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.