The Touch (2002)

User Rating:

4.6/10   

Director:

Peter Pau

Writers:

Julien Carbon (writer)
Laurent Courtiaud (writer)

Release Date:

1 August 2002 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Adventure | Action | Romance

Plot:

A sister and brother, the last heirs of a family of acrobats, are called upon by a Buddhist monk sect to retrieve an artifact that their ancestors have protected throughout the ages. |

Plot Keywords:

Artifact | Acrobat | Martial Arts | Buddhism | Beautiful Woman

Awards:

2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Michelle Yeoh	...	Pak Yin Fay
Ben Chaplin	...	Eric
Richard Roxburgh	...	Karl
Sihung Lung	...	The Monk-Dun Huang
Brandon Chang	...	Pak Yeuk Tong
Margaret Wang	...	Lily
Dane Cook	...	Bob
Emmanuel Lanzi	...	Draco
Kenneth Tsang	...	Ping
Gabriel Harrison	...	Sam (as Gabriel Hoi)
Winston Chao	...	Yin's Father
Zhenghai Kou	...	Silvio
Liu Chang Sheng	...	Pang
Hua Qin	...	Fat-Wah
Sua Lang Rao Deng	...	The monk - 700 Yrs. Ago

Also Known As:

Tian mai chuan qi (China: Mandarin title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violence.

Runtime:

China:103 min

Country:

China | Hong Kong | Taiwan | Japan

Language:

English | Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Netherlands:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Philippines:PG-13 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Beijing, China

Company:

Aruze Corporation

Quotes:

Karl: I'd offer you a drink, but that would be completely out of character.

unfulfilled potential

One of the classic fantasy quest novels of ancient China serves as the basis for this film's story: JOURNEY TO THE WEST by Wu Cheng En. In it, the Buddhist Monk/Scholar Xuanzang accomplishes a pilgrimage to India with the help of three magical creatures: a powerful immortal monkey with an anti-authoritarian streak, a humanoid boar of immense power, gullibility and appetite and an even-tempered warrior monk. The same source material was the inspiration for anime like Dragonball Z.

In this case, The Touch starts off cleverly, and sort of creates the impression that it is a latter-day sequel to the novel especially in one of the fights that opens the movie: a re-creation of the famous scene in the novel where the Monkey duels with a hot-tempered Boy-God with the ability to manipulate fire. And with the fact that it is the Sharira (or crystal essence) of the Monk that is the motive for all the characters' actions. But it fails to cover this much further, sags in the middle and soon becomes a cliched and predictable adventure film featuring a booby-trapped room, fire, Tarzan-swinging and "leaps of faith".

Performances wise Michelle Yeoh is Michelle Yeoh, always up to snuff in her physical stunts and emotional nuances but set back by her grating Cantonese-Malayan inflections when speaking Mandarin and English. Ben Chaplin continues his trend of playing second fiddle to A-list females, from Winona Ryder, Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman to Michelle Yeoh. He's just the kind of guy A-list women like to have in their movies because he looks positively impotent. Richard Roxburgh seems to have walked in thinking he was going to act in a Shakespearean stage play and pretty much plays his stock villain character larger-than-life with hammy delivery.

Cinematography is first-rate, and the music is surprisingly pleasing, and that's about all. The story is weak, predictable and has the depth of a Disney cartoon. Characters are one-dimensional and stock. Peter Pau can handle visuals though what he's done is virtually retreading old ground, but as a director he still lacks vision and the ability to astonish emotionally. Any astonishment is mainly from the way he handles visuals, rarely from timing or the way he works on the imagination. A triumph of set design over plot this is, but what set design, and what cinematography!

Overall this movie is an elegantly-shot with potential for greatness, but just becomes little more than a passably entertaining, shortchanging adventure by the end.

Rating: 5.6 out of 10