The Yin And The Yang Of Mr. Go

The Yin and the Yang of Mr. Go (1970)

Runtime: 89 minutes

Directed by: Burgess Meredith (!)

Starring: James Mason, Jack MacGowran, Irene Tsu, Meredith, Jeff Bridges (!!)

From: Ross Film Productions

Last night I saw two movies. It was this obscurity and a rewatch of an average at best giallo known as Five Dolls for an August Moon; my opinion on that hasn't changed. As for this movie... what an oddity it is. I give basic details about it below: 

This was a movie I did not even know about until last night, when I stumbled upon it and once I read the details, it was something I had to see as soon as I could, so that is what I did.

The plot: it's nonsense in Hong Kong (it was filmed there and in Toronto) where the villain is named Yin Yang Go; if that isn't preposterous enough, it's a “half-Mexican, half-Chinese” man played by... James Mason! Even more silly, Burgess Meredith plays The Dolphin, his Chinese doctor/acupuncturist, who of course uses alternative medicine. There are other familiar faces, like Broderick Crawford, Irene Tsu and Jack MacGowran, but would you believe that a famous face made his theatrical feature film debut here playing a character named NERO FINNEGAN, a James Joyce loving wannabe author? It is true... the role was played by none other than JEFF BRIDGES, no lie.

Personally, I wouldn't expect anything too weird from a movie directed and written by Meredith (again, no lie)* yet we get such things as Buddha narrating the film, a stereotypical lesbian, an old gay man-so unfortunately, a few homophobic slurs are uttered-blackmail, a “super mace”, a large Chinese man, a speargun, a wacky yet important weapon that's the MacGuffin of the plot, and more. It's all daffy and the soundtrack sounds like it should be for a promotional film for Hong Kong circa 1970's; you know, it's flower power and cheery and upbeat... that only adds to the surreal nature.

At first things are goofy yet I can still say it's watchable and fine. Then, things take an odd turn and things become real confused until the final few minutes. The entire movie is baffling overall but much of the second half, you don't want to scrutinize the plot too hard, that's all I am saying. I give it points for originality but I can still only say it's about average overall. Allegedly it's public domain so it's not difficult to find on YouTube, if you so dare.

* This is only second-hand information but apparently, in Meredith's autobiography he mentioned that the producers meddled with the movie and among other things, added the Buddha stuff and Broderick Crawford, who does only appear in footage not related to anything else in the movie. So they are partly to blame for how odd this is.