That's why something like Himalaya Singh is so refreshing. There will be those who dismiss it as hackneyed rubbish, a less than successful repackaging of some standard cornball ideas by a director - Ka-Fai Wai – whose done a lot better in the past. But that is all beside the point. While this movie may indeed by guilty of some or all of the criticisms foisted upon it by those blinded from a 'been there-done that' bias, the truth is that this film is a lot of fun. It revels in its ridiculousness and bounces in its burlesque. It sets out to do nothing more miraculous than entertain and amuse its audience. That it does so with wit, style and a lot of imagination is simply the snowcaps along the title mountain range. You can accuse Himalaya Singh of being a lot of things, but failing to produce giddiness is not one of them. As flights of fancy go, this one's on a non-stop flight to your pleasure principles.

The DVD:
Himalaya Singh has grown up in the mountains with his very proud parents. Still a young and very vital man, Singh has mastered the proper balance and control of nature, making him an expert yogi. That's perfect, since his parents have arranged that he marry India Beauty, a wealthy and very attractive girl who lives in the city. Singh must venture into the real world for the first time and interact with other people. He must also participate in and win a Yoga contest in order to officially gain Beauty's hand. His parents give him a strong warning and a secret weapon – a vial of 'advice'. If he has a problem, he can consult the amulet and get its insight.

Unfortunately, Singh gets off on the wrong foot. Instead of Beauty's home, he winds up in the house of Tally, an angry local girl who is jealous of Beauty. When Singh seeks advice as to how to win Beauty's hand, Tally gives him some unsettling news – since all men in India are bad to their women, Singh must learn how to be bad. And Tally will teach him. Meanwhile, a group of tourists lead by Uncle Panic and his two nephews are robbed while in the local bazaar. The criminals hypnotize Uncle into thinking he's a great lover, and he has many imaginary adventures while under the effects of mesmerism. Eventually, he wants to compete for Beauty's hand as well.

The nephews, meanwhile, meet up with a smooth talking tourist with a suitcase full of money. Taking the two under his wing, the spendthrift buys three bottles of magic Indian potion - one drop, and you loose the memory of the previous day; a whole bottle, and you forget who you are. Naturally, the numbskulls end up drinking the entire contents, and stumble around trying to determine their real identities. Somehow, Singh, Uncle Panic and the newly knighted Uncle Brave all end up at India's competition. But who will win the top honors, especially with Singh brainwashed to be bad, Panic lost in a daydream, and Brave thinking he a macho shaman?

At first, it's hard to fathom just what to make of Himalaya Singh. It's a movie so insane, so broad in its crazy comedy stylings that it makes Jerry Lewis look like a subtle social satirist. It combines loopy plot logic, some less than stellar special effects, and a blasé desire to borrow all it can from other, more moderate amusements to create a cacophony of fun. There will be those who dismiss this movie outright, rejecting it based on director Ka-Fai Wai's previous work (2004's Fantasia being a big fan favorite). But anyone over a certain age will instantly recognize the type of entertainment this moviemaker is fighting for. It was part of the film-going fabric of the 60s and 70s.

At its core, Himalaya Singh is a throwback to the Disney family comedies, those fanciful, over the top stories featuring slapstick set pieces, atomic pratfalls, and more maniacal mugging than a Jim Carrey impersonator convention. Conceived as a traditional Chinese Lunar New Year entertainment (a time when the Far East industry goes out of its way to create light and frothy public-pleasing films) and utilizing the gorgeous backdrop and sense of mystical magic that is India, Singh attempts to cram three divergent storylines into a single spectacle. It wants to meld the metaphysical to the mindless, hoping that a flamboyant, frothy mixture results. While the final product is far from perfect, this is one delightful movie brimming with imagination, invention and irreverence.

Just as Tim Burton's Mars Attacks was a knowing spoof of all the big budget sci-fi/ disaster films from bygone eras, Himalaya Singh wants to take on the action adventure romance genre, spicing it up with some heady local color and lots of sensationally stupid sight gags. Similar in style to the films of Stephen Chow (Kung Fu Hustle, Shaolin Soccer) but with a lot less attention to detail and character, Wai has a specific comic sensibility that occasionally engulfs his attempts at authenticity. Indeed, Himalaya Singh is like a fairytale gone gonzo, a strange combination of fable and farce that never quite gels into a perfect blend of bemusement or bedlam. The abundant whimsy, while pleasing to the soul, just can't help but overpower and undermine the narrative.

When it works, though, Himalaya Singh is sensational. Any movie that riffs on Indiana Jones, Kill Bill, 2001, Jurassic Park and Somewhere in Time (complete with a send-up of the coin based finale) deserves points for picking its targets. But there is also a lot of originality here. The Yoga contest angle is incredibly novel, leading to a lot of the fun physical comedy this movie is steeped in. Also important are the well-observed elements of Indian culture, from the mannered male machismo to the opulence of lifestyles and celebration. Himalaya Singh is one of the best looking films in a long time, seemingly carved out of soapstone and forged out of copper, draped in paisley and madras while the soft aroma of jasmine and coriander fills the air. The visual sense shown by this filmmaker really shines here, as backdrops as awe-inspiring as the famed mountains themselves give the premise a grandeur and greatness that lightweight yarns often lack.

