Part of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s mission is to foster greater understanding through world cinema. This year 72 Foreign Language films were submitted for Golden Globes consideration. Here is an overview of one of them.

Monk Comes Down the Mountain is a fantasy-adventure-comedy film about a young Taoist cleric’s adventures in early 20^th century China. Helmed by Chen Kaige, the action-packed period drama is based on the eponymous best-selling novel Dao Shi Xia Shan by martial artist writer Xu Haofeng.

Filmed in Xianghe, in China’s Hebel Province, the movie stars Wang Baogiang (He Anxia), Aaron Kwok (Zhou Xiyu), Chang Chen (Boss Zha), Lin Chi-ling (Yuzhen), Fan Wei (Tsui Daoning), Yuen Wah (Peng Qianwu), Vanness Wu (Daorong), Wang Xuegi, Danny Chan (Zhao Xinchuan), Lam Suet and Dong Qi.

Set in the 1930s, the story revolves around He Anxia (portrayed by Wang Baogiang), a naïve cleric who is ejected from his impoverished monastery and forced to fend for himself after an abbot finds him too cocky. He comes down the mountain and into the real world to learn more about life and human nature. As such, he undergoes a complex transformation as he comes to terms with greed and desire.

When the young priest and skilled martial artist finds work and shelter at a medical clinic, he sees how his surgeon-mentor-pharmacist Tsui Daoning (Fan Wei), who takes him as an apprentice, is betrayed by his beautiful wife Yuzhen (Li Chiling) who is having an affair with his flamboyant and eccentric younger brother, Daorong (Vanness Wu), who runs an apothecary.

He meets various masters along the way in his journey and learns a new style of kung fu from each one of them. Aside from sharpening his kung fu skills, He also gains more knowledge about human nature while his loyalty to the said masters is tested. Along the way, He witnesses a deadly duel between hotheaded fighter Zhao Xingchuan (Danny Chan) and Zhao’s teacher, the scheming Peng Qianwu (Yueh Wah).

One of the more influential mentors this Taoist cleric meets, though, was his first master, the Taoist reverend Ruoyin (Li Xuejian) who tells him, “Whoever stays true to himself is a real hero.” It is revealed later in this Columbia-backed China/U.S. co-production that he was abandoned as an infant and raised by the Taoist abbot who gave him the name that means “where to put.” The name also symbolizes his quest to find his own place in the outside world.

Janet R. Nepales