Bulletproof Monk

A review by Rich Redman

Bulletproof Monk (starring Chow Yun-Fat, Seann William Scott, and Jamie King) was interesting to me on several levels. I'll at least touch on all of them here.

Synopsis

This movie is several stories in one. It's the story of an ancient scroll that conveys ultimate power, of the only surviving guardian of the scroll, of his search for a worthy successor, and of two young people trying to discover and define themselves. Of course, there are also Nazis, and any movie where Nazis are the bad guys has to have something going for it.

Chow Yun-Fat plays a nameless monk who escapes a Nazi attack on his Tibetan monastery with the scroll of ultimate power. Flash forward 60 years to the present day. The monk bumps into a young pickpocket (Scott) named Kar and witnesses a fight between the pickpocket and a gang of street thugs, including Bad Girl (King). During the fight Kar fulfills the first part of a prophecy the monk believes will identify his successor.

The monk approaches Kar and tries to befriend and teach him. Kar, who learned martial arts watching kung fu movies in the theater in which he lives, doesn't believe in destiny and wants no part of the monk. Meanwhile, the granddaughter of the Nazi attack's commanding officer leads a gang of neo-Nazis that are still chasing the scroll, believing it will give her grandfather back his youth and that they will benefit from his becoming all-powerful. She finds the monk, and Kar becomes part of the ensuing chase and fight.

Kar gradually comes to want to be the prophesied guardian. He and the monk get chased by Nazis, have lots of cool fight scenes (hey, John Woo and Terence Chang produced this movie, you know they're going to make Mr. Yun-Fat look good!), and eventually triumph.

Reviews

Before I saw the movie, I read two reviews, one by a co-worker and one by a newspaper critic. The co-worker had read the Image graphic novel (as had I) and was disappointed by the film. All his criticisms stemmed from the ways the movie deviates from the graphic novel. I found this attitude baffling. Kar is Asian in the graphic novel, and Caucasian in the film. As soon as I saw that Seann William Scott had been cast as Kar, I knew it was going to be different from the graphic novel. In fact, I think it was a brilliant casting decision because it notified everyone paying attention that the movie would be its own story.

The newspaper critic compared Bulletproof Monk to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and panned Bulletproof Monk as a result. No critic can possibly see every movie that has ever existed, but comparing all Chow Yun-Fat movies to the only other one you've ever seen is ridiculous. My wife and I own copies of Full Contact, God of Gamblers, God of Gamblers Return, A Better Tomorrow, A Better Tomorrow II, Hard Boiled, and even The Corruptor and The Replacement Killers. We've certainly seen what many consider the ultimate Chow Yun-Fat/John Woo team-up, The Killer. We were open to any experience when we went to see Bulletproof Monk.

By the way, we thought Bulletproof Monk was well worth the price of admission. My wife even cried at the end.

Gaming

Nazis

For sixty years now, Nazis have "enjoyed" various levels of popularity as villains in American films. Our country was largely untouched by the Second World War, yet we remain fascinated by it, as witnessed by the success of such recent films as Saving Private Ryan, Enemy at the Gate, U-571, and even the Indiana Jones movies. As gamers, we should take a lesson from this.

A "good" villain is clearly identifiable. Heroes should have a gut-level dislike for the villain. They should want to defeat that antagonist. The villain should have an agenda that beyond opposing the heroes, and that agenda should help define why the heroes want to be heroic in opposing "him."

Don't misunderstand me: Not every campaign has to have clear-cut moral choices. While most play does benefit from clear goals and a shared understanding of right and wrong, moral dilemmas make for good role-playing. What I'm trying to suggest is that after the heroes have unraveled the mystery, fought the goons, and unmasked the true villain of the campaign, they will feel better and more heroic if that ultimate villain is clearly evil.

In Dungeons & Dragons, the villainous mastermind roles are filled by the likes of drow, beholders, mind flayers, dragons, demons, and devils. They are strongly characterized and very different from each other. There are good reasons why they've remained in the game for decades and continue to promote their vile schemes. When you're building your campaign for any game or setting, you need to find "iconic" villains to use. Talk to your players. Find out what imagery they respond to. It may be that they lost family members in the Second World War and have strong emotional reactions to black and silver uniforms; and to red, white, and black flags. Use that imagery to identify your villains, and watch your heroes take up their adventures with zeal.

