The Yin and the Yang of Mr. Go (1974)

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.

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!?!

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.

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...."