20131005: Action Review--The Touch

The Touch

1. Fundamentals and reception
1. Chinese live action feature length film, 2002, rated PG-13, 103 minutes, action-adventure, romance.  Spoken language is English.
2. IMDB: 4.6/10.0 from 1,302 users; estimated budget, 20 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No score yet,' on the meter; 33% liked it from 1,370 audience ratings.
4. Netflix:  3.5/5.0 from 60,171 users.
5. Directed by: Peter Pau.
6. Starring: Michelle Yeoh as Pak Yin Fay, Ben Chaplin as Eric, Richard Roxburgh as Karl, Brandon Chang as Pak Yeuk Tong, Margaret Wang as Lily.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Collector Karl employs thief Eric to steal the box containing the Heart of Dun Huang, an artifact of some power, carved by Tibetan monks in 1242.  The Heart, supposedly, will lead Karl's people to the sharira, the crystallized essence of the holy monk Shen Zhong from the 13th century.  This plays out while Yin Fay is performing her circus act in public with her troupe.


2. Tong takes the Heart to the place Dun Huang; Yin and Eric follow.  Karl catches up and gets filled in by his forward spy, who had been tailing Tong.  Tong and his girl friend Lily find a possible source of knowledge, just as Karl catches them.  Eric and Yin make their way to Dun Huang about the same time.


3. Yin and Eric find the next piece of the puzzle: an urn filled with fluid.  Karl steals it from them and heads for the final hiding place.  He uses the Heart and the contents of the urn to open the place up. 


4. So many traps, so little time.  The circus/acrobat training turns out to be essential, of course.  After securing the sharira, Eric, Yin, and Tong travel to Lhasa to give the sharira and the surrounding gold monkeys to some Buddhist officials.


5. The ending is a bit mysterious and a possible sequel is setup.


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Pleasant, engaging action-romance film set in China involving the search for Buddhist artifacts.
2. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 Some of the acrobatics footage was bad enough that I wish they had dropped it.  Other than that, the production values were rather high, and the film looked quite good.


2. Sound: 8/10 Quite good, except for the over the top foley thrown in for the hits during fighting.  Some of the incidental music was really good.


3. Acting: 8/10 Liked the principal actors.


4. Screenplay: 8/10 The script balanced fighting and questing well enough.