Bulletproof Monk

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Bulletproof Monk 's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Bulletproof Monk completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 1 July 2003.

Overall comments and recommendations

Adults who enjoy martial arts action films should find the actions scenes enjoyable if not somewhat predictable. In terms of plot, substance and believability, Bulletproof Monk is a little on the thin side. The treat of the film is Chow Yun-Fat, of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon fame, whose choreographed fight scenes added a touch of class to an otherwise routine martial arts movie. The genre, casting and special effects makes Bulletproof Monk extremely appealing to adolescent males. Young males will easily be drawn to the film’s main hero, a rebellious, attractive, well built male providing an avenue for hero worship and behavioural role modelling. However, the repeated use of violence by the film’s heroes to solve problems may be interpreted by younger viewers as a preferred and acceptable means of achieving goals and solving conflict. Further, the very clever and stylish fight scenes enacted by the good heroes together with special effects, enhances and glamourises the effects of the violence making its use even more appealing and desirable.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Bulletproof Monk contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

The story begins in 1943, high on a Tibetan Mountain where one monk is passing over to his student the guardianship of a sacred scroll and a number of super-human powers including being bullet-proof. The role of the guardian of the sacred scroll is to prevent any individual from reading the scroll and by doing so, becoming immortal and the absolute ruler the world. Just as the transference of powers between the monks is completed, the monastery is overrun by a band of Nazis, whose head madman, Strucker is bent on capturing the scroll, reading it and the cleansing the world of all the “impure” races. All the monks are slaughtered by the Nazis except for a small boy, who witnessed the entire event, and the new guardian of the sacred scroll (monk with no name), who after being shot in the chest by Strucker falls off the mountain. The film then jumps to the present time and the busy streets of San Francisco.

The monk with no name is being chased by a group of neo-Nazis, led by Strucker, now sixty years older and his granddaughter Nina, who is every bit as nasty as her grandfather. The monk with no name teams up with a street-wise pickpocket named Kar who is being chased by police. The monk and Kar are later joined by Jade, a member of a street gang who defuses a fight between Kar and the gang leader. She later develops a love-hate relationship with Kar.

The monk discover Kar to be the next prophesised guardian of the scroll, and a cat and mouse game involving superhuman fight scenes, gun battles and explosions etc continues between the good guys and the Nazis. Finally the monk with no name is captured by Nina and taken to Strucker’s secret torture chamber for interrogation. Kar and Jade, armed to the hilt with high explosives, blow their way into Strucker’s fortress to rescue the monk with no name. The superhuman forces engage in a fierce battle, on which the fate of the world rests.

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

Violence was featured throughout then entire film from beginning to end. The violence, whether enacted by good heroes or bad villains, was seen as the main if not only means of achieving goals. The use of violence was highly glamorised with the most successful users or controllers of violence the most highly valued, and viewed as the most successful and powerful. The heroes and heroine were all very attractive and physical in appearance, and the style of fighting used by the heroes fast, very stylish and highly choreographed employing slow motion special effects similar to those used in the film The Matrix.

The violence presented by the evil side was ruthless and savage, including:

• Nina strangling an old Japanese man with a phone cord
• the use of sophisticated torture methods such as electrodes and wires being inserted into the foreheads of monks.

The physical effects of violence were portrayed in an unrealistic manner in that the heroes were able to quickly bounce back from blows that would be fatal to most without even a trace of a bruise. Nor did the film present any real life flow on effects resulting from violence, such as:

• the emotional trauma that would have been experienced by a small boy who has just watched his fellow monks murdered, or
• the effects of violence on the families of the victims of crime caught up in the street violence.

On one occasion the use of violence was presented in a comical context. This involved a slapstick type fight scene, where Kar was made to look as if he was tripping over his own two feet while fighting the monk with no name.

Other than the evil and good heroines, male characters totally dominated the use of violence. However, the violence enacted by both of the heroines was every bit as effective and brutal as that used by the males in the film. Nina, the evil heroine, was more brutal than any of her male counterparts taking great delight in the suffering she inflicted on her victims.

