Love Hurts

With her half-thriller, half- tearjerker movie Jade Goddess of Mercy , Ann Hui has become the answer to an unlikely question: "What would you get if you combined Richard Donner ( Lethal Weapon ) and Jane Campion ( The Piano )?" One of Hong Kong's few female filmmakers, Hui is best known for character-driven dramas such as July Rhapsody . But partway through Goddess , she gives in to her basic, box-office instinct to deliver what the people want: lots of gunplay.

The film centers on an idealistic Chinese antidrug cop (Vicky Zhao Wei) in Yunnan province who becomes emotionally entangled with a handsome...