Mad Monkey Kung Fu (1979) (2024)

Popular reviews

• Review by Slig001 ★★★★

  This one riffs on a lot of the usual kung fu movie motifs; revenge and a master/student relationship form the backbone of the story, but as you'd probably expect with a title like Mad Monkey Kung Fu, its a rather offbeat take. We focus on a master of Monkey-Fist, who is wronged by Lo Lieh's smarmy villain and ends up scraping a living on the streets, before taking a young guy under his wing and training him up in the style. It's a comedy film for sure, but there's some surprisingly hard hitting emotional moments too. One sequence in particular has to be one of the most harrowing things I've seen in a kung fu movie. The Master is played…

• Review by Carlo V 2

  I once again bow to the altar of Lau Kar-leung. No surprises there, though I was a little surprised by Hsiao Ho in this. Not just at his ability to perfectly sync up with Lau Kar-leung's monkey kung fu, but seeing him flip himself around like some kinda coked up helicopter seed, completely blurring the line of "are they using wires or not". It's a little ridiculous he's only known as a Lau mainstay, and barely anyone ever talks about him. I mean, I'd like to see Bruce Lee attempt this kinda shit, y'know?

• Review by Gregor Kreyca ★★★½

  My two problems with this movie are that it us too long and that Monkey Kung-Fu isn’t exactly my favorite style. But when Lau Kar-leung directs (and co-leads) one can be sure that the fight choreography is inventive and expertly executed. Most of the fights here are joy to watch. The cast is also pretty solid. Kar-leung and his protégé Hsiao Ho are great together and nail the training and fight sequences. Lo Lieh makes for a good villain as always and Kara Hui (another protégé of the director) gets in a good fight.

  This is actually one of three “Monkey” Kung-Fu movies produces in 1979, which I know of. The other ones being Knockabout and Monkey Kung-Fu. And while…

• Review by More_Badass ★★★★

  The other monkey-fu flick of 1979, executed in finely-tuned Shaw Brothers style and with Lau Kar-leung’s trademark craft. Like many of his other greats, Mad Monkey Kung Fu is committed to narrative, character, and philosophy to the point that some might find the extensive build-up to martial arts justice too drawn out. But as both co-lead and director, Kar-leung invests us in his journey from deceived opera star to maimed street performer to mentor and avenger hellbent on punishing Lo Lieh’s smarmy small-town pimp. Deliberately paced, comedic, dark, and dramatic: the plot juggles tone exactly as one would expect from the filmmaker behind Dirty Ho, Drunken Master II, and 36th Chamber.

  Taking the breathtakingly acrobatic Hsiao Ho under his wing,…

• Review by Comicbookfan ★★★★

  I really liked this, a film that starts serious but then gets comedic with the training, it's a film of a master training a nother man in the ways of monkey kung fu and using it to get revenge on gangsters terrorising a small town, it's energetic, funny and a bit long but inliked hanging with the two characters training and getting along. The fight scene at the end is spectacular seeing this style of kungfu in action, briliant acrobatic skills and stunts. The two main characters really shine in the fight scenes too.

• Review by Gentry ★★★

  “Drinking wine while discussing kung fu is one of life’s pleasures.”

  There were so many moves and since there were high expectations, we did many retakes. So one scene would be filmed many times. I was exhausted.
  – Hsiao Hou, 2004

  In Hou, you’ll find Lau’s favorite kind of hero, the well-meaning bumpkin who, despite his comic naivete and snotty attitude, is also superhumanly dexterous and unfailingly loyal. In Monkey, Lau identifies the ideal martial arts student, one who doesn’t want nor really need a soft touch to become great (with a little guidance).
  — Simon Abrams, “Film Notes”

  Martial arts is not for thugs and hooligans, but trickster monkeys, in Lau Kar-leung’s personal epic of simian proportions, and a…

• Review by Eric Szyszka ★★★★½

  This movie is so good it even includes part of the Taxi Driver score.

• Review by CJ Roy ★★★★½ 4

  When Little Monkey (Hsiao Hou) and Tuen's (Lo Lieh) fight reaches its end, it chains emotion and martial skill together in a manner that is incredible even for Kar-leung. From a battle of skills to a showcase of martial superiority to comedic ridicule, and then it turns the corner into something pretty horrific. Little Monkey cripples Tuen's hands and then throws him from a balcony to his death. His master (Lau Kar-leung) tries to stop him with a half-hearted yell, possibly to keep his conflicted conscious clear. Little Monkey lands, celebrates and is stopped from doing the same to others.

  Kar-leung's films generally end with a freeze frame and a Shaw Brothers title card. These final shots are generally representations…

• Review by matt lynch ★★★★

  you can feel Lau relaxing into this 80s comedy style. relatively slowly paced for its day but an incredible showcase of skill.

• Review by Jaime Rebanal 🇵🇸 ★★★★½ 1

  More Shaw Brothers glory - not like there's really a whole lot I can add to that front because these movies just happen to be among the best martial arts movies ever made. But it's also a perfect example alongside Dirty Ho of Lau Kar-leung excelling in comedy alongside incredible action, because there's no doubt that while the action choreography is among the most impressive you'll ever see, the core concept of this style of martial arts is just innately funny. So how exactly can one build a movie around it?

  One can only come to Lau Kar-leung. Never doubt him for a minute.

• Review by AndrewC ★★★½

  If Mad Monkey Kung Fu was about 20 minutes shorter, then it would be up there as one of the more fun Shaw Brothers martial arts films from the famed studio's heyday. It's got a little of everything that made those movies such fun, with superb martial arts fights, some funny comedy, and all the amazing acrobatics being performed by the cast. All of this is great stuff and had Mad Monkey Kung Fu ran 90 minutes or even shorter instead of 109, it'd be up there with Lau Kar-leung's best.

• Review by Mark Costello ★★★★½

  Gloriously energetic riff on two of the cornerstones of eastern cinema - the master training a student and the stealing away of an artist - from Lau Kar-leung, bringing an ingenious spin to the likes of Drunken Master that effortlessly entertains.

  A seamless blend of exquisitely inventive action choreography and comedy, this sees Kar-leung hoodwinked in the opening act, the duplicitous lord of a small town stealing his sister away as his concubine. Years later he meets Hsiao Ho, a small town thief who is more monkey than man and between them, they set about taking down the lord and his band of cut-throat henchmen with their brilliantly animalistic fighting style.

  The comedy and action work so well here, the…