This is about 60% of a great film. Jaycee Chan plays a drummer in a band who beds down a gangster's girlfriend, only to be found out. Sid (Mr. Chan) has a father (Tony Leung Ka Fei) who is also a gangster and the other gangster wants revenge, specifically Sid's hands chopped off. Sid flees to the mountains of Taiwan, whereupon he stumbles across a group of zen drummers. He is captivated by them and looks to join him. They take him in and make him go through rigorous training to prove himself. Herein lies the problem in this movie. Its not a fatal one: This film should have stayed with the zen drummers. Instead we get more of the gangster goings on in Hong Kong. The parts shot in Taiwan (its beautiful countryside, and the cinematography is great) make up a very good film. Although she doesn't do enough, the so pretty Lee Sin-Je (also known as Angelica Lee in other films) is part of this. Her beautiful piercing dark eyes are always welcome (an aside: see "The Eye" with her as the star, not the horrible Jessica Alba remake), but I wanted more reaction from her. She's a very good actress and looks beautiful, especially when she smiles. There is a bit too much of the gangster stuff going on, it drags the film a bit. However, its still worth watching for the zen drummers and Jaycee Chan is a fairly good actor. Recommended, just could have been a great film.
Review of The Drummer