Martial Arts

As one of the designers for the d20 Modern Roleplaying Game, and the GM for an Urban Arcana game, I try to strike a balance between melees and ranged combats. I do so because I want my players to enjoy both and to feel their heroes are effective regardless of which becomes their focus. This is an extraordinarily difficult balancing act, and it requires careful thought.

The biggest complaint that I see is that, at 1st-level, firearms are far more effective than martial arts. When people argue that this is a bad thing, they use names like Jet Li, Bruce Lee, and Jackie Chan as arguments for why martial arts should start off more powerful. Regardless of the realism of your game, this is a bad argument. Those three men, and the characters they portray, are not 1st-level heroes. They worked and sacrificed to reach the rarefied levels of achievement we see on the silver screen and they benefit from good editing, special effects, and careful stunt preparation. It is possible to achieve similar levels of performance, but heroes must be higher level to achieve them. Remember that while a hero may become more accurate with a firearm, the firearm's damage stays the same level after level. As martial artists gain feats, increase their Strength, and achieve new class abilities, their accuracy and damage both increase.

You may, however, want to run a campaign in which martial arts are far more commonly used than firearms. Consider handing out Brawl, Combat Martial Arts, or Defensive Martial Arts as a free feat at first level (you'll want to revise those occupations that provide one of these as a free feat). Consider increasing the damage from unarmed combat one die level (so untrained people do 1d4 nonlethal, someone with Brawl does 1d8 nonlethal, and someone with Combat Martial Arts does 1d6), just make sure to increase later benefits as well. As GM, work to create situations where firearms are a bad idea and unarmed combat is preferred. You can do this by staging fights in public areas and having the police crack down hard on firearms use, staging fights in crowded spaces where heroes are reluctant to shoot into crowds or into melee, or by instituting an Honor system that rewards heroes for putting down their firearms and fighting unarmed. Better yet, have students from rival schools challenge heroes to tests of fighting skill where use of a firearm would bring shame on both the hero and the school.

Destiny and Infinite Power

One of the things I really enjoyed about Bulletproof Monk was its use of prophecy. The prophecy of the guardian of the scroll seemed specific at first glance, but as the movie unfolds the monk discovers many possible interpretations and is unsure despite his great wisdom who the foretold guardian actually is (I enjoyed his solution to the dilemma, too). If you have prophecy in your game, make sure to create situations that reveal alternate interpretations of the prophecy. Does "a flight of cranes circled overhead" mean literal birds, or do cargo-loading cranes also fulfill the prophecy?

One thing about Bulletproof Monk may not work in your game. The scroll bestows ultimate power on anyone who reads it aloud from beginning to end. In the movie, there is an unstated belief that ultimate power would corrupt anyone, and that is why the prophecy guides the current guardian to someone who will never read the scroll. I think we all know that in our games, a hero would certainly read it, and it's important to understand that as a feature of role-playing games. Since everything happens in our imaginations, we're free to experiment with solutions we might not if our bodies or souls were actually at risk. Ideally, such an item would require great quests just to access and more great quests to acquire the knowledge to read it. When a hero finally manages to read the entire thing, he or she should be transformed into a deity and the player should feel good about retiring that character.

Summary

I've rambled on long enough. Here's a quick summation of key points from this review:

• When stories change media, they often change form. Don't expect a beloved novel or comic book to be the same on the silver screen (and watch for reminders of that in the advertising).
• It's unfair to expect an artist's next product to be identical, or even similar, to a previous product. That's true for music, movies, television, books, comics, and more. Be aware of an artist's body of work, and keep an open mind.
• Clear-cut villains make the heroes who oppose them more heroic. It feels better to be a hero when you're sure what you're doing is right. You can't go wrong beating up Nazis!
• Don't make one combat form superior to others by accident, but it's okay to do so as a feature of a campaign.
• Keep your players guessing about the real meanings of prophecies. Purposely challenge players' interpretations of prophecies in your game.
• Don't put items of infinite power in your game and expect them not to be used. Whether that item is a mystical scroll or a minigun, role-playing games encourage experimentation and some hero will see the item as a tool for getting the job done.

That's it from me this time. I'm Rich Redman, and I'll see you at the movies!

Your Turn

What did you think of Bulletproof Monk and Rich's analysis? Let us know in the Opinions section of our discussion boards.