Asian action movies set in modern day usually fall into one of two categories. They’re either loaded with bone breaking, skin slapping, fist pumping fight scenes, or they’re chock full of bullet ballets, armed standoffs, and gun fights. Jackie Chan and Donnie Yen fit in the former category while the latter is home to the work of Johnnie To and others. There’s some crossover here and there, but for the most part the films seem content to focus on one action style or the other. Vietnamese director Le Thanh Son chose to ignore that memo for his debut and has instead filled Clash (aka Bay Rong) with an equal amount of blisteringly fast fist fights and flesh shredding gunfights. This is a good thing. He also chose to let his characters talk a bit too much. This is a bad thing.

As a retarded martial arts expert strikes out on his own, he ardently adheres to his mother’s credo: fighting is bad and should only be a last resort for the sake of self-defense. But when his new-found girl gets kidnapped by human trafficking syndicate, his oath to her is tested.

Would I be overdoing it by calling American Gangster an American masterpiece? I don’t think I’ve enjoyed any other movie this year more than this one.

At first glance, it would be easy to confuse Ridley Scott’s American Gangster for your run-of-the-mill shoot ‘em up actioner, complete with big stars, big guns and big drama. But upon closer inspection, American Gangster reveals itself to be something completely different.