As all this is going on, they then run into a humble peasant at a train station on his way home to see his family. This peasant, Fu Gen (Baoqiang Wang), is carrying all of the money he earned as a construction worker on him and his naivety is such that he’s not suspicious enough of those around him to do much to hide that fact. Bo sees this as a prime opportunity to get rich quick, but doesn’t want to make things worse with Li who feels that she should ensure he makes it back to his family with every dollar of his earnings intact.

Soon the three travelers learn that there are bigger problems than Bo’s sneaky tactics as there’s a gang of bandits on the train that they’ve just boarded. Lead by a man known only as Uncle Le (Ge You of Farewell My Concubine), they’ve got their eyes on Fu Gen’s cash and they’re not too impressed with Bo’s attitude either.

Despite the abundance of blatant commercial placements in the film (these are so over the top and so obvious that it can get annoying at times – some of them make the Dr. Pepper can in Spider-Man look subtle by comparison), A World Without Thieves is a very pretty looking film. The camera captures the communist workers of China doing their thing all across the land as the pair of thieves travels around the country (there’s a very obvious pro-communist slant to this film, not surprising considering it’s from mainland China and not from Hong Kong proper). The scenery is lush and very organic looking and lends an air of elegance to the look of the film. The camera movements are slick and subtle and smooth, not at all like much of the quick cut editing present in so many films as of late.

Performances are all over the place, unfortunately. Andy Lau does a good job as the snarky Bo, playing his role with just enough self-confidence and attitude to get it right. He’s a sneak thief, but he’s a likeable one. Rene Liu doesn’t have much to do as Li but stand there and look cute and ensure that Bo behaves but she does it well – she’s a striking looking woman and her screen presence based on her looks alone is hard to miss. Ge You goes a little over the top as Uncle Le a couple of times but he’s a fun character and he does a good job with the role even if the material he has to work with doesn’t really give the character much weight. Despite the fact that Baoqiang Wang plays Fu Gen as a complete simpleton (read: borderline idiot), he too is not without his charm, adding a sympathetic touch to the role and providing a little bit of comic relief at the same time.

While the ending left a little bit to be desired and the film’s horrible commercial product placement and obvious political slant knock it down a few points, A World Without Thieves still has enough going for it to make it worth a watch. It’s hardly all that inventive but it is entertaining and quite pretty to look at...

...the movie itself is an interesting drama/romance/action/comedy hybrid that is well worth seeking out. Andy Lau is quite good in it and the direction and cinematography is top notch. Recommended.

In some ways, I think that A World Without Thieves is the movie that Jingle Ma's 2000 disaster Tokyo Raiders (one of the worst Hong Kong movies ever made in my opinion) really wanted to be. It's a sharp heist picture where things are never dumbed down too much, nor made unnecessarily complicated. A World Without Thieves also has style to burn, but never goes overboard with the "MTV style". Mainland helmer Feng Xiao Gang seems to be one of decreasing number of directors who knows when to set aside the visual trickery. What makes A World Without Thieves such a solid picture is that Feng lets his actors do the work, unlike stuff like Tokyo Raiders, which ends up becoming so bogged down in looking cool that the end results feel more like a ninety-minute music video instead of an actual movie.

However, there is one major roadblock which prevents A World Without Thieves from being a great film instead of just a good one, and its' name is Dumbo. I don't know if it's the way the character is written or Wang Baoqiang's performance -- probably a combonation of both -- but I found Dumbo to be totally unbeliveable and, at times, downright annoying. I seriously cannot fathom that, in this day and age, anyone (even if they are from a remote portion of China) could possibly believe that there is no such thing as a thief, to the point where they scream that they're carrying lots of money. There were times where I wanted one of the other passengers on the train to shoot Dumbo or at least taze him, so he could just be put out of his misery. Despite this, I would still recommend A World Without Thieves for fans of heist/con movies, and fans of Andy Lau's as well, since this is some of his strongest work over the past few years.