Chow Yun Fat is the biggest film star in Hong Kong and mainland
China, meaning he has a fan base of more than a billion people.
This means he’s also the most famous movie star in the world, but
he is only known to truly savvy film fans in the United States.
Many who saw
”
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,
”
the biggest grossing martial arts film to ever play American
theaters, came in contact with Chow Yun Fat for the first time. The
film, an adventure romance with serious dramatic overtones, was
phenomenally popular–it won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film of
2000.
Chow Yun Fat is the biggest film star in Hong Kong and mainland China, meaning he has a fan base of more than a billion people. This means he’s also the most famous movie star in the world, but he is only known to truly savvy film fans in the United States. Many who saw “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” the biggest grossing martial arts film to ever play American theaters, came in contact with Chow Yun Fat for the first time. The film, an adventure romance with serious dramatic overtones, was phenomenally popular–it won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film of 2000.
“Bulletproof Monk,” Chow Yun Fat’s Hollywood follow up to that film, is a by-the-books hodge podge of Hong Kong filmmaking theatrics blended with the buddy genre made popular by the American film industry. The result is a confusing mess that manages to be entertaining about half the time. The fight scenes are sometimes spectacular, yet others don’t pack any punch whatsoever. As far as the romance and comedy elements, they don’t work very well in this poorly paced film.
The difficult plot, which is almost a complete copy of the story told in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” concerns itself with the Nazis of 1943 trying to steal something called the Scroll of the Ultimate, for possession of the scroll will guarantee world power, just like the Ark of the Covenant, which was pursued with the same vigor and for the same reasons in “Raiders.”
The film opens with an unnamed monk (Chow Yun Fat) finding the Scroll of the Ultimate in a temple in Tibet. After reading the scroll in its entirety, which guarantees complete world power, he must renounce his God-given name, and from that moment he becomes The Monk With No Name.
The second the monk takes possession of the scroll, the special effects take over, with the sky and clouds swirling like a boiling cauldron, letting us know that ownership of this scroll causes the powers of the universe to make themselves felt.
It is apparent the film is a fantasy when the monk escapes an attack by the Nazis after taking the scroll. Not only does he get shot, he also survives a jump from a mountain that no human could survive. I guess if you’re a powerful monk holding the scroll that guarantees ultimate world power, you can fly as well.
We now flash forward to the present, with our hero monk looking the same. However, in the opening sequences we are given information that whoever holds the scroll must relinquish it after 60 years. Sixty years having passed, we soon realize that the powers of the universe are going to try to dispossess monk of the scroll.
We now find the monk on the subway in New York City, where he walks around a lot, doing nothing. When a young pickpocket named Kar (Seann William Scott) lifts the scroll from the monk, who inexplicably doesn’t try to get it back right away, we start to follow Kar through the subway, where he meets a violent gang led by a guy named Mr. Funktastic, who’s played by Patrick Hagarty.
After the monk observes the huge fight between the gang and Kar, he befriends Kar, who he believes is the rightful possessor of the scroll for the next 60 years.
“Bulletproof Monk” is a servicable action film that snaps and crackles at times, while moving sluggishly in some areas. The fight scenes are terrific, but the film is ultimately a bore in the story and romance areas. Call it a mixed bag, a film that should appeal to action fans, but won’t fulfill the expectations of the art crowd that loved “Crouching Tiger” so much.
BULLETPROOF MONK. Directed by Paul Hunter. Written by Cyrus Voris and Ethan Reiff. Based on the comic book by Brett Lewis and R. A. Jones. With Chow Yun Fat, Seann William Scott, Jaime King and Karel Roden. Rated PG-13 (violence, sexual themes, language), 103 minutes. Now playing at Bay Area theaters.
