Lau Kar-leung’s itchy, acrobatic Shaw Brothers fight fest jumps around for a breathless 100 minutes of unadulterated kung fu fun, and the best use of a monkey in cinematic history. Ben Johnson tests just how funky this monkey really is...
Mad Monkey Kung Fu
Distributor: Intercontinental Video Ltd. Format: Region 3 (NTSC) Length: 110 min. Aspect Ratio: Widescreen (2.35:1) Audio: Mandarin, Cantonese Subtitles: English, Chinese, Malay, Indonesian Extras: Trailers, Stills, Original Poster, Production Notes, Cast and Crew Information Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0
Year of Release: 1979; Origin: Hong Kong; Studio: Shaw Brothers
Director: Lau Kar-leung; Producer: Mona Fong Yat-wah; Script: Ni Kuang; Action Director: Lau Kar-leung; Cast: Lau Kar-leung, Hsiao Ho, Lo Lieh, Kara Hui Ying-hung, Ching Chu, San Sin, Lam Fai-wong, Lin Ke-ming.
Alternative Titles: N/A
Trailer: Click below to view the trailer for Mad Monkey Kung Fu
Plot Synopsis
China, late 19th Century: Master Chen (Lau Kar-leung) and his sister Hung (Kara Hui) are two touring Opera actors who succumb to the charms of local bigwig Tuen (Lo Lieh), who’s a bit of a local shark with finances spread across property and prostitution. Tuen invites the duo back to his elaborate abode and plies Chen with booze until he gives away all of his Monkey Fist secrets. Tuen’s scheme to ruin Chen and steal his beautiful sister by faking a sexual assault on one of his mistresses works a treat, and the following morning, Hung agrees to spend the rest of her days as one of Tuen’s concubines while Master Chen has his hands crippled by hammers in retribution for the heinous act that he didn’t commit. This debilitating act doubles as Tuen’s desperate ploy to quash Chen’s superior Monkey skills.
A pretty terrible situation gets a lot worse for Chen when he decides to live the life of a street performer accompanied with a traveling circus monkey, only for a bunch of syndicate hoodlums to wreck his show, pocket the cash and kill his monkey. Chen befriends a likeable young scamp aptly titled Little Monkey (Hsiao Ho), who becomes besotted with Chen’s street act and vows to learn the old man’s skills. When Little Monkey is beaten senseless by the town’s unscrupulous syndicate goons, Chen takes the boy out into a field and teaches him the rudiments of Monkey Fist. After some time, Little Monkey thinks he’s ready to exact some sort of revenge on the local bullies, but in his quest to defeat the gang’s top dog (which, as it happens, is the evil Tuen), he is pummeled into a table and almost has his scalp removed. Sister Hung, however, realizes that his brother must still be alive and decides to fight back against her capture, only to be kicked off a balcony and fall to her death.
So the boy learns a few more mad monkey skills from Master Chen and the two come out of hiding to confront the evil Tuen for a decidedly deadly gang bang showdown, surrounded by all the pimp’s men armed with sticks, swords, ropes and nets.
Review
A fantastic circus show from martial magician Lau Kar-leung, who just about redefines on-screen fight choreography with this wild, vivacious attack, which effortlessly combines slapstick street theatre and Peking Opera with an audacious battle between good and evil. The story goes no deeper than that, instead, it is Lau’s almost self-conscious approach to the ‘new wave’ of martial arts comedy films that stands out so abruptly. By making his central characters Opera actors and street performers, Lau is justifying the elaborate, comedic nature of the film’s excessive, acrobatic fight sequences by making them a deliberate spectacle. In different hands (Sammo Hung’s, perhaps, or Yuen Woo-ping), such justification may not have been necessary, but Lau is clearly conscious of his audience’s perception. Indeed, in many of this film’s fight scenes, an audience is already present – whether it be the jeering street crowds or gawping onlookers. This merely adds to Lau’s purposefully stage-like entertainment. In one scene, the acrobatic Little Monkey tells one of the villains, who fights in a more rigid, Hung Gar system, that his style is “old fashioned,” and that “audiences don’t want to see that.” As both director and choreographer, Lau is pushing his film to the upper limits of athletic expression in a bid to transform the staid, stoic kung fu films of the past and produce a more vibrant, vivid and colourful chopsocky for the present day. Also, by making the character of Master Chen someone who is continually questioned and challenged as having no real, authentic martial arts skill other than the monkey act that he puts on for show, Lau is taking his first tentative steps into the realms of mixing showmanship with chivalry, and making non-conformist martial practices an equally formidable tool to rival that of the more traditional, classical modes of combat.
