Bullet Points: Mad Monkey Kung Fu
Arrow Video has once again hit it out of the park with their Shaw Scope Volume Two box set. Featuring 14 movies from the Shaw Brothers vault (each of them jam packed with special features), plus two soundtrack CDs and an informative companion book… it is tailor made for fans of classic Kung Fu cinema.
It felt like Kung Fu Christmas come early when my box set arrived last week and I really only had one problem with it… I didn’t know where to begin.
Shaw Scope Volume Two includes Shaw classics like The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and The Kid with the Golden Arm. It also includes an Alexander Fu Sheng movies I have yet to see, Ten Tigers of Kwangtung. But I decided to go with one of the movies I had never heard of before, 1979’s Mad Monkey Kung Fu…
- Monkey Swing: Master Chan (Lau Kar-Leung) and his sister Tsuei Hung (Kara Hui Ying-Hung) are part of a traveling opera group and they have a new number one fan, crime boss Mr. Duan (Lo Lieh, King Boxer). While Duan seems to enjoy the performance, he seems to enjoy Tsuei Hung even more! So it is no surprise when Duan invites Master Chan and his sister to join him for dinner after their final show in town. Tsuei Hung really doesn’t want to go for a variety of reasons, but her main reason is she knows how her brother can be after a few drinks. It is Master Chan’s drinking problem that Duan exploits and with his wife’s help, conspires to entrap Master Chan. The end result… Chan has his hands destroyed and Tsuei Hung stepping up to save her brother’s life by becoming Duan’s concubine.
- Monkey Business: The movie skips ahead five years and we find Master Chan now earning a living as a street performer with his trained monkey, Ah-Mo. Chan once again finds himself victimized by a crime boss, in this case Choi and more specifically Choi’s collectors who spend their days shaking down the local merchants. Five years ago Chan probably would have fought the men taking his hard earned money, but after the injuries to his hands, his fighting days are over so he complies. The same can not be said for local pick pocket, ironically named Monkey (Hsiao Ho, Dirty Ho), who is not afraid to stand up to Choi’s collectors and takes great delight making fools of them. The fun and games are over when the collectors feeling Chan was hiding money from them attack Ah-Mo and brutally kill the poor monkey causing the new life that Chan has made for himself to come crashing down around him.
- Monkey See, Monkey Do: Monkey proves to be one of the greatest friends in Kung Fu cinema, when he not only offers his condolences to Chan… he offers to step in and become Chan’s new street performing partner, going so far to dress up as a monkey! But Choi’s men continue to be assholes and when it is clear to Chan that Monkey is not going to stop trying to fight them, he takes Monkey up to the mountains where he can train Monkey in the ways of the monkey fist. Monkey is going to have to live up to his name morning, noon and night if he wants to master this style. This means plenty of training sequences as Chan prepares Monkey for his ultimate battle with Choi and his collectors.
- Brothel Full of Monkeys: The impetuous Monkey decides he has had enough training and returns to face Choi’s men defeating them on the streets and then demanding they take him to see their boss… Monkey meets Choi, but SURPRISE, Choi is only the underboss… the real boss is Mr. Duan! And this is where Monkey’s luck runs out, fortunately Tsuei Hung helps him escape, a move that ends up costing her dearly… When Monkey makes it back to Chan, he tells him what happened and Chan kick Monkey’s training into high gear before BOTH men make their way back to town and Duan’s brothel… looks like Chan may have one more fight in him after all!
I am not mad that I decided to start my Shaw Scope Volume 2 journey with Mad Monkey Kung Fu… Lo Lieh makes a helluva villain and the fact that he had his own wife helping him get other women is a testament to the kind of power he wielded…. Hsiao Ho’s Monkey is the kind of friend we should all aspire to be, his heart is in the right place and he proves his loyalty to Chan time and time again… Lau Kar-Leung’s Chan is the connective tissue that brings the whole movie together.. Chan is a man wrongfully accused, who came back from adversity, started a new life and despite his handicap does not let the opportunity to right the wrong pass him by.
Throw in the production values and quality martial arts you’d expect from a Shaw Brothers film and Mad Monkey Kung Fu went from a movie I had never heard of, to one that I can’t wait to watch again.
Here’s something you’d expect from one of my reviews, some Bonus Bullet Points…
- Memorable Quote: “I’ve got a pretty tough ass.” – Monkey
- Bastard Check: I counted at least two “bastards” uttered in the film.
- Special Features: When I do watch Mad Monkey Kung Fu again it will be with the commentary track on. Martial arts cinema experts Frank Djeng and Michael Worth recorded a commentary track specifically for the Shaw Scope release and I am looking forward to listening their insights.
