Mad Monkey Kung Fu

I already owned a copy of this movie but wanted to get the Dragon Dynasty remastered version. I also wanted the mandarin version with subtitles -- anything is better than the English dub. The picture looks great, and the audio is superb, unlike the unauthorised bootleg copies distributed by Red Sun.Mad Monkey Kung Fu stars Hsiao Hou as little monkey and Lau Kar Leung as Mr. Chan, an opera performer who is falsely accused of raping the wife of a local gangster, an elaborate ruse by Mr. Tuan (played by Lo Lieh) to steal Chan's sister (who is also an opera performer).Chan's sister agrees to become the lustful Mr. Tuan's concubine in order to save her brother's life, when it is decided that raping a man's wife is punishable with death by drowning. Mr. Tuan agrees, but only if Mr. Chan is crippled so that he is unable to take revenge or have his sister back.Fast forward five years later, and Mr. Chan (whose life is all but ruined) is a street performer with a monkey show. During a performance, he meets an orphan named Monkey, an athletic boy who is also a petty thief. Monkey becomes enamored with Mr. Chan's show and the two becomes fast friends. But problems ensue when a gang of thugs force Mr. Chan to pay bribes. In fact, the same gang have been terrorizing businesses all over the community. After they finally kill Mr. Chan's pet monkey Ah Mo for failure to pay on time, little Monkey becomes Mr. Chan's sidekick, starring in Mr. Chan's show. But the thugs soon strike again, this time taking all of their earnings. During the confrontation, Monkey learns that Mr. Chan is a master of Monkey Fist, and begs to learn Kung Fu. But Mr. Chan refuses, fearing for little Monkey's life.Tired of being bullied, Monkey confronts the gang on his own, demanding to meet their boss. But he is badly beaten. He returns to Mr. Chan in a coma. When he awakens, he cries that he is tired of being bullied and humiliated and further begs to learn Kung Fu.Mr. Chan finally relents, and an awesome series of training sequences begin -- in fact, probably some of the best training sequences in a kung fu movie to date. Soon, Monkey has learned everything about being a Monkey fighter, except its most crucial skill, which is Monkey Fist. But he is eager to take revenge on the thugs who have been terrorising him, and asks to be released from his training early. Mr. Chan agrees, but warns Monkey that there are tougher men than him. Monkey goes out, chest puffed out and takes to the street. He runs into the gang and they try to beat Monkey up, but are instead, badly beaten by Monkey. Monkey forces the thugs to take him to their boss, there, Monkey is beaten by Mr. Tuan - but survives the onslaught when Chan's sister intervenes. Monkey escapes, and in the process learns about the plot against Mr. Chan. He returns to his Sifu, tells him about the scam, and another training sequences begins --- Monkey is taught monkey fist and finishes his lessons. Together, the student and the master goes back to rescue Mr. Chan's sister, a battle culminating into one of the best kung fu fights I've seen.There's lots of comedy, in fact some of it is downright goofy (there's even a "yo mama" joke). But the end fight takes a more serious tone, shifting to an epic kung fu fight between Tuan, Chan and Monkey.This is a great movie, showcasing the talent of the highly acrobatic Hsiao Hou. Prepared to be dazzled! Lau Kar Leung, who also directed took a back seat, allowing the young actor (in his first leading role) to truly shine. Mad Monkey Kung Fu gets five stars from me and remains my favorite Kung Fu movie to date.I do wish there was a bonus feature on the DVD, I found that very disappointing but if you dont' care about that, you won't regret buying this DVD.

I love the movie. It is actually, my favorite kung fu movie and Hsiao Hou is my favorite kung fu star. Now, I prefer to watch these movies with sub-titles. The British actor voicing little monkey's character, and the one voicing for Ah Choi's sounded ridiculous and were difficult to understand sometimes because the audio would become very low. This doesn't help because they sound so horribly whiny. I think these bad voice over actors do an injustice to the actors on screen. Should have used American voice over. My copy did not have subtitles.Despite this, I was still able to enjoy the performances by all...Lau Kar Leung, Hsiao Hou as well as the supporting cast.The story begins with Chan [Lau Kar Leung] whose hands are crippled by thugs after he is falsely accused of rape... a trick staged by a local gang boss who hopes to claim Chan's sister [Kara Hui] as his concubine. He ultimately succeeds when she sacrifices herself in order to spare her brother's life.Many years later, Chan is a street merchant with a monkey show. His hands are crippled as a result of the beating given to him after the "rape" charge. He is also bullied by local thugs who works for the big boss. He meets an orphan who calls himself little Monkey. Little Monkey takes pity on Chan and befriends him. They become roommates, and ultimately work together after Chan's real monkey is killed by thugs when he refuses to give them the money they want.Little Monkey looks (check out the haircut) and acts like a real monkey so he fits the show perfectly. But Little Monkey is tired of being shaken down by the thugs and wants to do something about it. He tries to fight them, but is badly beaten. Chan agrees to teach him the Monkey style, and so the epic training sequences begin and for me, that makes the movie. Little Monkey is eager to get back at the thugs, and leaves his training early. He's learned everything about the Monkey style except its most crucial skill, which is HITTING your opponent. He leaves training early, against the wishes of Chan, his sifu. Little Monkey challenges and and humiliates the gang in a hilarious fight. They finally take him to meet their boss, Ah Choi, who is also beaten and humiliated by Monkey. Then finally, the big boss appears and Little Monkey is badly defeated and saved by Chan's sister, who is injured in the fight. He also learns about the trick and the false rape charge.Little Monkey tells Chan about the trick. Chan agrees that Little Monkey must complete his training first. The results are awesome. They go back to rescue the sister and things happen. I won't spoil the ending but it's pretty cool.Some of the best, if not THE best, acrobatics in a Kung Fu movie are displayed by Hsiao Hou and that was also very enjoyable for me. Even the smaller gestures, jumps, and flips seem so natural, it's like watching a fish in water.Mad Monkey Kung Fu is your standard kung fu movie. An underdog learns kung fu to avenge his master. But in the end... so few movie are done as well.

