the ten untouchable villains live in villain valley: a place set aside for those who have wronged society to live and make up for what they have done. the ten used to be regarded as heroes until two former members stole money which was intended to help flood victims. when master eva (sharla cheung), the current holder of the warrants of justice, arrives to slay the ten, her husband, yin nam tin (michael miu), steps in to defend them and the two square off and fight. the fight ends and eva retreats, but swears to raise a child to return and finish what she started in eighteen years time - the date that the next tournament to decide who holds the warrants of justice is scheduled to take place.

what she leaves behind is her husband, now in a vegetative state, and her baby son, who the ten (i should really start saying eight, as they did kick out the villainous twins who stole the money) decide to raise and teach everything they know about martial arts to. any how, it's eighteen years later and fishy (andy lau) has now grown up and sets off to the tournament, with sissy to (deannie yip) and big mouth lee (ng man-tat) guiding him along the way. a path with more obstacles than just the tournament...

goodness, and that synopsis covers about the first five minutes of the film only. i dread to think what else was contained in the long, untranslated bit of narration which opened the film. any how, this is an eric tsang directed, light-hearted wu xia tale; there's some action, but not a great amount, some drama, some romance, some treachery and quite a lot of humour, which is more hit than miss.

beyond the cast who i have already mentioned, the main draw is brigette lin, who plays 'mr' more: the orphan raised by eva as a fighting machine who secretly longs, or so it seems, to just be a normal young lady and, maybe, to fall for andy lau. then there's francis ng, who plays the son of master kong (chang kuo-chu), the head of martial city, who also wants to win the tournament. there's also small roles for anita yuen, richard ng, fung hak-on and josephine koo.

so, in the end, with this cast, script and pretty high production values, you get a very watchable little movie. there's probably not enough to appeal to those who aren't already fans of the genre and those involved, but if you're quite happy with a bit of light, humorous wu xia, then you'll probably quite enjoy this.

a nice little watch.