The Yin and the Yang of Mr. Go

I picked up a copy of this movie after seeing the other comment listed. After watching it, I can say without a doubt that this movie is an incredible waste of celluloid. Like the other reviewer, my jaw hit the floor. But it was not due to any comedic value, rather to the amazing wretchedness of this film. My friends and I were practically put into comas by the movies anesthetic powers. This is the type of movie that you either throw out the window of your moving car, or take out of the vcr and smash with a hammer.

Burgess Meredith wrote and directed this movie, as well as appearing in a small role. The film was made in 1970 when it was still considered appropriate for Caucasian actors to play Asian characters. Thus we have Burgess as an Asian character, complete with whispy mustache, and James Mason is the evil Mr. Go, with fake teeth, eye makeup, and - going against the character - a British accent. While Mason was British, the accent is ridiculous for the character. You get the feeling that Mason was trying to retain some dignity, and was fighting to avoid a stereotypical accent brought on by the fake teeth.

The movie is very tedious. You'll feel like you've been watching it for hours and hours. There's no real character development, and no one in the film is particularly likeable. Mr. Go is supposed to be very evil, yet we never see him do anything that makes us hate him. Nero, played by Jeff Bridges, was just as unlikeable as Mr. Go. Perhaps more so, as he is a deserter from the army, cheats on his girlfriend (and doesn't understand why she hasn't come home yet), takes money from Mr. Go in payment for having sex with a US agent - which is filmed in order to blackmail the agent into helping Mr. Go get a laser of some sort. Nero is supposed to be a writer and admires James Joyce, but we are never convinced that he is more than an untalented, drunk kid (Bridges looks very young).

Oh the pain.... the only reason you may want to see this movie is if you like one of the lead actors and are interested in seeing everything they have done. Otherwise, do yourself a favor and stay away from this movie. Oh yes, there are some really annoying songs that will get into your head, and not let you live in peace. "The yin and the yang...."

(There Are Some Spoilers) In all the world you couldn't find a more unscrupulous unprincipled and sleazy individual as the "Evil" Mr. Go, James Mason, an international power broker working out of his home base in Hong Kong.

Mr.Go works in concert with the equally "Evil" and corrupt Japanese banker Ito Suzki, King Hu, who both would even sell their own mothers out, if the price was right, to the highest bidder. Having US weapons expert Robert Bannister,Peter Lyn Hayes, rescued from a plane that was shot down and crashed in Communist China Mr. Go wants to get information on the Side-Winder Laser Beam that the USA has perfected that would not only make nuclear war obsolete but impossible. This Side-Winder Laser would render nuclear weapons useless by destroying their ability to detonate and thus cause them to fall harmlessly to the ground like a coconut falling off a coconut tree.

Knowing that Bannister wouldn't talk and that if he has him killed he'll never get the secret of the Side-Winder Laser Mr.Go lets him go free and then gets in touch with Tah Ling, Irene Tsu, his former lover and her obnoxious boyfriend Nero Finnighan, Jeff Bridges, a deserter from the US Army in Vietnam, and frustrated James Joyce wannabe writer. Mr.Go wants to get to get the uncooperative Bannister into a compromising position so that he can blackmail him into giving him that important information about the Side-Winder laser beam.

Nero getting Bannister drunk and then taking him to a whorehouse he get him with his pants down as well as having Bannsiter do some very kinky and crazy stuff ,together with himself, on film. When later confronted with the evidence of him being a sexual pervert Bannister gives in and give Mr. Go all the information about the Side-Winder Laser Beam so that his bosses from CIA Chief Parker, Brodrick Crawford, on down so they don't find out about his sick and sleazy secret life.

