A longtime favorite of martial arts movie fans from all over the world, Yuen Biao has had a career that has spanned more than forty-five years, with well over one hundred films to his credit, including some bona fide classics alongside his Peking Opera "brothers" Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung such as Dragons Forever.

But there has only been one entry in his extensive filmography where he has been the director, 1992's A Kid from Tibet. The results here have their flaws, but there is enough good presented that one has to wonder why Yuen has never steeped into the director's chair again.

Yuen is also the star of A Kid from Tibet, playing Lo, a monk sent to Hong Kong to meet up with Chiu (Michelle Reis) to recover an artifact that will give the bearer eternal life. Not surprisingly, there's some nefarious elements that also want to get the artifact, mainly an evil sorcerer (Yuen Wah) and his buxom sister (Nina Li Chi).

This is a pretty basic setup up that is a solid foundation for a martial arts/comedy picture, but A Kid from Tibet really takes far too long to really get going. There's really not enough action during the first half of the movie, with most of the running time devoted to "fish out of water" comedy revolving around Lo, most of which falls flat, despite Yuen's charming personality. Jokes like Lo mistaking mousse for whipped cream simply aren't funny.

As you might expect, though, once the action does kick in, it's good stuff. In particular, the end fight between Biao and Yuen Wah (another one of his Peking Opera classmates) is quite good, blending hard-hitting groundwork with more high-flying fantasy/wire-fu inspired moves, which are brought forth by some special effects which seems kind of cheesy, but are still much more endearing than the bland CGI employed in modern productions.

If there was more of this presented towards the viewer, we might have had a real winner and the beginnings of a long directorial career here. As such, what the end product ends up being is an above-average martial arts picture that will appeal much more to fans of the film's stars, rather than the average action movie aficionado looking to check out the odd bit of chop socky.

RATING: 6