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

Amazingly kinetic and inept suspense film

[funkyfry · 4/10 · 17 January 2007]

This film is truly a sight to see. I've seen a lot of really odd films but never anything exactly like this movie. It has exploitation content, but not enough to play in the grind-house circuit. It has a lot of really great actors -- including Burgess Meredith (who also directed and contributed to the screenplay), Broderick Crawford, James Mason, and Jeff Bridges ("introducing Jeffrey Bridges"). It has a lot of action and plot twists, so it doesn't get dull -- but it also ultimately doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It has sci-fi elements -- a so-called "side-winder laser beam" which could neutralize all nuclear weapons -- but it is mostly a confused attempt at a James Bond-ish international suspense film, with a dash of Fu Manchu thrown in.

The plot is so bizarre that I had to write this review today, the day after seeing it, or I would not remember it. But I don't think there were that many "holes" in the plot, it's just very complicated and intricate. The film moves very fast. Fast enough that if there are any holes we don't really have time to worry about them.

James Mason plays Mr. Go, a ruthless international blackmailer who is interested in obtaining the laser beam for his own purposes. Meredith plays The Dolphin, an acupuncturist with underworld ties. In order to get the plans for the laser, Mr. Go hires a young American deserter who's hard up for cash, Finnighan (Bridges), to lure the American CIA agent, Professor Bannister (Peter Lind Hayes) into a gay sex encounter that is captured on film and used for blackmail. OK, hang on it's even stranger.... Finnighan believes himself to be a descendant of James Joyce and fancies himself a great up and coming writer, so the CIA sends in an agent who happens to be a self-described "James Joyce scholar", Zimmerman (Jack MacGowran). Zimmerman, posing as a literary agent, takes Finnighan out on the town, where they visit a whorehouse on a boat and get extremely drunk. Back in Finnighan's apartment, Zimmerman attempts to extract information about Mr. Go's identity from the drunken would-be writer. Upon learning that Finnighan is being investigated by the CIA, Mr. Go decides to have him and his girlfriend Tah Ling (Irene Tsu) kidnapped. However, after taking Finnighan into a helicopter and telling him he is about to be executed, Buddha decides to intervene on behalf of humanity, as he claims he can do in the 5th month of every 50th year. A beam of light comes out of Buddha's belly and illuminates Mr. Go, making him into a good man and causing him to abandon his plans of killing Finnighan and selling the weapon. For the rest of the film, Mr. Go and Finnighan rescue the girl and set about faking Go's death and releasing the information about the sidewinder laser beam to the public so that all the nations in the world will be safe from nuclear attack.

On the whole, the directing is exceptionally poor. Some of the confusing passages had to be explained with the dubious device of Buddha-as-narrator. The actors are all overplaying their roles, across the board. The action scenes are just ridiculously slow and awkward. The Asian makeup for Meredith and Mason are extremely unconvincing -- at one point early in the film Mr. Go has to say something like "I came here many years ago as a young Mexican-Chinese boy...." just so that the audience will know what race he's supposed to be. He speaks with his normal rather stately British accent throughout, perhaps seeking to salvage some dignity.

However I think there was a germ of a good movie in the screenplay -- from the very first scene with Mr. Go and the Dolphin discussing how Mr. Go might be assassinated, to the bizarre scene where Finnighan and Zimmerman are hanging out with naked prostitutes in his apartment while he angrily vents about the fact that his (kidnapped) girlfriend isn't there cooking for him and cleaning the house. Another example would be near the film's conclusion when Mr. Go tells Tah Ling that he wants to consider she and Finnighan as his children, but she interrupts and tells him that she's been thinking about him a lot and "a lot of it is very sexy". So just like that Mr. Go drops the father act and starts getting hot and heavy with Tah Ling from their hiding place inside the Buddha's belly.

I think they either needed a bigger budget and another director to turn it into more of a fun espionage film, or they could have played it just a bit less seriously and it would have been camp fun. Instead there is the sense that the film is trying to be much more than it really is. Still, it's never boring, and that's not something you can say about every movie.

The Lost Masterpiece of Burgess Meredith!

