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DR.
WAI IN THE SCRIPTURE WITH NO WORDS
AKA:
Doctor Wai: The Scriptures With No Words
Year:
1996 Reviewer: Phil
Mills
Wai
(Jet Li) is a writer with marital problems that are protruding
into his work, giving him writer's block. His book must
be completed though so, with the help of his workmates, he
sets about trying to finish his current story. This
latest adventure sees Dr. Wai, the king of adventurers,
on a quest to recover the "Scriptures with no
words". Flipping between reality and the adventure
we follow Dr. Wai and his assistant Pao (Takeshi Kaneshiro
again) in their journey to find a sacred box that is required
to locate the scripture. The box is said to give the
finder three wishes so when it almost falls into the hands of
the Japanese it is up to Wai and co. to get it back.
If
the plot to this movie sounds slightly confusing then that's
because it is. 'Dr. Wai' is a hard film to explain as
the story is so full of holes and jumps around in such a
confusing manner that it barely makes sense when you watch it,
let alone try to repeat it to anyone else. Made in
an obvious 'Indiana Jones' inspired style, it attempts to
break new grounds with an international style of film made
with Chinese talent but the lack of cohesion within the story
makes it too shallow to be enjoyable. Couple this
with the fact that we barely get to know the characters in
either story (one a cheesy soap story and the other a
sloppily written adventure) and you have a really sorry excuse
for an evening's entertainment.
The
action is the only thing that makes the film worth watching as
Jet performs his usual high class Wu Shu and Tai Chi moves
that always impress. However, this can never be
the only reason to recommend a film and this is why this is
such a disappointing outing for Li. Apparently, there is
an international version which removed all the sections where
Jet plays a writer which may have made the film more enjoyable
but it seems unlikely even that could save it. My advice
to you is that if you must see it, just fast forward to the
fight scenes.
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