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

Two stories happen simultaneously in this bizarre adventure. One is modern day harsh reality, while the other is an historical, pulp fictional adventure story. Jet Li’s character in the modern era is the writer of the other, wherein he becomes the hero of his own imagination, the titular Dr Wai: Adventure King. Modern Jet uses the fantasy world to compensate for his real world troubles. All goes well until the story gets some co-authors that create a very Gilliam-esque situation with a Chinese twist.

NOTE: Two versions of the film exist. The one I watched was the original Ching Siu-tung version (aka Hong Kong Dir Cut). Tsui Hark was hired to reshoot a large part of it for an International Cut, making it more linear.

2½ mighty pens out of 5