[alansmithee04 · 2/10 · 9 January 2004]

In his autobiography Meredith claims his first solo directing effort was hijacked by the producers, re-edited with additional footage of Broderick Crawford and an animated Buddha, and released in Europe without his permission. But even if you ignore the added footage and voice over, this is still an awful movie.

Notable for a freshman effort by Jeff Bridges (my copy of the movie gives him an intro credit) and an inexplicable appearance in a small role by Hong Kong director King Hu, "Mr. Go" plays out like a demented episode of "Batman." Much of the dialogue makes no sense, you could drive a Hummer through the plot holes, and the musical score sounds like something The Cowsills might have done on a particularly bad day. Unless you're a die-hard fan of truly abominable movies, stay away from this one.

When bad movies happen to good people

[Nozz · 2/10 · 10 October 2009]

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.

I was there. I was in the s**t.

[lolotehe · 1/10 · 29 June 2011]

I was only in the bar for a quick drink. It was hot outside and I figured a cold beer might knock off the oppressive stillness of it all.

As promised, the Shiner hit the back of my throat like an alpine breeze. I clutched the bottle to my brow, letting the cool condensation roll over my eyebrows. Luckily, the bar had no windows, so the dark inside was a fine respite from the tenacious sun outside. No windows allowed that surly teen of a star force his rays inside.

And then I saw him.

He was sitting in a corner, holding his gin and tonic with both hands. For a moment, he raised his hand to his mouth, maybe questioning something? Then, as swiftly as it happened, the thought escaped him and he waved away the lingering memory.

I recognized it immediately. I had to talk to him. He was one of the few who had slogged through the same terrible adventure as I. Maybe, by speaking with him, I could alleviate his pain.

He didn't even look at me as I approached his well-padded booth.

"If you had heard I were killed," I asked him. "Would you still be afraid?"

"That's when I would be afraid the most," he muttered to his drink.

There it was, a shared connection. I had been correct in my assumption about this broken man. He was just like me and had seen the same horrors.

He had seen "The Yin and Yang of Mr. Go."

We sat in silence, each nursing our own drinks, our own chance at forgetting.

He shook his head. "Did you know that lesbian rape scene is the opening credits?"

I had to admit I didn't. The scene in question had been so shocking, so unexpected when it happened. The opening credits, I had blissfully ejected from memory.

"I didn't catch it the first time," he confessed.

"You watched it a second time?" I asked. "Why?"

He closed his eyes and lowered his head. With his chin resting on his chest, he whispered, "I don't know... I don't know...."

A deep, ragged breath and sigh. He looked at me, a fellow victim. "If tomorrow is in question..." he started.

"And your meditation is interpreted by what lies ahead," I answered.

Yes, his pain was deep. Seeing it brought back my own pain: the stilted dialog, the terrible soundtrack, the gratuitous breasts that made us both (I am sure) feel skeevy because they looked they they belonged to a 14-year-old. I shuddered and reached for my cigarettes.

Not missing a beat, my companion lit a match and held it out. "Puff the magic dragon," he sighed.

I was afraid to accept, but only did so to oblige him. We sat in the still of the room, smoke and nightmares swirling around us.

And when he cried, I only held out my arm to comfort him. Like our connection in the bar, it was brief and disturbing. We had both seen the horror. It was not something we could share with others.

We both knew our warning would fall on deaf ears. "But Jeff Bridges is in it!" our companions would say. "What about that narration by Christopher Lee?"

Oh, what of it? Of all the things that should have made it right, there was only so much wrong a man could bear. James Mason is a fine actor, yes, but playing a half-Chinese\half-Mexican crime lord is too great a burden. And the script, written by Burgess Meredith? No finer form of torture has been devised, even if directed by the man himself. No. It was too great a passion that burned in that idea and all involved were singed by its efforts.

"You know that Peter Lind Hayes played Mr. Zabladowski in "The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T?" I asked. I hoped to lift the mood.

"Very atomic," my companion said, and then laughed. "I guess he got to lay some pipe!"

We both laughed until tears covered our faces. Then we cried and held each other. We had been there. We had seen it. We had both been through "The Yin and Yang of Mr. Go".

