Director: Liu Wenpu
Year: 2026
Country: China
Alternate Titles: Shou ze tian
Genre: Kung-Fu/Martial Arts
Plot:
When thousands in disaster relief funds disappear, an upstanding constable is framed for the disappearance. Desperate to prove his innocence, he takes a job with a secret squad whose only goal is to serve and protect those who can afford to pay. Forced to choose between his integrity and his freedom, he decides the only path forward is to fight back and hope that exposing these dangerous agents of chaos will be enough to set him free.
Review:
Overall, the film comes together as an old-school martial arts throwback. Among the better features here is a rather fun, if oversimplified, story that serves merely to introduce the latest series of fist fights in a logical enough manner. Introducing the main guy as the scapegoat for the inability to carry out the more corrupt aspects of the job, so he can be framed for the infraction against the government, and making it seem logical that he would need to infiltrate those in power to weed out the actual party responsible, this gets the necessary roles brought up and laid out rather efficiently. With this providing enough conflict between him and his former assistant over his performance at the disaster relief office, which brings about the mystery over who's actually involved in the theft of the funds, and sets everything up for the new teacher at the staff center, serving as the perfect balancing act to lead this one along. It creates the perfect opportunity to get the different characters set up quickly enough, give them some motivation to solve what's going on, and move to the next big sequence.
That brings about the slew of effective and wholly exciting confrontations in here because of this setup. The myriad of well-equipped performers and nameless guards brought about for a series of battles across the city or in temple squares are immensely effective not just for helping to solidify the different storyline beats but also for highlighting the skillset of the participants involved. When it gets to more involved and lengthy confrontations, from the fight with the government spy alongside the random bits of laundry hanging up around them to a standout swordfight with an assassin in their second-floor fireworks shop as the items occasionally go off around them, the action here is solid, hard-hitting, and well-choreographed overall. With big confrontations at the end that manage to include some thrilling swordfighting and weaponry that continue some of the fine storyline attributes already brought up earlier throughout here, there are some likable factors throughout here.
This one doesn't have much dislike, but the film does have some slight drawbacks. The main issue here is the overall lack of depth to this story, as it focuses more on getting to the next fight than anything else. Without any kind of subplots to help break up the constant conversations looking into the different suspects of the theft, the majority of the characters are simply introduced and then not given any additional information about them for us to know about them so it all feels immensely lackluster trying to get into the details of the characters for anything more than knowing their names. Oftentimes, even that’s not all that important, where some of the minor figures in the court have a hard time keeping identities and allegiances straight, making the more action-oriented approach a blessing and a curse, keeping things interesting but also being immensely shallow for those looking for something more from their kung-fu genre fare. It’s not a big factor here, but for a film like this, it does serve as the biggest drawback present.
Overview: ***.5/5
An enjoyable one-note type of genre fare, this one is a serviceable and wholly enjoyable throwback-style martial arts effort with quite a lot going for it, even if that’s just a solid string of fighting and other action scenes throughout here. Those with an appreciation for this style will get a lot out of the film, while others more in line with the negatives might want to heed caution.
This review was originally published on Asian Movie Pulse and is gratefully reprinted with their cooperation.
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