Bulletproof Monk

A Tibetan monk has guarded a sacred scroll for sixty years, keeping it from those who would use the power it holds. The scroll has passed through many hands, and its current keeper, trained in martial arts and possessed of unusual longevity, must find the person destined to protect it next. His search leads him to America, where the prophecy points not to a fellow monk but to a self-absorbed street thief named Kar. The would-be guardian is an unlikely choice, and the monk sets about training him while a ruthless enemy who has pursued the scroll for decades closes in.

Paul Hunter directed the film in his feature debut, working from a screenplay by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris. Chow Yun-fat plays the nameless monk, with Seann William Scott as Kar and Jaime King as Jade. Karel Roden appears as Strucker, and the cast runs to 58 credited performers. Charles Roven, John Woo and Terence Chang served among the producers for a production spanning Hong Kong, Canada and the United States.

Released in March 2003, the film had a budget of 52 million dollars and returned 38 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 5.5 out of 10 from 54,000 votes, and on TMDB 5.5 out of 10 from about a thousand votes. A critics' rating of 4.4 out of 10 across 127 reviews places it below even those modest audience scores.