The Stranger Side of Buddhism

[Nullness · 4 December 2005]

Burgess Meredith's only attempt at film-making is a strange mesh of Eastern Philosophy and The 60's Batman show. The first thing you should know is that the narrator of this film is actually the Buddha and the premise is, more or less, the Fu Man Chu/Dr. No bad guy Mr. Go is inexplicably "enlightenened" by the Buddha's eye into becoming good. See strange psychedelic homosexual escapades with Jeff Bridges and a nauseating go-go soundtrack that will drill right into your head. All the fight scenes are right out of Batman. Good if somewhat boring movie, but you've got to love the strange premise. It's the ultimate 60's Buddhist experience.

This movie makes me want to get high

[ian_eadgbe · 5/10 · 21 October 2006]

The only words that could possibly describe this movie are odd, demented, developmentally disabled, etc. I think this movie might make sense after a couple blotter papers, or a bong full of opium laced weed. I makes no sense, the music is horrible, the sound doesn't match the footage, in timing or mood.This movie is like a drug episode, but without the fun. The same effect can be gotten by getting crazy high and watching a movie that makes sense. I can't spoil it, I've watched it and I still have no idea why anything happens. I can't tell if it's originally done in Chinese and dubbed, or if it's just badly made. And the Buhdda thing makes no sense even in context of eastern religion.

Mr. Go a Go-Go

[sol-kay · 5/10 · 22 March 2005]

(There Are Some Spoilers) In all the world you couldn't find a more unscrupulous unprincipled and sleazy individual as the "Evil" Mr. Go, James Mason, an international power broker working out of his home base in Hong Kong.

Mr.Go works in concert with the equally "Evil" and corrupt Japanese banker Ito Suzki, King Hu, who both would even sell their own mothers out, if the price was right, to the highest bidder. Having US weapons expert Robert Bannister,Peter Lyn Hayes, rescued from a plane that was shot down and crashed in Communist China Mr. Go wants to get information on the Side-Winder Laser Beam that the USA has perfected that would not only make nuclear war obsolete but impossible. This Side-Winder Laser would render nuclear weapons useless by destroying their ability to detonate and thus cause them to fall harmlessly to the ground like a coconut falling off a coconut tree.

Knowing that Bannister wouldn't talk and that if he has him killed he'll never get the secret of the Side-Winder Laser Mr.Go lets him go free and then gets in touch with Tah Ling, Irene Tsu, his former lover and her obnoxious boyfriend Nero Finnighan, Jeff Bridges, a deserter from the US Army in Vietnam, and frustrated James Joyce wannabe writer. Mr.Go wants to get to get the uncooperative Bannister into a compromising position so that he can blackmail him into giving him that important information about the Side-Winder laser beam.

Nero getting Bannister drunk and then taking him to a whorehouse he get him with his pants down as well as having Bannsiter do some very kinky and crazy stuff ,together with himself, on film. When later confronted with the evidence of him being a sexual pervert Bannister gives in and give Mr. Go all the information about the Side-Winder Laser Beam so that his bosses from CIA Chief Parker, Brodrick Crawford, on down so they don't find out about his sick and sleazy secret life.

Living up to his reputation as a two-timing lowlife and first class sleaze-ball Mr. Go, with the help of Suzuki, has both Nero & Tah Ling kidnapped and later to be killed so that they'll never be able to spill the beans on what the two did to Bannister in getting him to open up and talk. It's just then when a miracle happened and the "Evil" Mr.Go is made to do a complete 180 degree turnaround and became a good kind and unselfish person saving both Nero and Tah Ling from the fate that he and Suzuki had in store for them. In the end Mr. Go even gives away the blueprint of the Side-Winder laser beam, to every nation on earth, making the horrors of a nuclear war impossible and thus truly bringing "Peace in our Time".

The Budda who during the cycle of the fifth month every fifty years emits a beam, if world conditions warrants, from his third eye that hits a chosen individual and cause him or her to change the course of history. This time the wise Budda choose the "Evil" Mr. Go and made him the person who would end the fear of nuclear destruction and bring peace to all Mankind.

