A Kid From Tibet - The Buddhist Way

Jan

24

A Kid From Tibet - The Buddhist Way

≡ Category: Action, Comedy, Hong Kong, Recommended |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

Country: Hong Kong
Genre: Action/ Comedy
Director: Yuen Biao
Year: 1992

Rating:

TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE

A Kid From Tibet starts off with several advantages. First, there aren’t many movies made in which one of the main protagonists is a Tibetan monk. That’s pretty novel to start with. And director/star Yuen Biao managed to get amazing access to Lhasa, the holy city of Tibet where the Dalai Lama resides. So we get to see street scenes in Lhasa, inside the temples, and some of the natural beauty of the area.

The story is simplicity itself. According to the movie, Tibetan Buddhism used to be divided into five sects. One of the sects, the Black Sect, wanted to use the supernatural powers of Tibetan Buddhism to conquer Tibet. The peace loving sect used the powers of a magic gold bottle to expel the Black Sect from Tibet. The gold bottle is missing, but the Dalai Lama still has the cap to the bottle. The Dalai Lama sends Lo Ba Wong La (Yuen Biao) to reuinite the cap with the gold bottle, which is in the possession of a collector in Hong Kong, and ultimately bring the bottle and cap back to Lhasa, where it belongs. That’s pretty much it. Everything else is simply a complication.

Surprisingly, that’s enough, but the filmmakers make a few mistakes. One is to make the female lead character, Chiu Seng Neng (Michelle Reis) totally unlikeable. She’s a ninny, unfair, and horribly selfish. Chiu Seng Neng accompanies Lo Ba Wong La on his way to Hong Kong. Over and over, Lo Ba Wong La saves her ass, and all she does is bitch and moan. This gets old fast.

For many viewers, another problem will be a scene late in the story that rips off the ending from Raiders of the Lost Ark, except with far inferior special effects. In those days, there was no CGI in Hong Kong films. Often, the filmmakers painted special effects directly on the negatives! Personally, I find the primitive hand-crafted effects charming, but not everyone will agree.

The last error is kind of inexcusable. In the opening scene of the film, Lawyer Robinson (Roy Chiao) is being driven to Lhasa in a jeep. All during this scene, director Yuen Biao cuts between medium shots of Robinson in the jeep and panoramic views of the Tibetan countryside. He employs the standard strategy of maintaining continuity of the soundtrack. In other words, even though you might be hundreds of yards away from the jeep, you hear the dialog and the sound of the jeep as though they were only feet away. Then, unaccountably, in a cut to the panoramic view, you get dead air. This is sound editing 101, folks. I don’t care how low the budget was, there’s no excuse for such sloppiness. It takes you right out of the picture.

Fortunately, A Kid From Tibet has some major strengths. Screenwriters Barry Wong, Sam Chi-Leung, and Chan Ka-Cheong come up with reasonably entertaining variations on the fish out of water concept.

In one scene, Lo Ba Wong La is asked by Lawyer Robinson to perform Tibetan magic at a party. He reluctantly does so but a practitioner of the Black Sect surreptitiously screws up his tricks in order to embarrass Lo Ba Wong La.

As I already mentioned, the treatment of the Buddhist elements in the story is entertaining in and of itself.

Other than Michelle Reis (not really her fault her character is such a pill), the other actors are entertaining in their roles. Yuen Biao makes a fine Tibetan monk. He’s humble and clueless about the culture outside of Llasa, but he’s no fool. As the chief villain, Yuen Wah is wonderful as usual. And Nina Li is fine as Wah’s sister.

But best of all are the many martial arts battles, courtesy of choreographers Yuen Biao and Ka Lee. They’re creative and kick ass. Yuen Biao directs these contests with flair and drive.

Taking all these factors together, A Kid From Tibet may not be a classic, but it’s still a lot of fun.