Search - A Kid From Tibet on DVD

Director- Yuen Biao. Producer- Yuen Biao. Action director-

morgoth | omaha, NE | 10/17/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"And the star of the movie- you guessed it, Yuen Biao.



Similiar to Peacock King, Yuen Biao plays a young Tibetan Lama who has magical powers. This movie is a little bit better than Peacock King and the story is much different. Biao is sent to Hong Kong to retrieve a Golden bottle (actually more of a pot) that prevents the Black Section from taking over Tibet. err, something like that... This is Yuen Biao's first (and only) try at directing and he didn't focus much on storytelling. The person who has the Golden bottle wants it to go back to Tibet so it can be with its master, but the evil Yuen Wah gets to the Golden bottle before Biao can get it. Problem is, Biao has the cap to the Golden bottle and its magic won't work without the cap. In a very funny scene Yuen Wah tries to trick Biao, but fails, and it leads to a fun final fight.



Yuen Biao is great in this movie. His character has lived in Tibet all of his life, so when he comes to Hong Kong he has no idea what anything is. Cars, phones, everything is new to him. I thought they could have capitalized on this a bit more, but Biao actually does a good job by not overdoing these types of jokes. Yuen Wah is just as wicked as can be. He worked with Biao on many movies and they are usually very good together, and this movie is no exception. Jet Li's real life wife (though not at the time) Nina Li stars as Yuen Wah's sister and she looks incredibly evil, and also incredibly hot! She was a great actress and really plays this role well. She is so good at being evil. The last person I should mention is Michelle Reis. She shows Biao around Hong Kong and she gives a good comedic performance. So to sum it up briefly all of the actors and actresses do a fine job.



Some of this movie is done on sets, but all of the location shots in Tibet are absolutely stunning. The scenes that take place in Hong Kong are also well shot. You can tell that Biao had a great time making this movie.



The cartoon like special effects are extremely crude and unfortunately take away some of the enjoyment of watching the movie. There is also a lot of wirework and you can clearly see the wires most of the time. It's like they didn't even try and hide them.



Overall I have to say I wasn't blown away by this movie, but it is still a lot of fun. I enjoy watching Yuen Biao. He is a good actor and his acrobatic skills are second to none. If you enjoy this movie, then make sure to check out The Iceman Cometh. The action and comedy are MUCH better.





Now to the fights. There is really not much action to speak of. The first fight is very brief and Biao has to take care of some thugs and rescue Michelle Reis. He gets in a few kicks, hits a couple guys on the head with a cooking pot, and it only lasts a minute or two. Not really a good fight, but this scene is saved by some good comedy.



Next fight Nina Li tries to take the Golden bottle's cap from Biao. She tries to seduce him with her cleavage and almost succeeds, but her plan fails and it turns into a fight scene. She uses a whip and Yuen Biao has to use his acrobatic skills to defend himself. He does one jaw dropping backwards flip on a car. This fight is about 3 minutes long, with only about 30 seconds of hand to hand combat, but still a good fight.



Yuen Biao and Yuen Wah's first encounter turns into a fun little fight. First Biao fights Wah's thugs and does some nice acrobatic kicks, but then uses his magic and the fight only lasts for about a minute. Then Wah comes in beats Biao way too quickly. A decent stunt ends this 10 second fight.



The finale is where the fighting finally gets good, just not good enough. Yuen Wah is every bit as agile as Biao. They both throw some fast punches and kicks, and the hand to hand is fierce, but unfortunately it only lasts about a minute. They end up using swords and the rest of the fight is slightly above average.



So overall not nearly enough action but still a fun movie.





3/5



The World Video DVD has good picture quality. There are tons of scratches and a lot of speckling, but it is still good picture quality. It is widescreen which is nice, and there are only 4 or 5 unreadable words on the imbedded subtitles. Sound quality is very good. No special features or anything, but overall a good release. Much better quality than most World Video DVDs."