(...However I believe you can still enjoy the US version after watching this one;-) If you saw neither 2000 original, nor 2011 remake, stop reading here and go watch the original.
In the beginning about me: I am not Chinese and I saw 2000 original. This things made me probably evaluate the movie lower than others. In other words, Chinese patriot who didn't see original would enjoy the movie better.
The reason I made TODAY IMDb registration just to write this review, was someone mentioning somewhere without seeing the original, that this movie is probably better because Mel Gibson is more action hero than romantic actor. (I am simplifying here) Not true. And I had to mention it. Imho, Mel Gibson did good job acting as well as other actors in the original movie.
I admit I don't know Chinese culture, so there can be some entertaining things I am missing. I also was not as comfortable watching the subtitles as it would be with English audio. Although English is not my native language, I dare to say that either the dialogs are shallow (I am sorry), or more probably the translation to English subtitles was bad. Not as bad as in early eastern martial arts movies, however, in that kind of movie it didn't matter that much.
The story itself: I consider it the worst handled remake I ever saw. But the producers probably thought that there is like one billion people in China who didn't see the original and will like it. I would say there are several types of scenes in this move here is my breakdown: 1) scenes copied exactly (I had no entertainment here, because it was exactly same as original) 2) scenes slightly simplified (20% simplification of the scene usually means like 80% of humor reduction) 3) scenes with small additions (usually stupid) 4) scenes completely changed, removed, added...(probably done because otherwise the similarity of the remake would be too bad...however, I cannot recall any change of that kind which increases the quality of the Chinese version)
To have an example what I mean by 2 and 3, here is short dialog from the movie (very shortened - not word to word). This will NOT SPOIL the entire movie:
Boss: What do you think about the graphics? (both versions)
She thinks: (is thinking about them and he hears it) (both versions)
He: (answers exactly what she thinks) (both versions)
She thinks: How can he think same as me??? (Chinese only, in US version mimics only which is much better: does the Chinese director think the audience is stupid?)
Boss: Good idea, hey come to my office later, I have new cubans. (both versions)
He: Cool. (both versions)
She: OK. (US only)
Boss: You smoke cigars? (US only)
She: No. (US only: this is what makes it funny, otherwise mentioning he cubans is just empty smalltalk)
I was going to watch the movie, because I considered the original pretty entertaining and I thought the Asian version would be entertaining in different way. WRONG. Howgh.