You just don't know what to make of this movie since it's about a very serious subject but comes across, especially with it's goody-goody bubble gum music soundtrack, like a cross between a 1960's Frankie Avalon Annette Funicello beach party movie and a late 1950's and early 1960's teenage Rock&Roll musical.

The action chase scenes shoot-outs and fights are hilarious but it doesn't seem to me that they were made to be that way but were so badly done that they came off looking ridicules and silly. The US government gets the British M16 to try and bring in both Dr. Go and Nero together with Tha ling as well as Bannister by having their top spy Mr. Leo Zimmerman, Jack MagGowran,put on the case. Zimmerman ends up screwing things up even more by first getting smashed over the head with a coffee pot by Nero then later getting himself shot, by what looked like Ito Suzuki's thugs. Thus allowing not only Nero Mr. Go and Tah Ling to escape but having them release the secret blueprint about the Side-Winder Laser Beam to the world! This puts Zimmerman and his spy organization the British M16, as well as the CIA & KGB, out of business.

Directed by veteran actor Burgess Meredith who also had a role in the movie as Dolphin a weirdo Chinese acupuncture druggist wise man and what looks like some kind of a high priest as well as and undercover sleazy power broker, much like Mr.Go, all rolled into one. The movie "The Yin Yang of Mr. Go" is worth seeing not only to see for yourself that a movie like it was actually made but even more surprising just how the makers of the film were able to get top actors, back in 1970, like James Mason Broderick Crawford Jack MagGowan as well as Burgess Meredith to be in it? That has to be without a doubt the ultimate $64,000.00 question.

So bad, worth seeing

[mendoflatpicker · 1/10 · 1 November 2005]

This might be the worst film ever made; it's worth seeing for that reason, but no other. It's a bit like "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes", but the tongue is not in cheek for "Mr. Go."

Although there are some great actors, Burgess Meredith, James Mason, Broderick Crawford and Jeff Bridges, the script and direction are atrocious.

The music is worth hearing, just to make a boomer like myself remember that there was a time in the country when this sort of thing seemed refreshing - hard to believe!

Don't torture people at Abu Graib, play this sound track. They will talk!

ludicrous sound and a laughably loopy script

[oldmagnolia · 1/10 · 4 November 2006]

Meredith wrote the script and directed this dog. Although laughably loopy, it's sad to see such a waste of James Mason and Broderick Crawford's talents. The ludicrous soundtrack pops in inexplicably at odd moments.

There's an odd lesbian rape scene and a suggestively kinky gay sex scene with Jeff(rey) Bridges. The only skin you see is on young Asian women in the film who, unfortunately, play slutty, materialistic stereotypes. You won't see Asian males in the forefront of the screen as the characters are played by white actors. This is one movie serious film buffs can pass up.

If you want to see Burgess Meredith at his best, watch him in the film WINTERSET, a compelling drama based on Maxwell Anderson's acclaimed Broadway play. The 1936 version of Winterset, based on the Sacco and Vanzetti case, was Meredith's film debut.

Rock bottom film - one of the worst ever made.

[barnabyrudge · 1/10 · 2 February 2013]

On paper, The Yin And The Yang Of Mr Go looks potentially interesting. A good cast including James Mason, Jack MacGowran and debutant Jeff Bridges (billed here as 'Jeffrey'); interesting Far East locations; and writing/directing credits for none other than well-known actor Burgess Meredith (yes, he who played Penguin in the Batman TV show and Rocky's trainer Micky in the first three Rocky movies). Within a few minutes of the film starting, however, one can only try to pick one's jaw from the floor because it becomes apparent almost straight away that this is a monumentally awful film. For anyone who struggles on gamely, thinking perhaps that the start is merely a blip and that the film will soon pick up, it doesn't. The actors presumably thanked their lucky stars afterwards that their careers survived this unholy mess of a movie (Bridges especially, considering that it was his first film). It's no exaggeration to say that The Yin And The Yang Of Mr Go would look right at home on a list of the worst 100 films ever made.

