Watch The Yin and the Yang of Mr. Go For Free

Too much of everything

Sadly Over-hyped

Best movie of this year hands down!

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Just as he was to be 28 years later in The Big Lebowski, Jeff Bridges (or Jeffrey, in the credits) is cast as a sort of resourceful slacker trying to pick up a wad of money by playing at the edges of a game dominated by more dangerous people. They include some of the most watchable actors of the 20th century-- Burgess Meredith, James Mason, and Jack McGowran (the great interpreter of Beckett). Meredith manages some Chaplinesque moments, but for the most part these actors are wasted on embarrassingly heavy-handed material. The setting, in Hong Kong, is supposed to help keep our attention, but unfortunately it is unimaginatively photographed. Although the brightly harmonized music persistently hints that the film is a light-hearted put-on, only a few moments of the script are amusing. The story wends its confusing way to a feel-good ending that was perhaps old-fashioned peacenik Burgess Meredith's motivation for this rare excursion into writing and directing: it envisions a global defense against all airborne weapons for years to come.

What is wrong with people? Only two reviewers here at IMDb appear to have 'got' this film - etna3 and crankscorner, and I thank them for their insight.The Yin & Yang of Mr Go is probably the kinetic masterpiece of the cold war. It's a film so stoked in symbolism, meditation and nudity that Strindberg himself could have called it a wrap. In the end Burgess Meredith settles for Joyce in his script, which is almost the same thing.Following a voice-over by Christopher 'Bhudda' Lee, we meet James Mason as Mr Yin Yang Go, criminal, murderer, drug-addict and seducer, making ready to move into the big nuclear league. He tricks broke writer Jeff Bridges into a compromising love scene with a male American scientist, then blackmails the scientist to get plans for a new nuclear defence system. But Christopher Lee has other plans for Yin Yang Go - the nuclear plot turns to meditative karma and Go becomes the focal point of all human history, past, present and future. In short, Go goes nuts and becomes a kind of karmic superhero, saves the world etc, you know the score. If this is the effect radiation has on karma we could all use a shot.Throw in Mason's real life wife, Clarrisa Kay, as a butch sort of lesbian, Jack McGowran as nominal CIA, a script that will not come into its own for another 500 years, and you have a classic.This film really needs to be restored directly from the negative, in its true colour and original aspect ratio. If I were a monastic or Bhuddist monk, or alternatively, the leader of the People's Republic of China, I would make the restoration of The Yin & Yang of Mr Go my life's work.A classic.

I love dollar store DVDs, and this one was a bargain, 2/$1.00, a double feature of "Mr. Go" and "Winterset", so I actually paid 25 cents for this flick. Considering that we don't have cable or satellite, I'll take cheesy old spy films over crap "reality" shows any day.The cover of the DVD doesn't mention James Mason at all, nor Broderick Crawford (although he has a tiny, ignorable part)...and it's a true hoot to see a very young Jeff Bridges doing many things I'm sure he'd like to forget...if ever I have the chance, I want him to autograph this DVD.For its time, some of the stuff in here is very overt; there's the Commie lesbian a la the Madchen in Uniform/Lotte Lenya character in From Russia With Love, but in this she actually gets close to down and dirty with the cute female lead. The male/male homosexual scenes were, for the time it was made, quite graphic; I'd be surprised if this ever saw the big screen, uncensored, in the USA, unless it made the drive-in circuit late in the 1990s.Younger viewers must understand, there were many, many more spy/espionage films made during the 60s and 70s than the classic James Bond and notable Flint movies. I haven't looked it up yet, but I'd put this movie in there with The Balearic Caper, something I saw on channel 9 in So Cal during the 60s. Spy spoof, sorta, but somewhat serious, too. You must keep in mind, we'd been doing duck-and-cover drills in grade school; good, bad, and ridiculous spy films, along with TV shows like The Man From U.N.C.L.E., were the pop culture way of dealing with a persistent and real fear.Yeah, it's not a great movie, and it might be better watched while high, because trying to make much sense of it is futile or brain-cramping. My husband wants a copy of the soundtrack just because it is so 1970s TV movie chipper and incongruous; a close listen to the lyrics might be quite...trippingly disturbing.Don't try to watch this as "Art" or "cinema", just appreciate it as a product of its time, no better or worse than it should be, considering what might have happened to it between inception and release. Watch it as a double feature with "Blacula", and keep part of your mind tuned to What We Were Afraid Of during the time these movies were made.Sheesh...it's just a cheap DVD. But I'm bummed that my copy of Mad Dog Morgan, starring Dennis Hopper as an Australian outlaw, got digital hiccups during the last 1/4 or so, and I doubt that any of the other copies at the buck store wouldn't have the same defect.

Fools! Can't you see this is better than Austin Powers? This is James Bond Lite, for those who can't keep up with the intricacies of a regular James Bond storyline. It's got everything including lesbians, large Chinese men wielding large Chinese cleavers, a guy who just won't die and sexy action (various tastes appeased). And don't get me started on the soundtrack. I felt like I could Do It, whatever that It was.I am pray that this gem will be rediscovered and spawn a "Making Of" collectible DVD compilation (in widescreen). The acting is superb, but the screenplay needed a final revision. Perhaps M. Night Shaymalan can re-release it with Mr. Bridges playing the role of Mr. Go.11/10