Saviour Monk, The (1975) Review

"The Saviour Monk" Chinese DVD Cover

Director: Leung Chit Foo
Producer: Chang Yan-Tao
Cast: Doris Lung Chung Erh, Tong Wai, Philip Ko Fei, Chin Chi Min, Ma Cheung, Yuen Sam, Lee Ying, Tit Mang Chau
Running Time: 87 min.

By Paul Bramhall

The Saviour Monk is a tricky movie to review – it looks, feels, and sounds like an old school kung fu movie. It has a cast which includes familiar old school faces like Doris Lung and Philip Ko, and, well, what 70’s Hong Kong movie with the word ‘monk’ in its title doesn’t feature the monks in question busting out some kung fu moves?

The Saviour Monk is that movie, as in its compact runtime (it clocks in at under 90 minutes), apart from some brief and decidedly average swordplay action, not a single punch or kick is thrown. So, what are we left with? In place of a kung fu spectacle, director Leung Chit Foo appears to have set out to sincerely tell the tale of a suitor to the throne, who decides to forego his birthright in order to become a monk.

There’s some onscreen text at the beginning of the movie which could well explain that proceedings are loosely based on a true story, but unfortunately it’s impossible for me to tell, as none of it was subtitled. The subtitles do kick in for the characters dialogue, even if they look like they were made on a typewriter that’s been dropped on the floor, wildly shaken, and stomped on for good measure. The quality of the subtitle appearance aside, The Saviour Monk did actually add a new word to my vocabulary, when the father of the would-be monk yells at him, “You! the recalcitrant!” Sadly the range of vocabulary is let down later on by such lines as, “Please sit down up.”

The monk himself is played by Tong Wai, who’s righteous appearance often saw him starring in wuxia productions such as Majesty Cat and The Smart Cavalier, as well as featuring in the occasional Shaw Brothers production such as Naval Commandos. With a host of genre talent playing against type, and the selling point of watching a rich prince on his journey to become a monk, you may wonder if there’s any reason at all to watch The Saviour Monk. Thankfully, there is. Those reasons mainly come in the form of director Chit Foo’s rather bizarre production design decisions, which pop up with enough regularity to keep you watching.

When Wai is told by his father that he has to marry the daughter of another provinces royal family, in order to try and discover their military secrets, he reluctantly agrees to go through with it. On their first night together as a married couple, Wai looks at his new wife, and suddenly finding himself tempted by the flesh, reminds himself via voice over that “Sex means empty.” When he next looks at his wife, she’s a jangling open mouthed plastic skeleton. Of course, he’s appropriately turned off. Worrying that his wife is still frisky though, he tells her to light up a joss stick, and together they proceed to run circles around a small table for nearly a whole minute. What makes these scenes so hilarious, is that they appear to have been filmed with a genuine sincerity and seriousness.

As a reward for not giving into his human desires, Wai is visited by the ghost of a monk who’s been inexplicably following him around since the start of the movie, and taps him on the head with a brush, making all of his hair disappear. Having achieved his goal of becoming a monk (seemingly by doing nothing more than resisting having sex with the woman he was forced to marry), Wai doesn’t even bother to wake her up, simply abandoning her in bed and setting off on his monks journey. This sets up the main structure of the plot, which finds Wai stumbling across a cult called the ‘Heaven Religion’, who want to control the population, while at the same time his wife and father are in hot pursuit after she was given the one night stand treatment (minus the sex part).

The leader of the ‘Heaven Religion’ is played by kung fu legend Philip Ko, decked out to look like a Chinese version of Dracula in black robes and pale makeup, it almost seems like a crime that he doesn’t throw a single shape. His base seems to be in some kind of underground cave, albeit a cave which has automatic doors, and when we’re first introduced to his evil schemes it’s through one of the daughters of a village elder, who’s been possessed by his evil spell. The daughter is played by another familiar face from the jade screen, Doris Lung.

Lung had an interesting career in the Hong Kong movie industry, active for the best part of a decade from the early 70’s through to the early 80’s, some sources report that she had an unstable personality, and attempted suicide three times during this time. Whether these facts are true or not is difficult to confirm, but regardless of their authenticity, in The Saviour Monk she gets to unleash her wild side via plenty of manic laughter (dubbed over by a man, no doubt inspired by The Exorcist, made 2 years prior) and arm flailing.

Most interesting of her scenes though is one in which she performs a sexual dance routine in Philip Ko’s lair, not at all dissimilar to the go-go dance scene in The Association, only with slightly less revealing clothing. Both The Association and The Saviour Monk were made in 1975, so it begs the question of which one introduced the ‘sexy dance in a cults hidden lair’ scene first. While Lung’s dance doesn’t involve a see through gown, the scene does get points for incorporating a lineup of male and female backup dancers, some of whom wear expressions which look like they’re questioning how they got roped into such a performance.

The Saviour Monk saves its pièce de résistance for around the mid-way point, when out of nowhere, it decides it’s going to be a kaiju flick, and Philip Ko summons a giant bug eyed monster to erupt out of the ground, stomping everything in its path. Ok, so the only thing in its path are a few model trees, but it still counts. Unfazed by the monster, probably because the scenes were filmed separately, Wai calmly prays to the Buddha, and summons a Chinese dragon to appear and throw down with the bug eyed beast. While the scene is arguably sub-standard compared to its Japanese counterparts of the same era, the novelty of witnessing a kaiju battle in the middle of a movie which it really has no place in being, makes The Saviour Monk worth a watch.

Thankfully the bug eyed monster makes a comeback for the finale, but not before more onscreen randomness such as watching Wai parting a river as if he’s Moses, and Lung being shrunken to the size of a small doll. The Saviour Monk is perhaps best viewed as a watch once curiosity, and as Wai’s character felt after spending a night with his wife, once should be enough.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 6/10