A World Without Thieves (2004)
2004 film by Feng Xiaogang
- Released
- 2004
- Country
- People's Republic of China
- Language
- Mandarin
- Genre
- Martial arts film
- Director
- Feng Xiaogang
- Screenplay
- Feng Xiaogang, Wang Gang
- Producer
- Liu Zhenyun
- Music
- Wang Liguang
- Cinematography
- Zhang Li
- Editing
- Liu Miaomiao
- Starring
- Andy Lau, René Liu, Ge You, Li Bingbing
- Running time
- 100 minutes
- Distributor
- Media Asia Entertainment Group, Netflix
- Box office
- CN¥100 million
- Set in
- Sichuan
A World Without Thieves (simplified Chinese: 天下无贼; traditional Chinese: 天下無賊; pinyin: Tiānxià Wú Zéi) is a 2004 comedy action drama film directed by Feng Xiaogang and starring Andy Lau, Rene Liu, Ge You, Wang Baoqiang and Li Bingbing. A Chinese-Hong Kong co-production, the film is an adaptation of a 1999 novelette of the same title by Zhao Benfu. The original story is moderately different from the film adaptation. The film was first released in Shanghai, China on 5 December 2004. It clinched the 2005 Golden Horse Award for Best Screenplay Adaptation.
The film was released in Hong Kong with Cantonese dubbing provided by Lau for his own role, Anthony Wong for the role of Uncle Li, and Chapman To for the role of Sha Gen.
The plot is centered on a naïve village boy who does not believe in the existence of thieves. Returning home on board a train with his savings, he soon becomes the target of many thieves. The film explores the theme of the fundamental human goodness and also addresses humorously the issue of thievery on public transport in Mainland China.
External links
Facts from Wikidata Q300622 (CC0); quoted introduction from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.
Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.