Dr. Wai in the Scripture with No Words (1996)

Jet Li stars in perhaps his strangest film since Last Hero in China (1993). Its a mixture of The Neverending Story and Indiana Jones whose satirically-laced story and fantastical action runs out of control with an initially compelling premise.

A pulp novelist played by Jet Li is despondent over the impending divorce to his wife played by Rosamund Kwan. In fact, his current story is being written by Shing (Takeshi Kaneshiro), his assistant. The interesting premise for the film is that the story in progress is played out with these actors as the leading characters. Thus, Li becomes Dr. Wai, a ripoff of Indiana Jones who we first see disabling a giant mechanical bull that is rampaging through a crowd. Dr. Wai is everything that Chow Si-Kit, the author is not; adventurous, daring, and a real lady’s man. At least that’s how Shing sees it, but Chow turns his frustration against the story’s leading lady who is of course, Rosamund Kwan. In the novel, she plays a Japanese official who is looking for the Scripture with No Words. Dr. Wai breaks into the Japanese embassy in order to find a box which must house the Scripture in order for one’s future to be foretold. After a terrific battle and romantic first meeting with Dr. Wai, Kwan humorously goes from being a love interest to a man-hating dominatrix who tortures men for pleasure. The film continues to alternate between reality and the fictional story, with the story eventually taking up the majority of the running time. The story jumps around a lot with continued not-so-subtle references to Raiders of the Lost Ark. For instance, the box that must hold the Scripture will roast anyone who opens it. After finding the box in a Chinese newspaper publishing office, Wai and Shing fend off a giant rat(!?), a clan known as the Gang of Salt who are trying to reclaim the box, a gaggle of ninja warriors, two sumo wrestlers, and one crazy guy working for the Japanese named Hung Sing who is left disfigured after opening the box. In another ripped-off scene, Wai and his cohorts fly to the supposed location of the Scripture, but having hitched a ride on the outside of the plane, Hung Sing starts destroying things, forcing everyone to bail out. Meanwhile, back in real world, Kwan gets hurt in an elevator accident and Chow gets in another accident trying to frantically drive her to hospital and both end up as patients. While recovering in the hospital, Kwan learns of Chow’s earnest attempt to help her. She finishes the story with her character sacrificing herself for Wai and his friends when Hung Sing shows up again to spoil the Scripture-finding party.

As you may be able to gather from this rather lengthy description of the film’s plot, Dr. Wai in the Scripture with No Words is just as convoluted and messy as the title suggests. This is not a Jet Li film by definition. While he does get to do a few bits of martial arts action, most of his screen time is wasted on a lot of dialogue and subtle attempts at humor, neither of which Li excels at. Kwan’s performance is entertaining, especially when she turns into the man-hater but Kaneshiro is miscast as the awkward sidekick, a role better suited for Jacky Cheung who co-starred with Li in High Risk. The stunts and effects are well done but are over-the-top. The obvious attempts to copy and poke fun at the adventure film genre backfires for lack of subtly and finesse, traits rarely seen in Hong Kong film.

On the positive side, the filmmakers make a valiant attempt to adapt to a film genre not generally associated with Asian film. Like Armour of God, the film is filled with lots of sprawling action and adventure with a strong humorous streak. If more time had been spent on cleaning up the sloppy narrative. If you’re looking for something different, this film may be for you. Its not worthy of Jet Li’s talents, but it has its moments.