Wu Xia (2011)

Donnie Yen and Takeshi Kaneshiro star in Peter Chan's film about atonement and the law of unintended consequences. Two hapless bandits are accidentally killed when villager Liu Jin-Xi tries to defend the village store. Everybody is pretty happy about the result, especially when it turns out the bandits were wanted criminals - but detective Xu does not believe Liu's story about how the deaths came about, and sets about looking for the real truth.

Wu Xia is a well-written film which manages to inject a relatively fresh story with some interesting characters, beautiful scenery and just a smattering of exceptionally well designed and executed martial arts action. There are moments of implausibility, such as one of the worst plans ever on Detective Xu's part, but overall it's a film where as much effort has gone into the script as the production, and it pays off.

Donnie continues to show maturity as an actor, and impressive strength and skill as a martial artist given his advancing years. The rest of the cast are all good too, with Jimmy Wang Yu's just about acceptably over-the-top performance being something of a highlight.

Action scenes are creative and dramatic, giving martial arts fans another good reason to enjoy the film.