IN the world of wuxia, all you have to do to pose as a man, if you're a woman, is wear a fake mustache. OH, and wear your hair and clothes differently. I don't understand why so many reviewers of these movies scoff at that. If you've seen more than one, it's simply accepted. In fact, there's a lot of things about wuxia that simply have to be accepted to be believed. I liken it to Western fantasy. You have to suspend your disbelief for a bit.



Anyway, this is a pretty lite story as wuxia stories go. There's Inspector Zhao (Andy Lau) and Judge Bao (Anthony Wong). They're hanging out...somewhere. Somewhere with no crime, so they're bored. So Zhao goes on vacation, wherein he meets Bai (Cecilia Cheung), who is a cheeky young man, only he's not a man at all, of course. Don't let that manly mustache fool you. Actually, after a couple of viewings, I started to see it as looking more and more like a mouse, lol. So, while Zhao is poking around in some other town, he happens upon a plot to assassinate Bao.

Before I go any further though, I should mention that the plot is really pretty thin. The movie is more about being a parody of sorts and how the mouse fell in love with the cat. Bai being the mouse and Zhao being the cat. I enjoyed the two leads' performances quite a lot. Andy Lau as a guy who was, well, kinda clueless, and some ancient version of stoned, or just not with it, but plenty dangerous. The only time he seems terribly concerned is at the start when he can't pull out his sword.

Cecilia Cheung actually made a pretty passable man, tbh. She had the swagger and the slightly raspy voice that could have conceivably been the property of a young man. And her chemistry with Andy Lau was great, in a goofy, comedic sort of way. Because Andy Lau's Zhao rather inadvertently got himself engaged to a considerably homelier woman in the form of Li Bingbing. See what I mean by clueless?



So as I said, very simple plot, entertaining, mildly amusing and all that. My favorite scene was probably the fight between Zhao and Bai, wherein Zhao deploys all the normal fighting methods, but somehow at the same time, manages to touch Bai in all the places that would reveal her sex, and nearly takes the chest of her robe off as well. Then later on, acts completely surprised that she's a woman, wondering why he couldn't tell in the restaurant (where the fight took place).

It's this sort of understated goofiness that makes Andy Lau's character so buy-able. Also, the Judge's philosophical, but mostly ridiculous, rants in the tub were quite funny too.


I'm still wondering where his hand was....


Inspector Zhao, at your service.




Tub talk is over!

Mood amused Music UVERworld – The Truth Tags: andy lau, cecilia cheung, li bingbing, wuxia