Director: Mang Hoi

Starring: Lam Ching-Ying, Wu Ma, Sammo Hung, Chin Kar-lok

Featuring: Mang Hoi, Ken Low,

When you have a movie that has a villain that looks like he stepped off of King Diamond’s tour bus, you can do either one of two things: A) dismiss the film as low-budget trash, or B) acknowledge that the picture is low-budget trash and have fun with it. This particular reviewer took the latter approach, and The Tantana ended up providing a fairly good time.

The Tantana’s plot tells the story of Against-Nature Boy (the aforementioned heavy metal reject, played by Ken Low) who is some sort of deity obsessed with taking over heaven. The nice gods’ only hope is Sharp-Witted Buddha, but they don’t know exactly who that is. Most signs point to Hoi (Mang Hoi), who is being trained by Wu Ma. The top Buddhist monk, Lam Ching-ying, heads off to find Hoi. But along the way, he stumbles upon a powerful fighter, Dragon (Chin Kar-lok), who might be the true Sharp-Witted Buddha.

So, yeah, as you might expect from a movie with characters named Against-Nature Boy, the story is pretty much rubbish, and it’s made even more incomprehensible via the craptacular subtitles. And the acting isn’t anything to write home about. It’s pretty obvious most of the stars involved were just in this production to cash a quick paycheck, and that must still have been pretty small, because this movie looks like it was made from the day’s proceeds of hobo-esque scrap metal recycling.

But for all that is wrong with it, The Tantana does still manage to provide some entertainment. It’s not a “good” movie in any way, but it moves along at a nice clip, has some decent action scenes, and probably most importantly, there’s no pretentiousness. The film-makers seemed to have not taken matters too seriously, and neither should you. Just crack open a couple of frosty adult beverages, turn off your brain, and pop in this movie — you just might end up pleasantly surprised.

Film Review by: Alan Dodds

You can buy this DVD now at: www.hongkong-store.com

pleasantly surprised.