If you saw The Great Emperor's Concubine, the monstrously costly HK historical epic from 1994 (and if you didn't, no loss), you can get a better feeling of how good Temptation of a Monk really is. Concubine had all the requisite violence and a plot as thick as soup, but ended up a cross between Quo Vadis and any Steve Reeves sword-and-sandal epic. Clara Law's Temptation is (aside from one or two deliberate lapses) closer to an austere samurai drama. Also unlike Concubine, it has a clearly defined plot line. In the 7th century Tang Dynasty, General Shi Yang-Sheng (Wu Hsin-Kuo) is tricked by his superior General Huo (Zhang Fengyi -- Leslie Cheung's Peking Opera partner in Farewell My Concubine) into relaxing defenses on the royal travellers he's protecting. Gen. Shi, now labelled a traitor, must evade waves of monarchal search-and-destroy parties. Shi and the remnants of his men join a Buddhist monastary with more of a religious than a spiritual bent; there, they're able to plan a way to kill the man who has now usurped the throne. Joan Chen plays the two major female roles: the deposed Princess Scarlet and seductress Violet. No "flying-people" fu here; in fact, there's no fu, period. The heroes fight with swords. Limbs are severed. There's blood, and lots of it. Most other HK actioners advertise their own brand of swaggering heroism, but here it's deflated. In fact, aside from the incongruous whorehouse scene, the film looks remarkably credible. It hinges on its magnificent set design and two stars. On one hand, Joan Chen is relaxed, naturalistic -- an anomaly in most any HK period epic. Then there's Wu Hsin-Kuo, who, whether in battle make-up or spattered with blood, looks as if he might explode under the pressure of his controlled rage. Set design and Chen make the film seem real; Wu gives the drive. Just about every scene works. Lots of comparisons come to mind just after seeing Temptation of a Monk; it's only af ter a while that you realize how many HK film conventions it leaves behind.

(3.5/4)



[Reviewed by Steve Spinali]