If you like your movie action over the top and off the wall, you can't do better than the latest Hong Kong import, "Savior of the Soul."
If you like things to make sense, however, you may want to look elsewhere.
Fans of Hong Kong martial arts films, however — such as the "Once Upon a Time in China" pictures that have shown recently at the Tower Theater — won't be disappointed. This is an especially exuberant — albeit uneven — blend of wild-eyed, fly-through-the-air violence, romance and slapstick comedy.
The action plot, centers on May-Chun and Chin, a pair of assassins who are plagued by the evil Fox, a villain cloaked in black who becomes a particularly deadly foe when he's high on a designer drug called Terrible Angel.
The romantic plot has May-Chun and Chin as star-crossed lovers, May-Chun sacrificing her real feelings to spare Chin when Fox goes after her.
And the comic elements are Chinese-style "nonsense comedy," slapstick gags that call to mind the oldest of ancient vaudeville routines. In fact, so much of these center on Chin's character that he is required to vacillate throughout the film from a smooth James Bond type to a klutzy Inspector Clouseau type and back again.
Movies like "Savior of the Soul" are not to be analyzed, however. Fans simply savor them for their outrageousness and there's more than enough here to please even the most demanding audience:
— There's the scene in which Fox attacks May-Chun in the women's restroom, entering through the mirror — at one point using a door from a toilet stall as a midair surfboard.
— Then there's the penultimate battle in a warehouse that employs huge bolts of white cloth, exploding knives, a "Superman" parody as Chin and Fox fly through the air and all kinds of indescribable mayhem.
— And the comic encounter with Terrible Doctor, who has invented an invisibility serum, a lengthy series of pantomime routines ending with Chin wrestling an invisible snake and accidentally killing it.
— I also liked the door that refused to close until Chin glared at it! (And I won't even get into the Breathless Bullet.)
The transitions from violence to comedy are rather jarring for the uninitiated and the blend is decidedly uneasy. But fans of the genre know what to expect and "Savior of the Soul" delivers the goods.
The film is not rated but the gory violence would likely get an R rating. There is also some profanity and the aforementioned drug usage.