No Spoilers
I found this fun little film perusing Pluto TV. If you don’t know about Pluto TV and like to watch television and you like to have a nice variety of programming similar to that of CableTV but for free, then you might want to take a look at Pluto TV. But this article is not about Pluto TV, but about a fun little film called Kung Fu Yoga which I had passed up watching a few times so while I was getting started to get some work done for the day, I sat down to watch Kung Fu Yoga as the background ambiance as I thought about what to write an article about.
This is a Chinese film from Chinese writer and director Stanley Tong who brought us many hits like the ‘Police Story’ franchise, ‘Rumble in the Bronx’, and the great TV Series ‘Martial Law’ where Stanley took the reins on the ‘Shanghai Express’, and ‘This Shogun for Hire’ episodes. Well, you would know about Stanley Tong and his entrepreneurial spirit for making movies and TV shows if you were Chinese and in China. Additionally, if you were Chinese, you would know he’s gods gift to Chinese cinema and a veritable Tarantino in his own right. Also, you’d know that Stanley Tong and Jackie Chan, a Chinese American actor… No, he’s a Chinese Chinese actor and has been making films in China since his teens. …You would know that Stanley Tong and Jackie Chan have had a relationship making movies for over 30 years.
Okay, now that we’ve got a little more background on the movie on the short biography of our illustrious Stanley Tong, who makes great movies btw, we can get into the movie.
The movie starts out as a period piece in imperial China and a lone Chinese fighter fights off an entire Indian (from India) battalion it seems. It’s the olden days so the Indian fighting force is on elephants. The scene plays out over what seems to be a desert bordering on an oasis set at the foot of some mountains and the fight scene and cinematography is mind-blowing until you see facial close-ups and realize the whole scene was CGI, but it sure did look beautiful. A military envoy is sent to retrieve this lone Chinese warrior but dies during his attempt. The lone Chinese warrior then meets with his own battalion and in the deep of winter must travel back to China over the Himalayas. However, during the course of their travel over the mountains, they encounter a frozen lake which they are not sure will hold up with all the men and horses and our lone Chinese warrior says he will scout out a path across the frozen lake so the battalion can get across and all this during a winter blizzard whiteout. It’s at this point the film cuts to the present day, and we start getting all the back story.
All of the above happens in the first 5 minutes of the movie so no spoilers are upcoming. This was a very fast-paced enjoyable Jackie Chan kung fu movie in the current era with a full cast of Indian actors and actresses which made for a very colorful but enjoyable movie. If you’ve seen other Jackie Chan movies your well aware of his penchant for acrobatics and that wacky sense of humor he is. Jackie Chan shines in all his moments and I really can’t go into much more without spoiling the movie.
This is definitely a movie that can be enjoyed by anyone. It’s a thrill ride featuring faux historical events and some great cinematography plus it’s a movie that can be watched by the whole family. I just happened to be around for the start of this movie as I started working on something else and I ended up forgetting about my responsibilities and just enjoyed this film for it’s run time. This is typically not how I operate, or it’s exactly how I operate; either way, if you’ve got a couple hours to burn and want get engrossed in some action packed fantasy land, check out Kung Fu Yoga, you won’t be disappointed.
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