Le talisman

My name is Jo. I live in BKK. I've already seen the movie here in Thailand and I think it's great especially the Tibetan part. I'd say well done to Michelle Yeoh because she has done such a good job. I'm impressed. Keep on going, Michelle! We love you. This is a greeting from your fans in Thailand. " JO & FRIENDS "

"The Touch" is an adventure movie in the tradition of "Raiders of the Lost Ark". It tells the story of a Chinese family of artists who specialized in difficult jumps for many generations. Only such a jump, seeming impossible to anyone else, will make it possible to obtain a holy treasure. Two family members are kidnapped by a treasure hunter (Richard Roxburgh) to get the treasure for him. Yin (Michelle Yeoh), being the head of the family after the demise of her father, pursues them into the desert.

Genre movie without big surprises, but well made (except for the final fight which looks like computer game inspired green screen effects), featuring a female star who successfully avoids any Lara Croft similarities and uses her scarf both as a weapon and a swing rope. "The Touch" was shot in places where nobody else was allowed to film before. The landscapes of Tibet are impressive and make the movie more memorable than the thin plot deserves.

As a fan of Yeoh's films, I desperately felt I needed to see this film, I was impressed with the trailer but then it all led to disappointment when I saw the film. I was aware that the film was receiving bad reviews but when I saw it, it was not as bad as I thought it was but there were some major faults.

The use of incredible locations in the film was a plus, the story line sounded perfect for an adventure film and there was that wonderful combination of action, romance and comedy

I felt that one of the main flaws with the film was the ensemble of actors; though they do look good in their roles, the way they portrayed their characters was rather poor.

Yeoh's performance was not of a satisfactory level, but provided she got to use some martial arts in the film, I was happy.

Ben Chaplin, who plays Eric,provides most of the comic relief for the film, particularly when he attempts to sing a love song in Mandarin Chinese but forgets the words half way through the song. I am still wondering whether the character Bob was even meant to be funny at all as he was just pathetic throughout the film.

Brandon Chang and Margaret Wang who play Lily and Tong are newcomers, of all the actors in the film, their performances were the most disappointing; my reason is mainly that when they spoke, it sounded as if they were on a "lets talk English programme", they were expressionless and bland with their acting.

Another flaw was the use of special effects in the film, particularly in the climax that takes place in the burning cave, at the beginning of the scene, the flames looked real, but whoever was in charge of the cinematography made a huge mistake after applying the flames because the fire looked incredibly fake afterwards as well as a list of other faults concerning the CGI.

Despite the faults outweighing the good points, I did enjoy the film, but it was merely average.

After TOMORROW NEVER DIES Michelle Yeoh was on top of the world. But instead of continuing her Hollywood career (which knowing Hollywood would have been restricted to very stereotypical Asian woman roles anyway), she began her own new production company and launched THE TOUCH, an Indiana Jones like caper, as her first picture. International distributors lined up around the block to get dibs on this hot property, shot mostly in English to get that international angle. But what was finally released was poorly paced by director Peter Pau, who seems unable to bring energy to a scene to save his life, and saddled with the worst CGI effects I have seen in any movie in a long, long time. The retro-oriental adventure concerns a map which reveals the location of some magic Tibetan artifact which looks like a glowing snow-cone, and retrieval of the artifact by Yeoh's family of acrobats, specially trained through many generations for that purpose. Hint to the filmmakers: When making a movie about a band of acrobats, please cast people who can actually do a little acrobatics. Instead, we have the likes of newcomer Brandon Chang, who not only does not seem capable of a somersault, is a terrible actor to boot. Ben Chaplin is Yeoh's love interest, and Richard Roxburgh is the British bad guy. Although improving the CGI won't improve the bad acting and plodding direction, maybe it would fix the climactic ending, in which fire, stone, rope, and bodies in motion all absolutely refused to obey any known laws of physics. Michelle Yeoh deserves better than starring in her own vanity pictures.

I managed to catch the premier of Datuk Michelle Yeoh's film during its premier in Malaysia on August 1st. I can say that Datuk Yeoh has done a wonderful job, as a producer and also as the main lead in this film.

The Touch tells the tale of a relic treasure known as the Sharira which is said to contain the pure essence of a Buddhist Holy Man. To protect this great treasure, the Monks of Dun Huang hid it. When the time has come to retrieve it, the monks turned to a family of acrobats. For hundreds of years, the family trained, passing on the skills required to retrieve the Sharira when the time comes.

Yin Fei (Datuk Yeoh) and her brother Tong (Brandon Chang in his debut), are the heirs to the skills of the long lineage of acrobats. One fateful day, Eric (Ben Chaplin), a man who used to be Yin's old flame shows up with the Heart of Dun Huang, a medallion which is the key to unlocking the secret location of the Sharira. Together, they embark on a perilous journey to discover what Yin's ancestors once guarded. And what do you know, there is always the rich, merciless, unscrupulous man, Karl(Richard Roxburgh), who will stop at nothing to get his greedy hands on the prized treasure.

Pretty much your average treasure hunter movies with a little touch of Indiana Jones. There is almost a Tomb Raider reference when Karl offered Yin his resources to find the Sharira together. Fortunately, Yin just rejected his offer by kickin' his butt. By far, the scenes featured in the film were breathtaking ( China and Tibet ), thanks to director Peter Pau, who also doubles as the film's cinematographer. Action scenes were well pulled off and linked using spectacular special effects. Just don't miss the 'fight' scene between Yin and Tong in the beginning of the movie which is just reminescence of the fight between the Monkey God and Na Za.

Brandon Chang who had just made his debut in this film, may one day be the next Jet Li. It is heard that his now under Datuk Yeoh's tutelage in martial arts and Kung Fu. Datuk Yeoh, after the phenomenal success of Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , still manage to captivate the audiences with her acting and also her butt kickin'.

Way to go Datuk Yeoh!!