the northwest desert where countless prosperous dynasties have flourish and fallen, there is rumour of a buried treasure of unbelievable riches. A group of mysterious guardians have kept the map to the location of the treasure safe, until a fierce rivalry erupts. A notorious international crime group, The Company hunt down the map keepers and before they manage to secure it, the keeper passes the map to a young chivalrous man Ciao Fei (Jay Chou). Ciao Fei is forced to give up the map to save the live of his mentor’s daughter Lan Ting (Lin Chi Ling). Teaming up with Hua Ding Bang (a famous archaeologist) and Lan Ting they embark on a dangerous journey to recover the map and fight to protect the ancient treasure.


In less than a decade or so, Jay Chou has emerged as one of Asias most bankable star thanks to his musical abilities which makes him a chart-topper with every album he has released. Since then, the multi-talented artiste has tried his hand as a MTV director, a full-pledged movie director (Secret), a businessman who co-owns restaurants and the occasional actor (Curse of the Golden Flower, Kung Fu Dunk).
In a role that is tailored to showcase his aura of ‘coolness’ to the maximum, Chou plays Qiaofeng, a treasure protector who must rescued the kidnap of his bosss estranged daughter, Lan Ting (Lin Chiling) from Pork Rib (Eric Tsang). Rib wants Lan Tings father to hand him the map to the Lost City whereby treasures are believed to be buried underneath. Together with them is Hua (Chen Daoming), a famous archaeologist who made an ill-fated trip to the Lost City years ago with a group of his friends.
This and many other mumbo-jumbo about the Sandstorm Legion and Eagle of the Desert turned this fantasy adventure into an immensely dreary affair. With a script-writing team consisting no less than five writers and supervised by the acclaimed Ivy Ho, the lackluster script is a gleaming example of why too many cooks spoiled the soup. Plotlines that seem important one minute, disappear the next and many characters float in and out without apparently any substantial reason to be there.
Download The Treasure Hunter 2009