'Tian mai chuan qi' (AKA 'Touch') follows in the well paid path of the really gorgeous films that came out of Hong Kong and China (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, etc) but it raises the question 'Just how many of these small story visual epics are palatable in repetition? Michelle Yeoh recognizes successful financial formulas when she sees one and is at the crux of this flimsy little caper film, cashing in on the popularity of the genre.
The story is slight: a relic (ny the monks of Dan Huang. The monks call upon a family of acrobats (of course with a history of hundreds of years of secret training on how to accomplish this mission) to retrieve it. Pak Yin Fay (the very beautiful Michelle Yeoh) and her brother Tong (Brandon Chang) take on the mission - with a few glitches: Pak Yin Fay's old boyfriend Erik (Ben Chaplin) is a ne're-do-well thief who possesses the necessary Heart medallion required to open the location of the Sharira. But wouldn't you know, there appears an unscrupulous nasty guy Karl (Richard Roxburgh, a fine Australian actor out of Moulin Rouge, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Oscar and Lucinda, etc) who causes no end of problems at the site and initiates the reason for making this film: an extended martial arts dance on pillars above a CGI fire in the tomb - a place where nearly everyone in the cast is cremated after gallant swinging and flying! Yet of course it all ends well with the Sharira being returned to the happy monks in Tibet.
Corny, yes, but if martial arts films with lots of color and vistas of deserts and the holy city in Tibet stimulate you, then this film is worth your time. Michelle Yeoh is beautiful to watch, and both Ben Chaplin and Richard Roxburgh are fine enough actors to almost make you forget the pointless shallow lines they are force to deliver with as much comedic tone as they can milk from the script. Grady Harp
The story is slight: a relic (ny the monks of Dan Huang. The monks call upon a family of acrobats (of course with a history of hundreds of years of secret training on how to accomplish this mission) to retrieve it. Pak Yin Fay (the very beautiful Michelle Yeoh) and her brother Tong (Brandon Chang) take on the mission - with a few glitches: Pak Yin Fay's old boyfriend Erik (Ben Chaplin) is a ne're-do-well thief who possesses the necessary Heart medallion required to open the location of the Sharira. But wouldn't you know, there appears an unscrupulous nasty guy Karl (Richard Roxburgh, a fine Australian actor out of Moulin Rouge, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Oscar and Lucinda, etc) who causes no end of problems at the site and initiates the reason for making this film: an extended martial arts dance on pillars above a CGI fire in the tomb - a place where nearly everyone in the cast is cremated after gallant swinging and flying! Yet of course it all ends well with the Sharira being returned to the happy monks in Tibet.
Corny, yes, but if martial arts films with lots of color and vistas of deserts and the holy city in Tibet stimulate you, then this film is worth your time. Michelle Yeoh is beautiful to watch, and both Ben Chaplin and Richard Roxburgh are fine enough actors to almost make you forget the pointless shallow lines they are force to deliver with as much comedic tone as they can milk from the script. Grady Harp