As a huge fan of Michelle Yeoh, I was waiting with baited breath to see a beautifully photographed movie with her as the star. An English language movie that was supposed to have world-wide appeal, proof to everyone that she had the true star power she already had for me and many others. While the photography was gorgeous and her strength in the lead role was obvious, the story was weak. Worse yet, the action scenes seemed too slow and "choreographed-looking." The attempts at humor were not only poor, but got really annoying. Worst of all, Michelle played the role of a wonderfully dynamic, good-hearted, woman who still loves a heel, a former love and father of their son. Ben Chaplin does a good job of playing the role of a self-centered, unreliable, untrustworthy crook with absolutely no redeeming value. I know in real life lots of women love the worst men, so there's no escapism here. But this movie makes it look like its cool to be a jerk, making it all the harder to watch. I bought the DVD for my Michelle collection. How many times I'll be able to watch it, I don't know.

Over the last 2 days I managed to waste 103 minutes of my life watching The Touch, Michelle Yeoh's movie after Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.While ambitious in many ways, it does not really succeed in any category:spoilers ahead-It tries hard to cater to both, western and asian audiences and fails miserably: The bad guy is your stereotypical blonde caucasian with some semi british accent, surrounded by dumb henchmen (mixed crowd) ... his motivations (going after some artifact) are never explained, though "immortality" is mentioned once-the "love story" (to please the chick audience) is laughable and has no credibility. It is also an utter waste of time.-the action is wanna-be up to date and totally destroyed in the final fight scene, which is, while setup quite nicely with lots of candles and fire, overshadowed by campy CGI effects, a set that looks just like a big soundstage, a totally wasted "sacrifice" (they let a cute female character we never even started to feel anything for die, last minute, no real reason, just so the audience can say "Awwwwwwww") and again, we just keep wondering WHY the characters are doing what they are doing ... -Hmm. Nice landscape shots, always a good idea ... especially when you havesomething as beautiful as the chinese desert .. looks a bit like a cheap version on Monument Valley :) Those shots are again totally wasted, don't do anything for story or setup .. and scream "it could have been better!-Why there is this family of acrobats and what is their point is never really used / explained. Or why they take in that western kid, who just stole stuff. (Why is this kid there anyway?)-The very set-up comedic moments make you squirm. Bad bad writing! -Acting ... was anybody actually "acting" in this? Felt more like line-reading my martial artists ... then again, I doubt that movie was ever going for any Oscars.Well .. i could go on .. but I already spent enough time on that chunk of doodoo ... just wanted to safe everybody else some time ...

Yeas, starts really great, maybe half a movie ... afterwards ... I haven't seen such a terrible spec-effects long ago ... really. Idea still great, but they missed some internal fire to finish started job...

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)