Mr Go (James Mason, sorely miscast) is an Oriental villain. He wants the blueprints for a weapon-neutralising device which he plans to sell to the highest bidder. In order to get them, he hires a young American army draft dodger named Nero Finnegan (Jeff Bridges) and persuades him to get some gay sex footage with a CIA contact named Professor Bannister (Peter Lind Hayes)… upon seeing the sordid video, Bannister is easily blackmailed into surrendering the blueprints. Things take a strange turn when the spirit of Buddha intervenes and uses his mystical powers to change Mr Go's personality, transforming him from fiendish Fu Manchu-style bad guy into an unlikely good guy. (This is presumably the Yin and the Yang of the character, as described in the title). Suddenly, Mr Go is no longer a master-criminal but a saintly hero, intent on protecting Nero and ensuring the weapon-neutralising plans fall into the right hands rather than those intent on evil.

The Yin And The Yang Of Mr Go is so choppily edited that one wonders if the original negative was cut with a pair of heavily worn false teeth. More likely is that the studio were so dismayed with the film they made hasty and unsuccessful attempts to cut it into some sort of releasable print. Either way, it doesn't work – the film is dreadful. Mason looks totally embarrassed beneath his crudely slanted eye make-up and goofy teeth, while Bridges demonstrates all the boyish enthusiasm of a newcomer without really managing to make sense of his character. Snippets of needless nudity are thrown in at regular intervals, plus occasional bursts of lacklustre action, but it's all to no avail. No amount of trimmings could hide the fact that this is a turkey of the highest order. Weird-but-most-definitely-NOT-wonderful, The Yin And The Yang Of Mr Go is easily one of the worst movies ever made.

oh -- my -- god

[Mik_In_Montague · 1/10 · 9 July 2007]

I couldn't believe I actually watched this slug. It came on a Jeff Bridges Double Feature DVD by Digiview and was the second movie after "In Search Of America." In comparison, I see now America was a jewel, though the soundtrack seemed identical.

I knew it was going to be a bad movie, all those $1 DVDs are, but my eyebrows shot up when only a minute or so into the movie "Jeffrey" Bridges' character yells at his girlfriend "What the hell is the matter with you." This was a TV movie? And then we see soon afterward some gratuitous breasts, a male transvestite getting dressed, a male gay rape scene (filmed in psychedelic b/w), more boobies, and finally, near the end, an attempted female rape scene. Gotta love life in Hong Kong.

Read up the other comments. They're spot on. Just say NO to Go. This disc is going into the trash, right along with another Digiview double feature The Return of Rin Tin Tin with Robert Blake (at 8) and Lassie's The Painted Hills (with a frothing killer Lassie at the end).

Eleven out of Ten

[etna3 · 10/10 · 26 January 2007]

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

Buddha Likes It

[timothylmayer · 7/10 · 13 October 2014]

The Yin and Yang of Mr. Go has the distinction of being the only feature-length film directed by Burgess Meredith. It also has the distinction of being the only spy movie narrated by the Buddha. From the introduction:

"During the fifth moon of the year 5000 B. C. Chun Li Chu'an discovered the Elixir of Life and invented the power of transmutation.

Chu'an was the chief of the eight immortals.

This power was lost in the 10th century B. C.- some say through vanity and rediscovered by Gautama Buddha in the 6th century before Christ.

Buddha has never again lost the secret but uses it sparingly and only at certain cycles of time.

The cycle is during the fifth moon of each 50th year.

Should the course of human events need changing, Buddha sends a beam of light from his inner eye and it strikes just one human being. Whatever that human being is doing, he or she does just the opposite.

Sometimes the great Buddha himself is amused at the results."

The esteemed British actor James Mason plays Y.Y. Go, a man of Chinese and Mexican ancestry who works as an influence peddler in Hong Kong. "We exist in the vacuum between enemy nations", he later mentions. The first scene has him undergoing acupuncture therapy from Burgess Meredith. Meredith, best remembered as the arch-villain Penguin in the original Batman TV series, plays "Dolphin", a traditional medical herbalist who, although obviously Caucasian, dresses in Chinese robes. Mr. Go asks Dolphin to arrange his funeral.

We next see Mr. Go in the presence of a recovering American scientist. The scientist (Peter Lind Hayes) was rescued by Mr. Go's minions after the plane he was traveling in was shot down over mainland China. Mr. Go wants to buy the scientist's anti-ballistic missile laser system. The scientist refuses, but Mr. Go has some information on the scientist he will later use.

