It’s been billed as a potential turning point in Jackie Chan’s career. In his latest film, Hong Kong’s biggest living international icon is supposed to leave the cartwheels and kiddie humor behind for serious, mature territory. The man himself described it as “maybe one percent action, heavy drama.”

You’ll be glad to know that’s all bullshit. “The Shinjuku Incident” may not feature any cheap laughs, but it’s still full of as much ball-busting action as any of Chan’s previous films, and its heavyhanded melodrama might well make up for the absence of any deliberate humor. And while it’s not quite on a par with Derek Yee’s last offering (“Protege”), you’ll enjoy the film if you approach it as just another Jackie Chan outing and nothing more.

The story follows the journey of Steelhead (Chan), one of a large population of undocumented Chinese immigrants in Japan. There to search for a missing girlfriend, Steelhead spends his days working demeaning jobs and dodging the police with a ragtag gang of fellow illegal aliens (one of them played by an impressive Daniel Wu). His search eventually leads him face-to-face with the Yakuza, at which point the film drops most of its pretenses to high-minded seriousness and the regular orgy of ass-kicking begins.

Indeed, contrary to all the sanctimonious pre-screening drivel, there’s not only plenty of action in “Shinjuku,” but it’s a bloodbath compared to Chan’s previous films—somebody on board likes their severed limbs. Unsurprisingly, censors on the mainland have banned the movie as a result. This despite the fact that the film often appears more than willing to capitalize on fervent nationalist sentiment across China. Sure, it makes a few cursory “can’t we just be friends” gestures—it allows one good Jap, just as every World War II film has one good German—but at the end of the day it’s clear whose limbs we’re meant to want to see lopped off. Similarly, while the film pretends to probe the murkier depths of moral ambiguity, we all know who its one true, untouchable hero is. If you go to see the movie, watch it to see the latter in action and forget about trying to untangle any supposed underlying morals.

4 Stars by John Robertson.

Directed by Derek Yee. Starring Jackie Chan, Daniel Wu, Xu Jing Lei, Fan Bing Bing, Ken Watanabe. Category IIB, 120 minutes. Opened Apr 2.