It also has elements of slapstick comedy and the "buddy film" genre, featuring two vastly different heroes (a Chinese Imperial Guard and an American Western outlaw) who team up to stop a crime.

It received generally positive from critics, with praise for the film's action sequences and Chan and Wilson's on-screen chemistry.

After Princess Pei-Pei, aided by her foreign tutor, runs away to the United States, the Emperor of China sends three of his guards and the Royal Interpreter to retrieve her.

Meanwhile, Pei-Pei, tricked into believing she was freely escaping her arranged marriage in China, learns she has been kidnapped by an agent of Lo Fong, a rebel who fled the Forbidden City.

In Carson City, Roy discovers that both he and Wang are wanted by Lo Fong's ally Marshal Nathan Van Cleef, narrowly escaping capture.

The next day, the Imperial Guards bring gold to the Carson City Mission church to ransom Pei-Pei from Lo Fong, but the exchange is complicated by the appearance of Wang and Roy.

At a Chinese cultural celebration, Roy shares a passionate kiss with Falling Leaves while Pei-Pei embraces Wang.

Wang and Roy, who reveals his real name to be Wyatt Earp, become sheriffs and ride off after a new band of train robbers.

[5] The screenplay was partly inspired by the 1971 Western film Red Sun, about a Japanese samurai teaming up with an Old West American outlaw.

[9] Joe Leydon of Variety gave Shanghai Noon a favorable review, characterizing it as "Fast, furious and, quite often, very, very funny.

"[10] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote: "If you see only one martial arts Western this year (and there is probably an excellent chance of that), this is the one.