Fistful of Yen

Dragon (2011) (Chinese title, Wu Xia, is better) was just a wild and fun as Jiu Jitsu, but, well, better.

It stars Donnie Yen as a humble worker in a small village paper factory. He lives in a nice house with a few cattle on the roof, a loving wife and some kids. When he is fixing the paper screens of the general store, three ruffians break in to rob it. Yen hides, but when it looks like the bad guys are going to kill the storekeeper, he grabs their leader around the waist and holds on. There's a great fight sequence here, where he just holds on while getting swung around, and the bad guys basically beat each other up. One guy gets his ear chopped off. In desperation, Yen punches him by the earhole, and he drops dead.

Takeshi Kaneshiro shows up from the government to do the autopsy and investigation, and finds that One-Ear is an infamous villain and martial artist. The village celebrates Yen's bravery, but Kaneshiro is suspicious. How could a humble papermaker defeat such a fighter? The killing blow actually hit at just the right spot to paralyze the vagus nerve, killing him instantly. And Yen's history is vague - he came to the village a few years ago, and married a woman whose husband had left her. He says that he ran away from a cruel father won't give any other information.

When it is time for him to leave, Yen offers to show Kaneshiro a shortcut through the woods. When they are all alone, he realizes that Yen knows he is suspicious, and expects him to try to kill him. But he just sends him on his way.

Still, Kaneshiro thinks Yen might be a member of the notorious 72 Demons gang. Even if he has been living a blameless life, the law must be upheld. So he goes back to confront him. Then the Demons show up.

The 72 Demons are said to be Tangut, who are cannibalistic barbarians who don't bury their dead. Wikipedia has the Tangut as a linguistic minority in China, who had a large kingdom in 11th-13th century. I suspect this is an ethnic slur. But this crew is pretty rough. The head of the Demons is Donnie Yen's father, Jimmie Yang. His kung fu is so powerful that a sword chop to the neck doesn't even break the skin.

In conclusion, great fights and interesting ideas about justice. Also great acting, with Yen being a humble and truly reformed man of peace, and Kaneshiro a slightly silly bureaucrat in a white panama hat who is also a brilliant detective. Fun and worth thinking about.