Le Chevalier des ombres : Entre Yin et Yang

This really is an underrated movie. If it were in English it would likely have a 6 to 7 rating I'm certain. Classic Chan with a variant on some Classic Chinese literature, "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio". It is similar to some of the modern versions of "Journey to the West".

This movie is a half traditional Chinese stories and half video game (CGI that sometimes looks great and sometimes doesn't). It's sort of traditional with lots of spiritual stuff. The production value is pretty high in some set-pieces, and the art direction in general is great. There are also animated cutscenes that are worth the watch (in a style similar to Yoshitaka Amano's art from Final Fantasy).

Sadly, the movie is too silly at times, or too slow and boring in it's development for my taste. It has a very simplistic plot, but I imagine this would have been worth it if done correctly, which is a shame. Some minor parts I really enjoyed (almost everything with the "demon ladies"). A very poor execution drags it down to the floor.

As a Jackie Chan movie it has several action scenes.. that aren't memorable. He isn't as nimble or fun to watch anymore. Overuse of CGI (and I can't stress that enough) and noticeable cables being used in the choreography take you out of it. Also.. farts.

All in all, I'll remember the short animated sequence, the lovely tragedy in it, and forget the rest.

This is an asian high-fantasy movie rather than a martial arts flick. So adrenaline junkies looking to get their fix on this are going to be disappointed.

This does have a relatively good premise and story. The characters are well-thought out and enjoyable. Unfortunately the English text translation is so extremely bad it is sometimes difficult to follow the story. Typical confusion between he / she / it, extreme mistranslation (in one spot the English is actually written out on-screen and the translation renders it otherwise).

But the romantic sub-plot is quite good, and it has a very Asian ending (avoiding spoilers). It does get to a point at near the end where the on-screen CGI is so over the top it feels more like a Transformers movie than fitting in with the rest of the film. That along with the very bad translating gives this a mere 5-star "mediocre" rating from me.

Those who rated this 1 star... seriously, you're putting this equal to the worst movies ever made? If you can't write better reviews than that don't bother. I'm not sure it warrants the 8 stars some give it, but given a chance and tolerating the butchered translations, it's a mildly interesting 2 hours.

I really liked the mind-altering pixie character. Cute as a button and used well throughout the film, both as plot device and emotional prodding.

Just want to ask where the "detective"? Empty has the name of detective, do not take a side with crack a case film completely, under the guise of detective but the film does not have the appearance of detective, directly call a female ghost is not over bai, with pu songling what relationship?

If you do not know this type of movie and expect to see a Chan movie or a typical fantasy movie, then move on. This is a nice movie of it's kind, not for your every day viewer. Nothing unexpected in storyline, but a classical love story.