And then there's Jeff Bridges in one of his first film roles. He plays an expatriate American, Nero Fitzgerald, slumming and living off his Chinese girlfriend, Tah-ling (Irene Tsu). It's not said how she makes her money, but a sex work is implied. To get some cash to support his writing aspirations, Nero goes to see Mr. Go. Mr. Go has a job for him: pay a visit to the scientist with the laser weapon. The scientist likes young guys. With the um evidence of Nero and the scientist tryst on film, Mr. Go has no trouble getting what he wants from the scientist

But the American government isn't taking all this back action without doing something. The director of the CIA, played by mega- heavy Broderick Crawford, dispatches a top-secret agent to prevent the laser weapon from falling into the wrong hands. Their agent, Leo Zimmerman, is played by famous Irish stage actor Jack MacGowan. He's been selected for his James Joyce knowledge. You see, bohemian Nero is a JJ fan and has an encyclopedic knowledge of everything the great man has ever written. When agent Zimmerman hits the soil of Hong Kong, he makes his way to the nearest location of Nero and the two head off into the night spouting Joycean lines.

But, as he is "the embodiment of pure evil", Mr. Go has decided that Nero and his lady friend have become a problem that needs solving. While he arranges for Tah-ling to be kidnapped by Zelda, an enemy agent with her own designs on the laser weapon, Mr. Go takes Nero for a helicopter ride. While another henchman levels a gun on Nero, Go tells the young man how he and his lady friend know too much. "It's a great story,"Nero sobs."Too bad I won't be able to write about it."

And then the Buddha intervenes….

I've watched this movie several times. As another commentator has noted, you find something new in it each time. There's the joy in watching James Mason deliver his lines flawlessly while in character. Burgess Meredith hams it up all he can, leading the bad guys on a chase through Hong Kong at one point. Jeff Bridges is busy channeling his inner "dude". And Irene Tsu is mighty pleasing to look at, but she can also create the most vulnerable expressions when needed. And the music: it's a light breezy pop score similar to what the 5th Dimension was producing at the time.

I just can't figure out how much of the final movie was director Burgess Meredith's original idea and how much the producers added to the final film. Or took away. It has a wonderful ending where everyone gets what they want. James Mason plays the villain to perfection: a bad guy who doesn't see himself as such. Meredith would later disown the movie and claim little remained of his ideas. The scenes with the CIA director and the narration by The Buddha appear to have been added by the producers.

Another problem with film is the pathetic condition of the source print. I doubt very many copies were struck when the movie was first released. It wasn't released in the US until 1973 and supposedly by National General Pictures, a holding copy which closed down the same year. The print from which most video and digital copies have been sourced looks washed-out and faded. Not every film gets the library of congress archival treatment. Perhaps a decent copy or negative will surface someday.

In the meantime, you can find the movie on the Internet or in budget DVD. It's no President's Analyst, but Yin and Yang of Mr. Go is far better than I had expected. It was produced toward the end of the spy movie craze of the 60's, when producers where looking for different ways to keep the genre relevant. I can think of few other existentialist spy movies. http://www.z7hq.com/pulp/ying-yang-mr-go-1970.php

Woebegone

[JasparLamarCrabb · 1/10 · 26 November 2007]

It's impossible to tell what Burgess Meredith was thinking when he directed (and co-wrote) this idiotic mix of intrigue, comedy, zen, action, and whatever else you can think of. NONE of it works...it's sloppy, deadly dull and full of the most bizarre directorial touches imaginable (and not in a good way!) Slow motion, endless dissolves, jerky editing...and unbelievably intrusive music conspire to make this one of the worst films ever made. James Mason is a Chinese espionage broker who gets student Jeff Bridges mixed up in some blackmailing shenanigans in Hong Kong. Meredith appears as Mason's acupuncturist and the great Jack MacGowran appears as a CIA operative. There's a lot of fighting, a lot of smoking of one thing or another and a really nasty lesbian. It adds up to nothing. Broderick Crawford is in it too, but aside from appearing toothless, offers nothing.