The Monkey Fist, like Drunken Boxing and other unorthodox animal styles, has been a cinematic obsession for a number of years, and although Lau’s film outdates previous endeavors like Chen Kuan-tai’s Iron Monkey, few would deny that it is this film which best expresses the fun and vibrancy of this exotic art form. Of course, much of this is down to the players, notably Hsiao Ho in his first starring role. With purely unselfish motivation, Lau allows Ho to command the second half of the picture, using the actor’s supreme comedic agility and acrobatics to great affect as the perfect counterbalance to Lau’s role as a broken, disheveled has-been master, spoilt by alcohol and forced to live with the consequences. In contrast, Ho is young, reckless and foolish, and monkeys about with considerable animation. With his scratching and sniffing, rolling and riving, Ho would cement his standing as a Shaw contract player after this formidable debut and would remain a long standing favourite of Lau. As with Kara Hui, who bagged herself an award for her role as Lau’s long-suffering sister, she would also make a considerable name for herself as a Shaw leading lady in great movies like My Young Auntie and The Lady Is The Boss.
Few films are as hyperactive as this simian showcase, and if you were looking for an introduction to Lau Kar-leung’s expansive repertoire, then this would be a good place to start.
Lau Kar-leung’s itchy, acrobatic Shaw Brothers fight fest jumps around for a breathless 100 minutes of unadulterated kung fu fun, and the best use of a monkey in cinematic history. Ben Johnson tests just how funky this monkey really is... 
A pretty terrible situation gets a lot worse for Chen when he decides to live the life of a street performer accompanied with a traveling circus monkey, only for a bunch of syndicate hoodlums to wreck his show, pocket the cash and kill his monkey. Chen befriends a likeable young scamp aptly titled Little Monkey (Hsiao Ho), who becomes besotted with Chen’s street act and vows to learn the old man’s skills. When Little Monkey is beaten senseless by the town’s unscrupulous syndicate goons, Chen takes the boy out into a field and teaches him the rudiments of Monkey Fist. After some time, Little Monkey thinks he’s ready to exact some sort of revenge on the local bullies, but in his quest to defeat the gang’s top dog (which, as it happens, is the evil Tuen), he is pummeled into a table and almost has his scalp removed. Sister Hung, however, realizes that his brother must still be alive and decides to fight back against her capture, only to be kicked off a balcony and fall to her death. 
The Monkey Fist, like Drunken Boxing and other unorthodox animal styles, has been a cinematic obsession for a number of years, and although Lau’s film outdates previous endeavors like Chen Kuan-tai’s Iron Monkey, few would deny that it is this film which best expresses the fun and vibrancy of this exotic art form. Of course, much of this is down to the players, notably Hsiao Ho in his first starring role. With purely unselfish motivation, Lau allows Ho to command the second half of the picture, using the actor’s supreme comedic agility and acrobatics to great affect as the perfect counterbalance to Lau’s role as a broken, disheveled has-been master, spoilt by alcohol and forced to live with the consequences. In contrast, Ho is young, reckless and foolish, and monkeys about with considerable animation. With his scratching and sniffing, rolling and riving, Ho would cement his standing as a Shaw contract player after this formidable debut and would remain a long standing favourite of Lau. As with Kara Hui, who bagged herself an award for her role as Lau’s long-suffering sister, she would also make a considerable name for herself as a Shaw leading lady in great movies like My Young Auntie and The Lady Is The Boss. 
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