Director Wai also does a fantastic job of juggling his divergent plot strands. For a long time – perhaps too long for some – all three stories seem to scatter, searching out their own tone and temperament. This intermittently leads to a kind of story stalemate, since we aren't sure where our loyalties are supposed to lie. It gets harder and harder to root for Singh, Uncle Panic and Uncle Brave at the same time. Instead, our attentions are constantly divided as Wai leaves one narrative behind completely to concentrate wholly on another. That he brings them all together in the end will either be viewed as something fantastic, or just plain forced. Indeed, one could argue that Himalaya Singh is really three films plastered into one great big goof, a movie taking its holiday mandate for complete entertainment overload far too seriously.

There are other minor flaws here as well. The CGI is painfully obvious, and not really in a magic realism or cinematic satire kind of way. Arguing that it's no Industrial Light and Magic is rather mindless, since ILM have been known to mess up the occasional process shot themselves. But since Wai doesn't give us a wise wink to his lesser visual flaring, we have to assume he thinks it's aces. Sadly, it's just so-so, not really as bad as the bluescreen halos from the earliest days of optical effects, but enough to put detail oriented fanboys on the defensive. It does fit in with the quirky, skylarking concept of the story, but when the last act of your film relies on it almost exclusively, the deficient technical aptitude becomes a problem.

The acting is also an issue. Most of the performers, like Ching Wan Lau (as Uncle Panic) and Ronald Cheny (as Singh) are drawing directly from cartoons, using horribly artificial gestures and dopey dynamics to sell their showboating. Indeed, many critics take Wan Lau to task for basically playing Mr. Bean with even more brain damage. On the opposite end, both of our female leads – Cherrie Ting as Tally and Gauri S. Karnik as India Beauty – as far more refined in their approach. They bring a balance to the piece, playing objects of desire that are both independent and intelligent. Mixed in together are all other approaches to performance style, from serious to stupid, Method to amateur. Tenor is tantamount to complete success in such a film approach, and with the myriad of techniques on display here, Wai can't help but let his movie get a little lost.

Still, in the end, Himalaya Singh is something special. It's mindless and good-natured entertainment that tries to say a little about spirituality and being true to yourself. It may stumble along the way, and not hit every one of its lampoon targets perfectly – if at all – yet we can't help but get swept up in director Wai's world of wonders. Sometimes, you just have to toss reality aside and let a flight of fancy fill up your spirit. Being cynical and jaded has its pluses, but so does being carefree and blithe. Movies like Himalaya Singh may not be ideal cinematic exercises, but it does contain enough imagination, fun and visual joy to make up for its frequent mistakes. As friendly as a visit from Frazier Thomas on a WGN/Family Classics Sunday afternoon, and imbued with a selfless desire to amuse, this is a terrific, if sometimes trying film.

The Video:
The World Video and Supply Inc. DVD reviewed here has some slight technical issues, but none of them come in the visual department. The absolutely ravishing 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen image is brilliant, filled to bursting with color and providing a perfect palette for many of director Wai's more splendid visual experiments. The Indian landscape has never looked more inviting, and the Himalayas themselves are a revelation in nature's nuisances. While the concrete contrasts occasionally give the CGI away, this is still a spectacular looking film, made even more powerful by the print provided.

The Audio:
Here is where the trouble begins, albeit rather insignificantly. Himalaya Singh is presented in a fairly flat Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround mix that has very little atmosphere and almost no sense of space. Everything here feels crammed together and chaotic. While it never collapses into a complete mess – everything remains distortion and overmodulation free – there is not the attention to aural detail that we get with the imagery. Besides, the English subtitles are just too damn literal. Slang seems to get translated word for word (making for some strange exchanges) while other Western elements like noun-verb agreement and tense are tossed to the four winds. The narrative is easy enough to follow, but some of the verbal wit is lost in this far too varied version.

The Extras:
The final baffling element, especially for an American audience, is the pretty thin bonus material offered on this disc. We get a 30 minute Making-Of Featurette, which would normally be cause for celebration - except it's all in Chinese – and not a minute of it is translated or subtitled. There is a databank that contains a synopsis of the plot (the English is almost incomprehensible) and a list of cast and crew, but no access to their names or any additional information. Finally, there is a trailer which does a decent job of selling the film, but that's about it: nothing else to guide a novice viewer into the particulars of this movie, or the people who made it. And that's a shame. One of the ways individuals undecided about a film make their decisions is based on the abundance and depth of the added content. The less than stellar substance here will definitely dissuade some from what is otherwise a fine, fun film.

Final Thoughts:
It is easy to understand why Himalaya Singh stirs up so many mixed emotions. First, it uses recognizable archetypes and time honored comic traditions to provide its plethora of hit or miss pleasures. Secondly, it is outrageous and overly eager, even in moments where subtlety would have been a surer choice. Third, it pales in comparison to other works, either by the cast and crew involved, or within the genre itself. Finally, it's not always free and easy in its entertainment issues. Sometimes, it forces things for the sake of obvious wants and desires. Still, all epic scope and pseudo-spiritualism aside, all farcical folly and joyful noisiness aside, Himalaya Singh is a movie loaded with imagination. And this may be the reason it confuses us so. We live in a cinematic world that frequently lacks this vital visual and narrative ingredient. So when something comes along with novelty to spare, it can be very disorienting. But Himalaya Singh can't help its good-hearted nature. It's the reason for its existence, and it's hard to imagine it being any other way.

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