Reviewed By Paul Cooke

A mystical relic created by the religious faith of the Buddhist monks is foretold as the Sharira. Purported to contain the pure essence of a Holy man and possessed of mystic powers that may transform mankind for the better , or in the hands of evil avarice for the worse. Seven hundred years ago the key to the Sharira , in the form of a Tibetan sacred ornate stone named The Heart Of Dun Huang , was entrusted to a family of acrobats. Many generations later the modern day incarnations of the travelling acrobatic family become embroiled in a scurrilous machination to discover the secret of the Sharira.

Michelle Yeoh stars as Yin , who due to the death of her father and head of the family of present day acrobats , is the matriarchal figure and all is well. The sudden and unexpected re-emergence of Eric , as played by Ben Chaplin , into her life with the purloined Heart Of Dun Huang starts a chain of events that lead to discovering the true effect of the Sharira upon both altruistic and rapacious mankind. Eric was taken in as a young teenage boy by Yin’s family when her father took pity upon a hungry thief caught stealing food. Both Yin and Eric grow up together but Eric’s life of crime came to the fore and he becomes caught up in acquiring rare antiquities for high paying illegal collectors. One such collector enlists his skills to attain The Heart but Eric’s knowledge of the relic’s importance , and connection to the heritage of the family who adopted him leads him to steal it back.

The lead bad guy role , of collector of worldly rarities Karl , is played with a subtle dry irony and competent screen presence by Richard Roxburgh. His greed for the greatest prize known to man soon introduces him into the lives of Yin and her family , and when Yin’s young brother runs off with The Heart she and Eric follow and journey to Dun Huang , with Karl and his goons in pursuit. Interspersed between the spectacular backdrop of beautiful scenery are several fun staged fight sequences that showcase star Michelle Yeoh’s very limber body in motion technique as well as being a dab hand with her scarf , which is frequently used to save the day. What sadly does not save the day is the often shoddy use of CGI which includes the computer generated scarf and proliferates proceedings come the finale , shamelessly letting down what could have been a truly spectacular , ‘Raiders Of The Lost Ark’, stylised ending.

The makers must be duly commended though for their bold attempt at recreating the look and feel of a Saturday Matinee Movie and if you threw Jackie Chan into the mix you could easily imagine this being a spin off from his , ‘Armour Of God’ franchise. Throw in the ubiquitous , ‘The Matrix’ , rotational camera angles and computer game fight moves , along with a very well mixed DTS English language dialogue soundtrack and you do have a fun mergence. The overall blend , however , doesn’t quite produce the perfect mix , but all the right ingredients are on show to keep its audience watching. What , ‘The Touch’ , delivers is Fun and no one involved takes proceedings too seriously , as is typified by the aimless buffoonery of Karl’s henchman bumbling Bob , who provides many moments of comic relief as enacted by Dane Cook. Don’t pick up , ‘The Touch’ , expecting a big budgeted hands on high calibre Action Adventure , but do check it out for a feel good fun ride and you won’t be too disappointed. Much like her character , Michelle Yeoh’s much anticipated star vehicle has the Yin but not quite the Yang.

Bitch Slap Ratings:

Film: 3.0

Picture: 4.0

Sound: 4.0

Extras: 3.5

Overall: 3.5

Format : DVD

Release : Megastar

Coding : All Region NTSC

Sound : English DTS / Dolby Digital 5.1

Extras : English Soundtrack / Mandarin / Cantonese Commentary Track

with Michelle Yeoh & Peter Pau / The Story / Making Of /

Music Video / Trailer / Asia Promotion Tour / Cast & Credits

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