Movie Review: Wuxia/武俠

I saw  Wuxia/武俠 in theatres back in early August (late July?).

It’s a cross between a martial arts film and CSI.

No, I am not joking.

Donnie Yen plays a man who may not be who he says he is.

Takeshi Kaneshiro plays a man who may be two people.

Tang Wei is the dedicated wife who loves her husband.

The good:

Wuxia/武俠 looks gorgeous. It’s shot very well, is visually interesting, and is, for lack of a better term, very pleasing to the eye.

The film features small roles for Kara Hui/Wai Ying Hung and Jimmy Wang Yu. Always nice to see actors from the great old days, if only because so many older stars get viciously banished.

The bad:

Wuxia/武俠”s story was apparently written by a schizophrenic four year old with a learning disability. I found the story leaden and pedestrian, and the so-called climax was laugh-out-loud stupid.

When one considers that half the film’s premise was a scientifically (albeit Chinese science, which is not meant pejoratively but to imply that there are essential differences in approach) driven examination of events, the abject failure of science and logic in the film’s climax was, I felt, reason enough for me to brand this film a very big disappointment.

In other words, it looks nice, but its dumb as a stump.

Yes,  Wuxia/武俠 is a  stripper.