Up to His Ears
Up to His Ears ( or in English, "Tribulations of a Chinaman in China") is a 1965 French adventure comedy film starring Jean Paul Belmondo and Ursula Andress. It was directed by Philippe de Broca and written by Daniel Boulanger, loosely based on the 1879 novel "Tribulations of a Chinaman in China" by Jules Verne. Plot. Millionaire Arthur Lempereur is bored with life. He tries to kill himself but fails, then decides to travel to Hong Kong to see if his depression can be cured. In Hong Kong, Arthur discovers that his money is gone. Mister Goh , his old tutor and a Chinese philosopher, makes him take out a life insurance policy to benefit Alice, Arthur's fiancée, and Mister Goh. Goh promises to kill Arthur for him. Arthur then meets Alexandrine, an ethnologist and striptease dancer. He decides not to die, and goes to track down Goh before Goh can hire a hitman. Production. In addition to its footage of China, the film contains several minutes of the Agra area in India, including the Taj Mahal, which appears much whiter than it does today. The film also includes approximately 15 minutes of footage of the central  area of Kathmandu, Nepal, the nearby Swayambunath hillside temple and more rural mountain areas of Nepal, with the impressive Himalayas as the backdrop. The film reunited de Broca and Belmondo, who had worked on "That Man from Rio". Filming started under the title "Chinese Adventures in China" on January 5, 1965 in Nepal. Ursula Andress left for Hong Kong in February 1965. Filming took place in Hong Kong and Paris. In January 1966, the title was changed to "Up to His Ears". Reception. The film was the tenth-most popular of 1965 in France, after "The Sucker", "Goldfinger", "Thunderball", "Gendarme  in New York", "Mary Poppins", "Fantomas Unleashed", "God's Thunder", "The Wise Guys" and "Viva Maria!".