Jet Li's latest movie, Ocean Heaven, is a forgettable work with a shallow story, flat characters and poor acting.

It is really good to see international movie star Jet Li try to take on a new role in his latest movie, Ocean Heaven, which is one of 16 entries to compete for the Golden Goblet Award at the Shanghai International Film Festival. This is the first movie in which Li does not do any fighting.

The movie, however, turns out to be utterly forgettable. The story is shallow, the characters are paper-thin and the acting is poor. It is more a work of philanthropy than of cinema.

It was truly incredible that a movie with a budget of 7 million yuan (US$1.03 million) was able to cast actors like Li and Kwai Lun-Mei, especially considering that Li's normal pay has exceeded 100 million yuan (US$15 million) per picture. Those actors, along with accomplished cinematographer Christopher Doyle, pop singer Jay Chow and Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi, must have also worked for next to nothing.

The movie tells a simple story about a father and his son. The father, played by Li, is a poor ocean park employee. The son, portrayed by Wen Zhang is born with autism. His mother drowns herself when he is young. The father is diagnosed with cancer when the boy is 21 years old. The father is desperate to find a place that can take care of his son. Meanwhile, he tries to teach his son some ways to take care of himself, like riding a bus, buying groceries and getting dressed. He also teaches his son to sweep floors, a job that he persuades his boss that his son is capable of doing.

The story is very touching, but it could have done much better. There is a significant social issue behind the story.

Because the movie focuses so closely on the father and son, there isn't much opportunity to bring up broader social questions, like whether the government is supposed to serve people with mental disabilities. However, the movie barely touches the issue, wasting a good opportunity to raise public awareness of autism in Chinese society.

Meanwhile, the storyline has no rhythm or pace, which makes it hard for the audience to feel engaged. The movie needs better integration, because it is more like a collection of photographs than a story.

Some characters are simply unnecessary, like the one played by Kwai, an actress from Taiwan. The young beauty plays a clown in a traveling circus, which is odd and a waste of talent. She makes friends with Wen's character and disappears later on. The character seems to add nothing to the story.

During an interview on June 13 in Shanghai, Li said, "In a movie like this, it is wrong to do acting in any way. I told the actors that they should express themselves from their hearts and acting was not needed."

Unfortunately, with the exception of Wen, there are no signs of good acting. Most of the actors show few expressions, if any. Li's face is frozen most of the time. Li's advice had a good intention, but it wasn't good advice. Actors have to act to become the characters they play.

The shining points of the movie are Doyle's cinematography and Chow's song. Doyle renders most of the frames with a shade of blue, to reinforce the theme and even the movie's name. Chow's song at the end of the movie can surely hold you in your seat for three more minutes.