried in his past.The government sends in a detective (Takeshi Kaneshiro) to investigate.The methodical investigation, which includes autopsy, reconstruction and other scientific methods is fascinating. The investigator is convinced there is more than meets the eye.A History of Violence with some Sherlock Holmes and CSI. An interesting film with beautiful cinematography. Not your daddy's martial arts.

I loved this! Kara Hui, Jimmy Wang Yu and Donnie Yen all give absolutely terrific performances, with Yen's perhaps being the best of his career. Lots of wire assist in the martial arts, but it works in the context of the film, and besides... Hui and Wang aren't exactly spring chickens, so its great to see them in anything, much less doing such fine work in such a fantastic film! Plus, as one or two others have noted, though there are martial arts in this movie, I would not exactly call this a martial arts film. Regardless, it is easily among director Peter Chan's best, Chan - of course - also being responsible for HE'S A WOMAN, SHE'S A MAN / COMRADES: ALMOST A LOVE STORY / the GOING HOME segment from THREE / and Jet Li's THE WARLORDS).The film also stars Takeshi Kaneshiro. He portrays an investigator who humorously refuses to believe that it was simply accidental, bumbling, good luck that allowed Yen's country bumpkin, Jinxi (intentional wordplay?), to win out in a battle with two notorious murdering thugs. Instead, he believes Jinxi is hiding his martial arts skill (much as TV's Columbo would hide his intelligence), though each time he puts Jinxi to a cruel and painful test, the result is the same... Jinxi proves to be less than he seems, not more. But that's when Kara Hui and Jimmy Wang Yu enter the picture, and they too think that Jinxi is hiding his true identity, and they're willing to murder or maim his loved ones in order to force him to reveal his hand. And speaking of hands, there's a very nice homage to Wang Yu's ONE ARMED BOXER and ONE ARMED SWORDSMAN in the final chapter of this funny and dramatic film.