Living up to his reputation as a two-timing lowlife and first class sleaze-ball Mr. Go, with the help of Suzuki, has both Nero & Tah Ling kidnapped and later to be killed so that they'll never be able to spill the beans on what the two did to Bannister in getting him to open up and talk. It's just then when a miracle happened and the "Evil" Mr.Go is made to do a complete 180 degree turnaround and became a good kind and unselfish person saving both Nero and Tah Ling from the fate that he and Suzuki had in store for them. In the end Mr. Go even gives away the blueprint of the Side-Winder laser beam, to every nation on earth, making the horrors of a nuclear war impossible and thus truly bringing "Peace in our Time".

The Budda who during the cycle of the fifth month every fifty years emits a beam, if world conditions warrants, from his third eye that hits a chosen individual and cause him or her to change the course of history. This time the wise Budda choose the "Evil" Mr. Go and made him the person who would end the fear of nuclear destruction and bring peace to all Mankind.

You just don't know what to make of this movie since it's about a very serious subject but comes across, especially with it's goody-goody bubble gum music soundtrack, like a cross between a 1960's Frankie Avalon Annette Funicello beach party movie and a late 1950's and early 1960's teenage Rock&Roll musical.

The action chase scenes shoot-outs and fights are hilarious but it doesn't seem to me that they were made to be that way but were so badly done that they came off looking ridicules and silly. The US government gets the British M16 to try and bring in both Dr. Go and Nero together with Tha ling as well as Bannister by having their top spy Mr. Leo Zimmerman, Jack MagGowran,put on the case. Zimmerman ends up screwing things up even more by first getting smashed over the head with a coffee pot by Nero then later getting himself shot, by what looked like Ito Suzuki's thugs. Thus allowing not only Nero Mr. Go and Tah Ling to escape but having them release the secret blueprint about the Side-Winder Laser Beam to the world! This puts Zimmerman and his spy organization the British M16, as well as the CIA & KGB, out of business.

Directed by veteran actor Burgess Meredith who also had a role in the movie as Dolphin a weirdo Chinese acupuncture druggist wise man and what looks like some kind of a high priest as well as and undercover sleazy power broker, much like Mr.Go, all rolled into one. The movie "The Yin Yang of Mr. Go" is worth seeing not only to see for yourself that a movie like it was actually made but even more surprising just how the makers of the film were able to get top actors, back in 1970, like James Mason Broderick Crawford Jack MagGowan as well as Burgess Meredith to be in it? That has to be without a doubt the ultimate $64,000.00 question.

I remember the first time I saw that movie...my jaw was stretch and was probably touching the floor. I didn't know then and I'm still wondering if this was a masterpiece from an unknown director or a huge waste of celluloid. Honest to god I found that film to be one of the funniest I have ever seen. Problem I don't know whether it was meant to be that way !!! Watch it, enjoy it... P.A.D.

Burgess Meredith's only attempt at film-making is a strange mesh of Eastern Philosophy and The 60's Batman show. The first thing you should know is that the narrator of this film is actually the Buddha and the premise is, more or less, the Fu Man Chu/Dr. No bad guy Mr. Go is inexplicably "enlightenened" by the Buddha's eye into becoming good. See strange psychedelic homosexual escapades with Jeff Bridges and a nauseating go-go soundtrack that will drill right into your head. All the fight scenes are right out of Batman. Good if somewhat boring movie, but you've got to love the strange premise. It's the ultimate 60's Buddhist experience.

In his autobiography Meredith claims his first solo directing effort was hijacked by the producers, re-edited with additional footage of Broderick Crawford and an animated Buddha, and released in Europe without his permission. But even if you ignore the added footage and voice over, this is still an awful movie.

Notable for a freshman effort by Jeff Bridges (my copy of the movie gives him an intro credit) and an inexplicable appearance in a small role by Hong Kong director King Hu, "Mr. Go" plays out like a demented episode of "Batman." Much of the dialogue makes no sense, you could drive a Hummer through the plot holes, and the musical score sounds like something The Cowsills might have done on a particularly bad day. Unless you're a die-hard fan of truly abominable movies, stay away from this one.