Through his friendship with Smile, the son of a museum employee, Lao-san crosses paths with a gang of thieves led by the Hong Kong criminal Dragon attempting to steal the Dragon-Tongue, a 900-year-old spear from the Song dynasty.

"[1] Reviewer Matthew Lee of Screen Anarchy wrote, "The Underdog Knight may not be the film that proves mainland cinema can still captivate a western audience, no reservations; it's nowhere near extrovert enough to pass for cut-rate Bruckheimer, like the flood of blockbuster action movies at the start of the Korean wave.

It's beautifully shot with some tremendous acting from its leads and it wants very much to be different, struggling with the restrictions surrounding its production at every turn, ending up something very distinctive, surprisingly open, even daring – a film it is debatable could ever have happened under a more conventional studio system.

"[2] Reviewer Derek Elley of Variety wrote, "Though it’s a tricky sell beyond festivals and DVD, and doesn’t keep all its plates spinning at the same time, Ding Sheng’s 'The Underdog Knight' is one of the most original movies to come out of China in the past year.

A genre-bending mix of psychodrama, action movie, black comedy and aspirational drama, this sophomore outing by writer-director Ding Sheng works primarily due to an utterly convinced perf by young actor Liu Ye as the wacko modern-day knight errant.

"[3] Paul Fonoroff of the South China Morning Post wrote, "Imagine Forest [sic] Gump as a sword-wielding martial artist on a mission to destroy society's wickedness, place him among the colourful German architecture of Qingdao, and you have one of the most unusual heroes to appear on the Chinese screen.