Derek Yee's last film "Protege" irritated and offended me so thoroughly that I went into this film (after waiting several years to watch it) thinking that he would _have_ to redeem himself at some level. And indeed the tripe factor ratcheted down...but only infinitesimally.

The film takes place in Japan and is shown from the perspective of a group of illegal Chinese immigrants who work their way into becoming an organized crime syndicate. The fashion in which the story is told and unfolds really lacks in believability, however. And as a screenplay it pretty thoroughly fails to be convincing. It's rather a series of stitched-together melodramatic vignettes that, while reasonably well performed, lack a realism that one would expect given the subject matter and the viewer's presumption that the filmmakers are trying to be serious. Director Derek Yee's frequent use of cinematic gratuity (such as easily-severed limbs and lingering male-ass-shots, among numerous other items) is nearly as appallingly nauseating as it was in his last film.

As someone who has seen every version of every film he has ever made, I have to say that the casting of Jackie Chan here ranks among the oddest of his career. His supreme physical skill and screen presence as a physical actor are not employed in any fashion whatsoever. Simon Loui could have played this role.

In the modern era (his post-1979/Lo-Wei days), Chan has acted in a fair number of completely serious roles--dating all the way back to 1993 with the excellent but under-appreciated Crime Story. He is certainly capable of playing such roles reasonably well (particularly given one always has an expectation of his clownish side coming out an any time). The last few serious roles he has done (New Police Story and Myth, for example) were pretty good--particularly from the perspective of Chan fanboys (a camp in which this reviewer has long been ensconced). In this film, however, Chan blends in and doesn't really stand out--particularly among the solid performances of Danny "Hong Kong My Ass" Wu and the ubiquitous goddess Fan Bingbing.

This is admittedly a very difficult screenplay subject to tackle, cinematically, and Derek Yee has demonstrated in thoroughly and repeatedly convincing fashion that he is incapable of overcoming such difficulties.

My suspicion and opinion is that Yee has seen greater successes with the lighter and less demanding screenplays he has (mis)handled over his directing career.