• Director: Steven Spielberg
• With: Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, Ke Huy Quan, Amrish Puri, Roshan Seth, Philip Stone, Roy Chiao, David Yip, Ric Young, Dan Akroyd
• Music by: John Williams
• Duration: 1h58
• Studio: Paramount Pictures
• Rating: 8,5/10

Synopsis:

Indiana Jones teams up with a nightclub singer named Wilhelmina “Willie” Scott and a twelve-year-old Chinese boy named Short Round. They end up in a small distressed village in India, where the people believe that evil spirits have taken all their children away after a sacred precious stone was stolen. They also discover the great mysterious terror surrounding a booby-trapped temple known as the Temple of Doom. Thuggee is beginning to attempt to rise once more, believing that with the power of all five Sankara stones they can rule the world. It’s all up to Indiana to put an end to the Thuggee campaign, rescue the lost children, win the girl and conquer the Temple of Doom.

Review:

This second instalment functions as a prequel for ‘Raiders’, even before prequels were used commonly! And this one is a bit of a strange duck… it’s the only Indiana Jones movie where Indy is not teaching in the university, where he’s not looking for an artefact for himself ànd with one of the best epilogues to an Indy-movie. (Only surpassed maybe by the Young Indy scene from the third movie)! And the movie has one more asset: Short Round!

This time Indiana is in Asia and in the beginning he’s in a club trying to negotiate with Lap Che about a diamond. But he’s being poisoned and has to get an antidote very quickly, while trying to save the diamond. He gets some ‘help’ from the club singer, Willie Scott, who he takes along on his way out. There Indy’s accomplice Short Round is waiting with the getaway car. They get into a plane, thinking they’ll be escaping… only to get in a plane owned by Lao Che’s company. On the way over India they are left to their devices, the pilots jump ship, and have to survive the flight from hell. Eventually the are stranded in a village in India, where they hear the story about kidnapped children and a stolen artifact, a sacred stone known as the Sankara Stone!

The villagers ask his help and Willie, Short Round and Indiana Jones are on their way to… The Temple of Doom!

As with every Indiana Jones movie there’s a lot of adventure and crazy scenes but also a lot of humour in the storyline and some element of horror. The worshipping of the goddess Kali and the way the Thuggee sacrifice people is ripe for a horror movie. (Didn’t Dan Simmons write a story a bit similar to this cult worshipping Kali, The Song of Kali?)

The actor playing Short Round (Ke Huy Quan) recently met Harrison Ford again on some event and it was the best reunion ever seen! Ke Huy is the perfect cast for that role! He just makes the movie even more enjoyable. And I know some people had problems with the annoying character of Willie, played by Kate Capshaw, but she brings a new element to Indy’s coolness. He looses it because of her… and honestly, I would be every bit as annoying as her especially at that dinner scene ànd in that dark insect infested hallway! 😂 brrrr

So in conclusion… this is such a great movie! It doesn’t have Brody, nazis, Salah or Marion but it is definitely a true Indiana Jones movie… but due to ‘Raiders’ and ‘Crusaders’ being just a bit more fun, this ends up third in my top 5 of Indiana movies (not having seen Dial of Destiny yet at this time!)