Material that may scare children

Under thirteen
Children under thirteen are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters. Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

There are numerous visual images in the movie capable of frightening children under the age of thirteen years including:

• Swirling vapour like images and ground shaking vibrations representing the mystical transformation of superhuman powers from the teacher monk to the student monk.
• Monks being shot with machine guns by Nazi storm troopers.
• The monk with no name being shot in the chest.
• The monk with no name being chased in a threatening manner by men in suits with guns pulled out.
• Numerous car crashes on busy city streets.
• A threatening image of a small girl with her foot caught under a railway, and a subway train thundering towards her.
• Kar being punched in the face, kicked in the stomach, bashed with a metal bar and bike chain, threatened with knives and broken bottles and generally beaten by a street gang.
• The monk with no name and Kar being shot at by men in suits including slow motion images of bullets narrowly missing the heads of the heroes.
• Numerous furiously violent fist fights between the heroes, heroine and the evil-doers, involving kicking, punching and all manner of Kung Fu acrobatics enhanced by slow motion visual effects.
• Kar and the monk with no name being chased across roof tops while being shot at by machine gun wielding helicopters; bullets shattering windows and glass flying in all directions.
• A man being kicked down a flight of stairs.
• A man falling out of a helicopter and falling through a glass roof.
• Nina strangling an elderly defenceless man with a telephone cord.
• A torture chamber with monks strapped to tables while having electrodes pushed into their foreheads, a type of techno torture, the resulting effect being that the victim would be left a mindless vegetable.
• The monk with no name being shot in the neck by a tranquilliser gun.
• A van being riddled with machine gun bullets.
• A car exploding into a ball of flames.
• The good heroine, Jade breaking the neck of Nina, the evil heroine.
• An old man’s face transforming into a young man’s face.
• Strucker being kicked from a roof top landing on electrical wires and being violently electrocuted.
• A large stone statue falling on and impaling the chest of Strucker.

Over the age of thirteen
Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Many of the images listed above are capable of affecting young adolescents also. The scenes of most concern being:

• the strangling of an old man by Nina using a telephone cord
• the electrocution and latter impaling of Strucker
• scenes involving human torture
• scenes involving gang violence and intimidation, applicable to both the street gang and the Nazi storm troopers.

Sexual references

During the scene involving the confrontation between Kar and the street gang, the heroine of the story, Jade makes reference to being sexually stimulated when viewing violence (“makes me hot”), and then uses a somewhat subtle sexual proposition to distract the gang leader from causing Kar further harm.

Nudity and sexual activity

Other than a ‘rough and tumble’ match between Kar and Jade ending with a kiss on the mouth there was no sexual activity presented in the movie.

There were no scenes involving nudity.

Use of substances

The only scene involving substance use was a bar scene, in which there were a number of images of people drinking alcohol from bottles, or holding bottles of alcohol. There were no obvious images of people intoxicated from substance use. There were no scenes involving drug use.

Coarse language

Low level coarse language was used on a number of occasions as expressive metaphors, such as:

• punk ass
• piece of shit
• going to cut your balls off
• piss off you little tart
• oh shit
• smart ass
• sit on your ass
• kick your freaky ass
• full of shit
• screwing up
• crazy bitch.

Language of this type was mainly featured in scenes involving gang members.

The movie's message

At its simplest level, the main theme behind Bulletproof Monk is that of good triumphing over evil, where the young hero and heroine battle against Nazi domination. The movie contains a number of mature themes including Nazism, human rights abuse, spirituality, self sacrifice, emotional blackmail and emotional manipulation.

Positive values presented in Bulletproof Monk include Kar’s loyalty to his friends, Kar‘s self-sacrificing manner and his ability to endure through adversity.

Negative values include: the use of violence, intimidation, deception and theft as the main means of achieving goals; beliefs of racial superiority; greed; and vengeance.