Good

Being a Shaolin Martial Arts practitioner, I'm very interested in watching good traditional kungfu films expecially old skool classics by ShawBros and directed actioners by Liu Chia Liang aka Lau Ga Leung famed kungfu movie choreographer, Hung Kuen Master and son of Lau Chan the former student of Butcher Lam Sai Wing who was student of the late famous Hung Kuen grandmaster Wong Fei Hung.Mad Monkey Kungfu showcases authentic SOuth Shaolin Hung Kuen's drunken monkey system.The film is both entertaining and instructive and stars Lau Ga Leung's protege Siu Hou as a young ragamuffin who trains in the Southern Monkey System under a middle-aged kungfu Master who makes a living as an Opera performer/acrobat and/or monkey tamer.The kungfu Master, played by Lau Ga Leung himself, was a Chinese Opera acrobat/ performer who was thrown out of the Opera on account of a rape which he did not commmit.He was in fact set up by a rich Opera enthusiast who lusted after the Master's younger sister, played by Karla Hwei Ying Hung ('My Young Auntie' fame). To compensate the Opera enthusiast (played by Lo Lieh) for her brother allegedly raping his wife, the Master's sister agrees to marry the Opera enthusiast.Naturally as such movies go, the Master discovers later that he has been tricked and storms the villain's stronghold with the help of his fully trained disciple played by Siu Hou and delivers some wonderful Mad Monkey Kungfoolery!This film/dvd is a must-see collectible for all old skool kungfu enthusiasts!!The dvd plays very well on a multi regional dvd player and the film has been remastered and restored giving top notch / excellent picture and sound quality.It has both English and Mandarin audio and English subtitles.

After kung fu master/stage performer Chan, and his sister, are invited to an evening soiree, at what they believe to be a gentleman's house, things soon take a turn for the worse, when it transpires that their host, Duan, is actually an evil mobster and pimp.Rapidly the night begins to go down hill as the affable drinker Chan is coerced into into getting more and more plastered, much to his sister's concern, and typically things escalate to displays of kung fu, which, after much showing off, Chan is eventually duped into believing he has sexually abused his host's wife (who's not really Duan's wife, but the madam in one of his high street chain of brothels), and the dishonourable Duan demands Chan's sister become his plaything as recompense, not only this but also that Chan have his hands smashed and broken, so that in the future, he might think twice before getting drunk and trying it on with someone else's Mrs..Anyway, a few years pass and a pickpocket named Little Monkey becomes interested in a new performer that has started to frequent the market square of his local town. After all, the man has a monkey, which capers about much to everyone's amusement, and he gives away free sweets to children (for nothing in return!), so what's not to like?Soon, the mystery stranger has crowds flocking and Little Monkey becomes his friend, but as the crowds begin to gather, so do the storm clouds, and gangsters pushing their protection racket start bullying the street performer into payments, eventually killing his pet monkey just for jollies. Which leaves the street performer ~ unable to fight for himself, due to having has hands shattered years before!! ~ no option other than to train up his 'hilarious' idiot sidekick Little Monkey as a vessel of vengeance, and go on a journey of revenge that will ultimately force Chan into crossing paths with a certain bad man he once met years before....Lau Kar Leung stars, directs and choreographs this acrobatic comedy effort, which is held in some esteem by many Fu fans. Kara Hui Ying Hung plays the sister and is given at least one chance to shine, during a fight with the dastardly Duan, played by veteran bad guy Lo Lieh. Leung's student Hsiao Ho playing the energetic Little Monkey. Overall this is mostly played for laughs and has never really been a favourite of mine, due to a rather weird blend of having a somewhat irritating sidekick and silly childish humour, cast against a quite noticeably nasty mean~streak, leaving you with a film that for me doesn't quite seem to work. The fights, although well choreographed, in my opinion, aren't of the traditional blows and kicks variety, but rather an extension of the film's themes on performance and kung fu being blended together. And there's a definite feeling that somewhere along the line, had this been given a shorter run time, it would have been better for it.With that said though, Lieh and Leung are really good in MMKF and it's certainly worth viewing at least once, delivering some fabulous training scenes and capturing quite a unique style of swinging circus fu that some will go ape for.The Dragon Dynasty disc is a great widescreen print, with optional English subs or dubbing.3.5/5 rounded up..

This movie is in my top five Kung Fu Movies of all time. There are very few movies out there that concentrate on the Monkey Style or Monkey Fist. The ones that are out there are terrible efforts. Only Snake in the Monkey's Shadow and Monkey Fist (Shaw Brothers)are also on par with this one although slightly less entertaining. I love them both equally. I could go into the plot but i don't like to spoil the fun for people interested in watching this movie. Suffice to say that it is a gem. The story is superb based on Revenge (mainly), the action is more than breathtaking and Lo Lieh gives one of his best performances as a bad guy along with the kung fu he demonstrates, impressive, especially knowing that the guy has no experience of any fighting style and just choreographs the moves for the cameras with a double doing the more athletic stuff as always for him. Entertaining from start to finish, a perfected piece of art.

This film is just 2: Bad; I can't get enough of these movie's in the martial arts world.BECAUSE I AM A MARTIAL ARTS JUNKIE. NEED MORE FOR MY MARTIAL ARTS FIX...

thank you very much