In 1881, Chon Wang (Chan) is a Chinese Imperial Guard in the Forbidden City. After Princess Pei-Pei, for whom Wang has affection, is abducted and taken to the United States, the Emperor of China sends three of his guards to retrieve her. Wang is not one of the three, but he tells the Captain of the Imperial Guards that it was his fault the princess was kidnapped and insists on joining them. The Captain first refuses, but when the Royal Interpreter, Wang's uncle, offers to allow Wang to come help with the baggage, the Captain agrees in the hopes that the "foreign devils" would get rid of Wang. In Nevada, Roy O'Bannon (Wilson) is an outlaw who, with his gang, hijacks the train Wang is on. When Wallace, a member of Roy's gang, kills Wang's uncle, Wang chases the outlaws down. However, the gang is well-armed and Wang's only choice is to unhinge the cars and get away on the engine. In the process, Wallace takes over the gang from Roy, and they leave him buried up to his chin in the desert sand. Meanwhile, Pei-Pei, who was tricked into believing she was freely escaping her arranged marriage in China, finds out she has been kidnapped by an agent of Lo Fong, who ran away from the Forbidden City and was viewed as a traitor by the Chinese.
Detective Zhong Wen heads to Wu Bar in search of his estranged daughter, Miao Miao, who is now the girlfriend of the nightclub's owner, Wu Jiang. However, Zhong disapproves of Miao's relationship, which leads to an argument between the father and daughter. Before Zhong can make amends with Miao, he is struck in the head by an unnamed assailant, in a plot orchestrated by Wu.
In AD 859, as the Tang Dynasty declines, a number of rebel groups are established, the largest of which is the House of Flying Daggers, based in Fengtian. Its members steal from the rich and give to the poor, gaining the support of the locals. Two police officers, Leo (Andy Lau) and Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro), are ordered to kill the leader of the group within ten days.
Po Sing (Jon Kit Lee) is waiting for someone in a club in a predominantly African American neighborhood when a group of angry patrons try to start a fight with him. His father's right-hand man Kai (Russell Wong) and his Asian henchmen pull Po out of the club after a brief fight with the bouncers before the meeting can take place. The next day, Po is found murdered.
Kit is a Hong Kong undercover cop who becomes a drug addict to infiltrate a crime syndicate which has been kidnapping people and sending them to Thailand, where the victims are killed and have their organs sold in the black market. The mastermind behind the syndicate, Mr Hung, has a rare heart condition and needs to undergo a heart transplant to prolong his life. Hung's younger brother is the ideal donor for a heart.
In New Orleans, a homeless veteran named Douglas Binder is the target of a hunt. He is given a belt containing $10,000 and told that he must reach the other side of town where he would then win the money and his life. Hunting him are the hunt organizer Emil Fouchon, a businessman named Mr. Lopaki who has paid $500,000 for the opportunity to hunt a human, Fouchon's lieutenant Pik Van Cleaf, and mercenaries including Stephan and Peterson. Binder fails to reach his destination and is shot by three crossbow bolts. Van Cleaf retrieves the money belt.
Former collegiate wrestler Scott Voss (Kevin James) is a 42-year-old bored and disillusioned biology teacher at the failing Wilkinson High School. Budget cutbacks at the school jeopardize the continuation of its music program, which would result in its teacher, Marty (Henry Winkler), being laid off. Concerned for both his colleague and his students, Scott attempts to raise the $48,000 necessary to keep the music program alive. At first, he works as a night instructor for a citizenship class. One of his students, Niko (Bas Rutten), approaches him to get some outside tutoring and Scott reluctantly agrees. When Scott arrives at Niko's apartment, he realizes that Niko was a former mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter. While watching the UFC at Niko's apartment, Scott learns that the loser of the fight receives $10,000, which gives him the idea of raising the money by fighting and losing in MMA himself. Niko begins training him in defense, and later brings him to another trainer, Mark (Mark DellaGrotte), to train for offense, after a knockout on Scott's behalf he realized he could win more and fight less. While Mark trains with Scott, Malia De La Cruz (Charice Pempengco), one of Scott's students and a band member, helps Niko study for his citizenship test by putting the information into songs. Scott then begins fighting in small MMA fights and gradually gaining higher amounts of money for the school.
Gabriel Yulaw (Jet Li), once an officer of the "Multiverse Authority" (MVA) that polices interdimensional travel (via detecting wormholes), seeks to hunt down all variations of himself in alternate universes. By killing all 124 of his other selves (becoming the last version) and absorbing their life energies, he believes he will become an immortal godlike being called "The One". Yulaw is briefly captured by MVA agents Rodecker (Delroy Lindo) and Funsch (Jason Statham), only to escape from captivity during the trial sentencing him to life in the Stygian penal colony in the Hades universe.
The film begins during the French Revolution, with the aged Marquis d'Apcher as the narrator, writing his memoirs in a castle, while the voices of a mob can be heard from outside. The film flashes back to 1764, when a mysterious beast terrorized the province of Gévaudan and nearby lands.
The film starts with Huo Yuanjia fighting three Westerners: a British boxer, a Belgian lancer, and a Spanish fencer. Huo defeats all three of them and has a flashback before the next fight with a Japanese fighter Anno Tanaka.
U.S. Army Captain Frank Dux, trained from his youth in the ways of Ninjutsu by Senzo Tanaka, honors his mentor by taking the place of Tanaka's deceased son Shingo in the illegal Kumite martial-arts tournament. During his childhood, Dux and a group of friends invaded Tanaka's home to steal a katana, but he was apprehended by Senzo and Shingo while attempting to return the katana to its display rack. Impressed by Dux's honesty and lack of fear, Senzo had him train with Shingo in martial science. Following Shingo's death, Senzo agreed to train Dux as a member of the Tanaka clan. When Dux's superiors learn of his invitation to the Kumite, they refuse to let him go; in return, he goes AWOL, says goodbye to his mentor and leaves for Hong Kong. Two CID officers, Helmer and Rawlins, are summoned to track down and arrest Dux for desertion.
Liu Siu-jian (Jet Li), a Chinese intelligence agent, is sent to Paris to help apprehend Chinese mob boss Mr. Big (Ric Young), who is involved in heroin smuggling. He meets Inspector Jean-Pierre Richard (Tchéky Karyo), a corrupt and violent French police detective, at a hotel. Richard tricks Liu into believing he is simply providing reconnaissance of a meet involving Mr. Big. The plans are changed when Mr. Big is introduced to two prostitutes, one being Jessica Kamen (Bridget Fonda), an American woman, who takes him to his room to service him. While Liu and the rest are watching through the surveillance camera, Mr. Big kicks everyone out except for the two prostitutes. After pretending to seduce him, one of the prostitutes then stabs Mr. Big. Overseeing the events from a surveillance room, Liu rushes to stop the killing, but Richard enters shortly later to shoot Mr. Big and the prostitute with Liu's police-issued handgun, framing Liu for the murders.
Le film, basé sur un best-seller, raconte l’histoire d’un moine taoïste doué en kung-fu qui quitte une montagne isolée pour aller en ville dans les années 1920 et y découvrir son rôle dans le monde laïque, où il devient impliqué dans des complots et rencontre d’étranges personnages.
The film narrates the life of the Wing Chun grandmaster Ip Man from the 1930s in Foshan, his flight to Hong Kong after the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the events leading up to his death.