Currently the biggest star in Hong Kong, Donnie Yen has gained a legion of fans from all over the world due to his work in box office hits like Ip Man. While Wu Xia may not be the action-heavy head-bashing fest many Donnie Yen fans are looking for, it's still a very well-made and slickly produced film that offers up a unique take on the martial arts genre, resulting in one of the better pictures to come out of Hong Kong this year.

Donnie stars as Liu Jin-Xi, a paper maker in a remote village who becomes a hero after he kills two bandits who are robbing the local general store. This event attracts the attention of the police, who are led by detective Xu Bai-Ju (Takeshi Kaneshiro). Trained in modern (or at least modern by 1917's standards) forensic techniques, Xu doesn't buy Liu's story and begins investigating further, eventually uncovering Liu's true identity and incurring the wrath of a vicious gang called the 72 Dragons, led by a mysterious man known only as The Master (Jimmy Wang Yu).

Besides the finale, the action in Wu Xia comes in bits and spurts, so if you're looking for wall-to-wall fisticuffs, you might want to look elsewhere. But what is contained here is really fun stuff. As with most of his recent efforts, Donnie Yen also serves as action director, which results in rapid-fire action sequences that ranks among the best stuff coming out from any corner of the world nowadays.

But, for the most part, director Peter Chan has to depend on the story and characters to propel Wu Xia forward, and in that sense, it succeeds. The use of CSI-style CGI-enhanced sequences where the viewer in taken inside the bodies might seem like a lazy crutch at first, but they're integrated into the movie extremely well, to the point that the co-exist nearly flawlessly with the matters occurring in the "real" world.

Some note should also be made of the acting. To be honest, this isn't Oscar-winning stuff, but all of the actors do a good job, in particular Tang Wei, who plays Donnie's wife, and Jimmy Wang Yu, who makes his first appearance on the jade screen in nearly twenty years with a suitably chilling performance as the film's villain. And those that have criticized Donnie Yen's acting for being wooden might want to check out his performance here, where he creates a three-dimensional character, who is very likable despite the horrific nature of some of the things we find out about him.

Unfortunately, things aren't perfect here. Clocking in at around two hours, the movie feels a wee bit too long -- and even with the length of the film, the ending still ends up feeling too rushed and pat. Also, the wank-rock heavy musical score is not very good at all. It sounds more appropriate for a TNT made for TV movie than a high-profile martial arts picture. Overall, though, these are minor quibble towards what is ultimately an extremely solid representation of the modern kung fu movie.

RATING: 7.5