You won't be disappointed!

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

I wanted to but couldn't!

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

I want to make it clear to everyone (but it will sound really harsh so please pardon me) This movie is the worst movie in the entire universe. It is that horrible and in my opinion this movie don't even deserve a single point for even an efforts. Starting from the script, which is so indescribable how bad it is (it was so unrealistic and cheap, very very cheap character and storyline). The casting is terrible and don't to mention the acting even cheaper than storyline.The CGI is as bad as the movie and I STRONGLY advise any one and everyone not to watch it , it was a total nightmare for me.I am sorry to say all this but it is that bad .Rating : 0.5/10

Everyone talks about how the CG is what ruined The Touch. For myself, I could have lived with the crappy CG, if only the story hadn't been messed up so horribly. The Touch has an old, very overused plot. But even given that, the filmmakers didn't even follow through on it in any logical way. I mean, even if they'd just totally copied some old 40s adventure story scene for scene and plugged in some wire-fu the film would have at least made some sense. Here's the biggest example of what I mean: The whole freaking premise of the story is that Michelle Yeoh and company have been trained generation after generation to be super-acrobats so that they will be THE ONLY ONES able to perform the near-impossible series of acrobatic feats necessary to get to the secret magical medallion. Right? Well, that's what you're led to believe in the first half of the film. But in the big climax of the story it turns out that ABSOLUTELY ANYONE and EVERYONE is capable of performing these feats, including the head villain and all his henchmen. Every one of them, down to the clumsiest jerk, finds it a simple task to get into the secret cave (or whatever it was). And virtually every character in the film ends up swinging and flipping around in a bad CG conflagration.What's the freakin' point of building up this entire premise of the super acrobats and then just throwing it away at the end? The movie was full of massive logical lapses like that (similar to those in Jackie Chan's equally craptacular film of the same year "The Medallion.") . And by the way, when I first saw this a few years ago, I thought that henchman "Bob" was head and shoulders better than anyone else in the film. Now I find out that he was played by rising standup comedy superstar Dane Cook! Go figure!

The Touch is Michelle Yeoh's first movie as producer, executive producer and writer (as well as star), and the first movie from her new production company. Now Michelle Yeoh is a smart and sensible woman (and she can kick ass with the best), so expectations for this big budget production with Peter Pau in the director's chair were naturally high - certainly I had high hopes for it. That changed when it came out and it seemed to be universally acclaimed a major disappointment. I almost decided to pass it over completely, but you know sometimes you have to see a certain movie even if you know it's going to be bad, 'cause it's still a 'significant' or 'important' film in some sense.Thanks to all the negative press, my expectations for the movie were much lower when I sat down to watch it. I mean, we're talking the kind of expectations that make The Blacksheep Affair look like a good film... so it's not really a surprise that I found myself enjoying The Touch. But I mean I found myself *really* enjoying it. A lot!First with the bad, the reasons people were presumably disappointed. There are some very cheesy moments in places, moments and lines that feel too artificially inserted, too 'script'. There's some bad acting in places - some from the bad guy's goons but most notably from Brandon Chang, who plays Michelle's younger brother (his girlfriend was pretty bad too, but she didn't have as much chance to show it). And most notably there are some really terrible special effects in the final climax - about 15 years out of date But then with the good! First surprise, it's really funny! Most of the humour comes from the guest Gwei Los Ben Chaplin and Richard Roxburgh, both of whom have really good characters and some brilliant lines. They also break a long tradition of white actors in HK films by being really good, and not at all annoying. Richard Roxburgh's villain in particular is a charismatic classic. Then there's the story, which is all quite cheesy but reasonably involved and well developed. It's a good old fashioned adventure yarn. And then there's the production values... especially the great sets and locations filmed beautifully by Peter Pau. The soundtrack is really good too, though it sounds very Hollywood (I'm not normally a fan of Hollywood's overblown and generally forgettable soundtracks, but I like this one).It must be said that The Touch does in many ways feel more like a Hollywood movie than a Hong Kong movie - the fact that it is 95% filmed in English undoubtedly being part of it. Hong Kong film makers normally fail miserably when they attempt to make a Hollywood style movie, but I think that this case represents a near success. If it weren't for those dreadful special effects I think it would have a very good chance of competing on the Hollywood distribution circuits. And I believe the production company have taken the unusual step of hiring a different firm (the normally excellent Centro) to completely redo the special effects for a US release. This may be one case where the US version of a HK movie actually improves on the original.One thing that is expected of a Hong Kong movie starring Michelle Yeoh is obviously a high calibre of action. This is perhaps where the movie disappoints, as there isn't as much action in the film as I expect most viewers would have liked. There are a couple of fight scenes that show off Michelle's skills well, but Philip Kwok's choreography isn't all that exciting unfortunately. Not bad, but not up to the standard of Michelle's fights in Royal Warriors, for example. Especially disappointing is the final climax, which should have been a raw bone crunching showcase of martial arts prowess but is in fact a limp showcase of terrible CGI. Bad call to go the special effects route, Michelle!If I hadn't had my expectations lowered by those who saw the movie before me, I guess there's a fair chance I'd have ended up disappointed in The Touch too. Because I wasn't expecting too much I found much more to enjoy than I bargained for. In fact, I'd say I enjoyed the movie more than any other 2002 Hong Kong movie I can think of (not saying much admittedly, since 2002 was a terrible year for HK movies). It's a movie I will happily watch again (though I'll wait for the US release perhaps) and have no hesitation recommending to others.

It seemed like this Hong Kong adventure story had potential, but never really came together. I think the script was just too lacking, despite it's similarities to one of my favorites...Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Only Michelle Yeoh's acting stands out, while the others range from mediocre to over-the-top and unbelievable. It's nicely filmed in some scenic locations and the action scenes are fun...Yeoh kicks butt! But alas, the film as a whole let me down.** (out of 4)