I don't expect much from Action/Adventure films, but this is just plain out ridiculous. First off, you don't really care about the characters because most of them are too self-centered and given "next-to-none" development so the viewer could honestly care less. Granted, it's not the "Worst Movie Ever," but here the film just drags to the point where you just want to turn it off even if you're a patient person like me. Fan of Jet Li who are here just to see his performance and showing off his Martial-Arts skills will be heavily disappointed because there are few scenes where he is creatively beating up someone or drawing in the viewer. The film is just a silly Chinese version of Indiana Jones and, sadly, it was better off not being parodied and/or being rehashed. Watch it if you absolutely need to see anything with Jet Li in it, but don't come complaining to this IMDb board exclaiming on how disappointed you were !

Thomas Weissman, who wrote a supposedly major text on Asian cinema (which unfortunately probably blocked publication of better texts for some time) pee-ed off a lot of fans of Hong Kong cinema. One of the reasons is that he knows dam' well the difference between a good movie and a good "genre" film, but, instead of developing this difference critically, he prefers to smudge it, and thus frequently leaves readers with misconceptions.Weissman's review of this film promised a real avant-garde transgression of time and space, of pulp and serious narrative. I'm afraid that's not what's happening here.For one thing, we get no closer to any of this characters than we do in any other Hong Kong genre film. That's important; to make real transgressions of time, space, genre, etc., we need to see what's going on from a particular point of view. (If one doesn't care for "The Singing Detective" - and I don't - then refer to "Slaughterhouse Five".) Since this is really an "action-comedy". it can't do that. Instead, it scrambles its plot around from several different points of view; but the heart of the narrative remains action, not 'perspective'.Well, is it a good action comedy? yeah, I enjoyed it, I'll probably watch it again. IS it the super-duper-transgressive New-wave make or break film that Weissman and a few others have touted it as? Nope. For that see Wong Kar Wai's "Ashes of Time".But not every film has to be really really serious or 'great'. This is a fun film, with some weird displacements of time and space, just to make it interesting. Enjoy it as such.

I have to disagree with one of the previous reviewers who said that this movie would be ideal for Hong Kong cinema neophytes. I believe that only HK fanatics should even attempt to watch it - the less experienced viewers will probably turn it off after about 30 minutes (it's no wonder that no American distributor picked it up for re-release; it certainly doesn't have the wide appeal of a movie like "Meltdown" / "High Risk"). The idea is ambitious, the production is lavish, but the story is confusing and unengaging, and the result is a film too bizarre and self-indulgent for most audiences. Jet Li once again proves that he can act (in a dual role, no less), but the vast majority of the fighting is over-the-top and (intentionally) unrealistic. There are some memorable moments, however, like his brief encounter with two huge sumo wrestlers! (**)

If you're not already a hardcore - and I do mean ultra-hardcore must see everything the man has done - Jet Li fan, AVOID THIS MOVIE AS IF YOUR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT. I and one of my best friends are avid HK movie fanatics, and very big on Li. At best, we drank beer and tried hard not to laugh at the ultra-bad story and lame acting and poor action. The plot device of a modern-day Jet Li and his cohorts expressing their emotions about what is going on in their lives thru a continuing written story of a 'King of Adventurers' is absolutely terrible and distracting. And I LIKE stories told thru flashback and scene jumping, a la Man Called Hero. Though I'm sure someone will claim this device is 'inventive', it is incredibly annoying and very poorly delivered. And don't even get me started on the scene with the puppet mutant mouse - yes, you unfortunately read that right, a giant puppet mutant mouse.For hardcore Li fans the only thing of interest is seeing Li play a totally different type of character - out of touch, a semi-loser, not sure what's going on and dumped on by his love interest. And that held my attention - for all of five minutes. Then I had to have more beer. And it still didn't help. Do yourself a favor and skip over the VCD in your local Chinatown and grab New Legend of Shaolin or Hitman if you're in the mood for Li, or Tokyo Raiders or Double Tap for good modern HK cinema. Buy this thing only if you're really drunk or really daring, or you need a new coaster for your drink. And if you do buy it, don't call me.