This movie might actually be my first Chinese spaghetti western. It's very funny and highly satirical, typical of Jiang Wen. At first, I thought it was going to be a lot like Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles", and in some respects it is. But really, it's a good deal more sophisticated than that.
The plot is almost like a chess game between two brilliant strategists. I understand, from one Chinese reviewer, that the film has a lot of double entendres and puns in Chinese that we are missing without it being our first language. This is an incredible movie, even with half of it lost in translation. I can only imagine that it's absolutely brilliant in Chinese.
Warning: The pacing is super fast and the plot is extremely complicated. Be prepared to pause the film and back up.