Could be used as an anesthesia

[kolchak25 · 19 May 2002]

I picked up a copy of this movie after seeing the other comment listed. After watching it, I can say without a doubt that this movie is an incredible waste of celluloid. Like the other reviewer, my jaw hit the floor. But it was not due to any comedic value, rather to the amazing wretchedness of this film. My friends and I were practically put into comas by the movies anesthetic powers. This is the type of movie that you either throw out the window of your moving car, or take out of the vcr and smash with a hammer.

Burgess Meredith wrote and directed this movie, as well as appearing in a small role. The film was made in 1970 when it was still considered appropriate for Caucasian actors to play Asian characters. Thus we have Burgess as an Asian character, complete with whispy mustache, and James Mason is the evil Mr. Go, with fake teeth, eye makeup, and - going against the character - a British accent. While Mason was British, the accent is ridiculous for the character. You get the feeling that Mason was trying to retain some dignity, and was fighting to avoid a stereotypical accent brought on by the fake teeth.

The movie is very tedious. You'll feel like you've been watching it for hours and hours. There's no real character development, and no one in the film is particularly likeable. Mr. Go is supposed to be very evil, yet we never see him do anything that makes us hate him. Nero, played by Jeff Bridges, was just as unlikeable as Mr. Go. Perhaps more so, as he is a deserter from the army, cheats on his girlfriend (and doesn't understand why she hasn't come home yet), takes money from Mr. Go in payment for having sex with a US agent - which is filmed in order to blackmail the agent into helping Mr. Go get a laser of some sort. Nero is supposed to be a writer and admires James Joyce, but we are never convinced that he is more than an untalented, drunk kid (Bridges looks very young).

Oh the pain.... the only reason you may want to see this movie is if you like one of the lead actors and are interested in seeing everything they have done. Otherwise, do yourself a favor and stay away from this movie. Oh yes, there are some really annoying songs that will get into your head, and not let you live in peace. "The yin and the yang...."

What did I just watch?

[Leofwine_draca · 2/10 · 12 July 2018]

THE YIN AND THE YANG OF MR. GO is one of the weirdest and most incredible pieces of trash I've seen recently. That it was written and directed by Burgess Meredith is hugely surprising; it feels like the work of an amateur whose first time this was behind the camera. Just what on earth was everyone thinking? The plot is a kind of Bondian spy thriller in the vaguest of senses, with an evil mastermind on the hunt for Cold War technology. But then a twist based on Chinese mysticism is added to the mix and turns everything on its head. You get a youthful Jeff Bridges playing an obnoxious character and James Mason in yellow face makeup in possibly one of the worst bits of miscasting ever. All I could think while watching was "when will it end?".

Yin and Yang of Mr. Go is a deep-cult classic

[countiblis-1 · 9/10 · 28 February 2009]

You either love it or hate it, but Y.Y of Mr. Go is certainly a cult classic you should not miss. Sure the film is bad, but that is the charm of so many cult classics (just look at the Rocky Horror Picture Show!) As amazingly obscure as this film by Burgess Meredith is it has become more readily available recently in Dollar Tree's nationwide. Starring a young Jeff Bridges in his first film roll as Nero Finnegan is incentive enough alone to watch the flick, but the quirky soundtrack is also delectably tacky and fun. This is one of those films I love to watch when the weather outside is bad, or I am home with a cold...it just picks me up! I see another comment that said this was better than Austin Powers, darn right! Films such as Y.Y. of Mr. Go and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls were the raw inspiration for Mike Myers' films. In all fairness I understand why so many people hate the film, but as a cult film fanatic I hold it in high regard. The only thing that could make it better is if I could have seen it in a theater.

Monster B flick or Masterpiece ????

[dumanthpie · 7/10 · 4 April 2002]

I remember the first time I saw that movie...my jaw was stretch and was probably touching the floor. I didn't know then and I'm still wondering if this was a masterpiece from an unknown director or a huge waste of celluloid. Honest to god I found that film to be one of the funniest I have ever seen. Problem I don't know whether it was meant to be that way !!! Watch it, enjoy it... P.A.D.

I was alive during the Cold War

[crankscorner · 21 July 2008]

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.

