Pretty good action featuring Jet Li and Chingmy Yau. There's real story, and action in this well made Hong Kong movie.It's a Wong Jin movie, so you can expect high quality, and entertainment. The movie delivers on both fronts. There's a happy feeling to this movie that's copiously missing from all Hong Kong movies made in the 21st century. Also there's innocence that seems to be scoffed at as cheese these days. But it's these two qualities that makes this movie so good. Jet Li plays the part of a father who bears lot to raise his son. Soon he meets Red Bean (Chingmy Yau) who ends up following him around. The three ends up fighting the bad guys to help the local people.One thing I miss about movies from this era is that there were actors who by their presence can brighten the whole screen. Where are the Chingmy Yau of our generation, or Do Do Chen ? The details have improved but that has pigeon holed actors to play their roles in a certain way. This movie carries the genes from the silver age of Hong Kong cinema that was wildly entertaining.The formula still works, and I hope Wong Jin will find new talents that will brighten the screen as this movie does.

There is nothing that compares to a Jet Li movie when you want martial arts action. He is the best there is, and I cannot understand why they tried to make something that I would expect of Jackie Chan.The government is looking for maps to rebel treasure, and Jet Li is in hiding with his son Ting (Miu Tse), who gives a great performance for a 10-year-old. It is almost a Chinese version of Star Wars and features plenty of action scenes, as you would expect.They even come into contact with a couple of con artists, played by the lovely Chingmy Yau, and Deannie Yip as her mother. They both added tremendously to the movie.Everything about the movie was great with the exception of the dialog. The constant effort to be funny just detracted from a good story. Jet Li doesn't need Jackie Chan dialog to be good; he is great as he is.

Okay, before you decide to go out and see this film you need to understand it is wonderful and very satisfying provided you like kung fu movies and are willing to see a parody, of sorts, of the genre. Unless you've seen a few maritial arts films and can suspend disbelief, you may just find the whole thing rather silly. Instead of an overly serious martial arts film, LEGEND OF THE RED DRAGON doesn't take itself at all seriously and this is its greatest strength. Despite the recent success of CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, I was not impressed by this film. It featured too many way over the top stunts and the plot was amazingly serious and artistic. This combination, for me, just didn't work, though I know the film made a fortune throughout the world. But here, because the plot and writing are so silly and it's all done tongue in cheek, you can more easily accept the ridiculous but spectacular stunts. Plus, time and time again, I found myself laughing out loud because of the screwy plot. While not quite as silly as Stephen Chow's KUNG FU HUSTLE, it was close and surpassed it in plot, excitement and grandeur.So what makes the film so funny? Well, while I usually hate dubbed films, I've gotta admit the dubbing was hilarious and it left we wondering just how close this was to the original film? There were lots of anachronistic comments and the voices were sometimes really cartoon-like. Considering everything else, this actually worked. In addition, the idea of pairing Jet Li with an amazing child kung fu master was pretty funny because the child's talents were so ridiculously amazing and impossible. Additionally, while Li played his part very straight, so many of the supporting characters were again pretty cartoon-like--such as Grandma with her amazing ability to throw poison darts (you just have to see and hear her to understand) or the leader of the bad guy who drives a chrome death car even though the film appears to be set well before 1900.The film is a wonderful combination of great technique, expert filming and silliness that will thrill lovers of kung fu movies. Unlike the movies of Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee, this Jet Li film involves far less punching and kicking--relying instead on the amazing use of weaponry and silly physics (not as bad as CROUCHING TIGER, but getting pretty close on occasion). It's a very enjoyable but not especially deep film.By the way, the film is rated R, but I think it could easily been rated PG-13 as the violence wasn't that extreme and there was no nudity or excessive foul language.

A very cute martial arts movie that displays a lot about contemporary Chinese perceptions of family. Some beautiful imagery, taken from folklore and traditional Chinese figure painting. Of course it is violent, as one would expect from the genre, but it would be among the first I would let kids see because of the familial and comedic aspects of the film (it is not unmitigated violence).