2019 Film Festival
film synopsis
Boasting style to burn, Jiang Wen’s ribald revenge thriller, set in 1930s Beijing (then known as Beiping), is both spectacular and thoroughly entertaining. Shot and left for dead as a child when his kung-fu master was murdered by former student Zhu (Liao Fan) and his Japanese sidekick Nemoto (Kenya Sawada), Li — current Taiwanese matinee idol Eddie Peng — is taken in by an American and raised in the United States. Trained as a spy, Li returns to Beiping and soon discovers that the murderous Zhu is now chief of police, while Nemoto is a boss in the opium trade. What follows is a brilliant blend of comedy and action as Li embarks on a complicated path to exact vengeance on the corrupt duo. Featuring plot twists and turns by the dozen, a raft of exquisitely realized and very verbal secondary characters, and luminous, awe-inducing production design, Jiang’s unapologetically accessible drama is great fun indeed.
In competition for the FIPRESCI Award.