If you feel like we don’t get enough movies about monks who become muscle-bound strippers and use supernatural abilities to fight crime, this marks your lucky day! 2003’s Running on Karma fits that particular narrow bill.

Hong Kong police arrest muscular stripper “Biggie” (Andy Lau) due to indecent exposure. At the same time, the authorities chase a psychopathic contortionist murderer Deohans Singh (???), and the two literally bump into each other.

Once a Buddhist monk, Big abandons that life because his ability to see past lives – and thus predict the future – became too much of a burden. However, this skills matches him with rookie cop Lee Fung-yee (Cecilia Cheung) as they pursue the criminal, an experience colored by Biggie’s visions of Lee’s hideous past and his belief karma will eventually catch up with her.

If nothing else, Running comes with an unusual concept. As I snarkily implied at the start, films about jacked-up former monks turned strippers who possess psychic skills don’t show up too often – or ever, probably, outside of this one.

So I give Running credit for its willingness to give us something out of the ordinary. The question becomes whether or not the film manages a compelling story beyond its quirky choices.

The answer becomes “not really”. While I dig the basic insanity of the movie’s scope, director Johnnie To can’t turn it into a coherent package.

Much of the problem stems from how all over the place Running becomes in terms of tone. It leaps from comedy to thriller to melodrama to romance at the drop of a hat.

Not that a good movie can’t package all those elements in a positive manner, but To fails to find a way to do so. Running shifts so abruptly that it feels muddled and over-stuffed.

This also means an awful lot of unnecessary tangents. Running branches out in ways that disrupt an already messy plot.

Or maybe I should say “plot”, as the film’s scattered story barely qualifies as one. While I tighten up the tale for my synopsis, Running veers off-target in so many ways that it feels difficult to really narrow down a clear path.

Really, those tonal shifts remain the biggest issue here, though. I could take the messy narrative if the movie didn’t provide such jarring leaps from silly comedy to romance to melodrama and the like.

The basic view of karma examined here comes with potential, especially given the basis of the characters’ attempts to change destiny. However, Running doesn’t develop these components in an engaging manner, so they feel more like windowdressing than anything else.

And let’s not forget the laughable “muscle suit” that poor Lau must wear for most of the story. Others criticize the choice to make Biggie a bodybuilder, but this does make sense by the end of the film.

Unfortunately, that “muscle suit” rarely looks anything other than goofy. It seems so obviously fake that it adds another distraction to the movie.

As noted, Running comes with potential, and I do respect its ambition. Unfortunately, it winds up as so scattered that it becomes a less than satisfying experience.

Running on Karma appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. While not a bad image, the movie looked weaker than I expected of a project from 2003.

Sharpness usually seemed reasonably concise, but those elements varied. While much of the movie displayed nice delineation, the flick could lean a bit soft at times.

No issues with shimmering occurred, but small instances of jagged edges cropped up on occasion. While no edge haloes appeared, I saw sporadic instances of small specks.

Running mainly opted for a palette that leaned toward blues and greens, with examples of other hues at times. These showed acceptable clarity but also could lean a little heavy.

Blacks seemed decent, while low-light shots brought adequate clarity. Though nothing here flopped, the movie simply never delivered especially positive visuals, especially given its fairly recent vintage.

Right out of the gate, the audio of Running lost points because it solely offered an LPCM stereo option. I don’t know if this represented the theatrical mix, but 2003 seems awfully late in the game for a film to lack even surround sound.

At least the soundscape showed nice spread across the front speakers. Music boasted nice stereo delineation, and effects displayed good location and movement. I had no issue with the execution of this soundfield but simply found fault in how outdated a mere two-channel track was circa 2003.

Audio quality worked fine, with speech that appeared natural and distinctive. Music offered appealing range and warmth.

Effects showed good dimensionality as well, with clean highs and lows. The sound itself worked fine but a simple stereo mix for a 2003 film left this as a “C+” track.

When we shift to extras, we get two audio commentaries. The first comes from film historian Frank Djeng and filmmaker FJ DeSanto, as both sit together for a running, screen-specific look at story/characters, themes, cast and crew, sets and locations, the impact of director Johnnie To, and their thoughts about the film.

That latter domain dominates, as Djeng and DeSanto too often simply praise Running. While we find sporadic insights along the way, the track lacks a lot of depth and feels more like fan appreciation than anything else.

Billed as a “supplementary commentary”, the second track brings Frank Djeng all on his own. He delivers a running, screen-specific discussion of essentially the same range of topics from the prior chat.

This means a fair amount of repetition and not much fresh material. Djeng’s solo track probably offers the superior commentary of the two and it makes no sense to listen to both, but neither really offers great information.

Next comes Reap the Whirlwind. In this 24-minute, 52-second reel, we hear from film historian Gary Bettinson.

“Reap” examines Hong Kong cinema in this film’s era as well as aspects of the production company and the Karma shoot. Bettinson covers these domains well.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we conclude with a circa 2003 featurette entitled The Making of Running on Karma. It spans 18 minutes, 39 seconds and offers notes from producer/co-director Wai Ka Fai, producer/director Johnnie To, screenwriter Yau Nai Hoi, musician Anthony Wong Yiu-Ming, lyricist Albert Leung, and actors Andy Lau and Cecilia Cheung.

“Making” covers story/characters, cast and performances, Lau’s “muscle suit”, production details and music. Though the program includes the film’s primary participants, they don’t give us much quality material in this largely fluffy reel.

Because Running On Karma throws so much at the wall, I can’t help but admire its wacky scope. However, these different elements fail to mesh particularly well so the end product becomes a mess. The Blu-ray brings mediocre picture and audio as well as an inconsistent set of supplements. Running occasionally intrigues but the end result fails to connect.