Great actors meet Asia head on

[eltsr-1 · 10/10 · 26 November 2011]

The movie "The Yin and Yang of Mr. Go", works on many levels. Here's mine barely on one level. James Joyce was as little understood in 1970 as Buddhism, the Far East (including Vietnam)and MKULTRA. Only MKULTRA notionally survived unscathed because CIA Director Richard Helms destroyed all agency records shortly after this film was made. It alone has escaped the brutal epiphany of the last 40+ years. "We had to destroy the village in order to save it." Ram Dass (Richard Alpert) did not publish "Remember, Be Here Now" until the year after the movie's release. Had he seen it? The Hong Kong Tourist Bureau which contributed greatly and nearly lost its soul to this film knew more about all of the above including James Joyce than anyone in or around the movie. Here are the facts: James Mason wears oral prosthetics and allows his then almost 2d wife (Clarissa Kaye-Mason) to administer a lesbian rape scene. Peter Lind Hayes (The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T)plays himself and appears in a violent homo erotic scene with a very young Jeff Bridges. Irene Tsu gives her acting and substantive all to everyone involved apparently including some Hong Kong hookers replete with excellent Number One Hong Kongs. Broderick Crawford plays the head of the CIA in what appears to be an unintended?, spliced-in unrelated Ed Wood production. He's Broderick Crawford, for Christ sakes! And he's wonderful! You will recognize Jay Adler and Jack MacGowran reprising themselves in roles that they had accomplished many times, but not this time. Buddha appears typecast as himself in Hong Kong tourist stills voiced over by Christopher Lee? as narrator. Oh yeah, Burgess Meredith stars and directed it if Buddha didn't. Rags Ragland composed the soundtrack and songs and I am sure Peter Lind Hayes influenced same with his immortal 1950s Chevrolet jingle. The music at times however, fractures into rather both authentic and thought provoking accompaniment including a brief oriental theme played with a bowed lute Ragland was an arranger for the Dorsey's and provided music for many 40s movies and then this one. There, I wrote it. For YOU!!!! James Joyce was writing--like Bridges says,"For the next 1,000 years." You can watch this prescient epistle throughout the next millennium if you need to. In 1970, the world needed to...

What the %$&?

[mjrkong · 23 January 2010]

I picked this up at the Dollar Tree along with a bottle of Ajax dishwash liquid, a box of Fiddle Faddle and some Tums. All are gone except for Mr. Go (facilitating my consumption of the Tums) which still remains.

Now, not all $1 discs suck. I've picked up old Sherlock Holmes flicks w/ Basil Rathbone for a buck and enjoyed them thoroughly. But Mr. Go? Ach du lieber! I really can't add anything to the madness. Worst of all, I can't get that bizarre song out of my head, when Jeff & Jack go zipping around Hong Kong in a couple of rikshaws. "Got to be free... Freee.. weee!". WTF!?!

Radioactive Karma

[blacknorth · 8/10 · 19 January 2009]

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.

delirious ... and not in a good way

[DanielKing · 12 November 2003]

This utterly bizarre film is the closest you'll get to the Jess Franco experience without actually watching one of Franco's efforts. This is made even more remarkable by the fact that it does have a pretty starry cast, and not old has beens like Franco feels obliged to work with. The songs are truly awful although anyone who can get the word "meretriciously" into a lyric can't be all bad.

By no means well done but truly an amazing would-be cult film.

[alemeno · 8/10 · 30 August 2011]

On quality I would give this a solid 3. My generous rating is because I think 'The Yin and the Yang' is on the level of Troll 2 and needs to be respected as such. This movie has potential for major mass appeal if someone would give it a chance.

I found this movie being sold on the sidewalk under the name 'The Third Eye'. The cover shows a jaunty James Mason from his heyday. I don't know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't what I saw. I was floored by the content. Amazing cast doing a terrible acting job, bazaar lesbian and gay sub plots, an adorable Jeff Bridges, and of course that swinging soundtrack.

Watch and be amazed. I can't say I understand the plot, even after 4 viewings, but it has enough scenes that confuse and intrigue to keep you watching (almost) to the very end.