Monkey Kung Fu

This review is for the 88 Films studio presentation that was released March of 2022.This is the 3rd movie I have purchased from 88 Films and so far they have been uniformly excellent in the video & audio department. One thing I should mention is that the movies do not have a "chapter selection" capability. It's certainly not a deal breaker since you can easily use the incremental fast-forward button to find the place where you want to start watching again if you had shut the movie off earlier.One (slight) downside in my viewing experience on this particular purchase was the audio commentary by Kenneth Brorsson & Phil Gillon. Unfortunately my hearing isn't the greatest and the combination of (kinda thick) Asian? and Australian? accents speaking at a rapid pace kept me from understanding a lot of what they said. Nothing to be done about that I'm afraid. On the plus side, out of the hundreds of fights I've watched in these movies, I witnessed a technique I had never seen before during a fight when a small branch was inserted into an orifice of the human body... and then broken off. Cringeworthy and yet, still comical.Like my previous purchases this disc came in a quality case with a slip, a poster, a booklet and original poster art plus newly commissioned artwork as well. Quite the bargain IMO.

Twenty years ago, I acquired a region free DVD player and bought up a lot of Celestial Pictures Region 3 Shaw Brothers DVDs from Hong Kong. One film that was recommended to me by a friend was "Monkey Kung Fu" (not to be confused with the more common "Mad Monkey Kung Fu"). I won't bother to cover merits of the film itself (there will be a lot of information about that posted already), except to say that I though the choreography was very clever and overall that it was a very entertaining part of the Shaw Brothers library. When I saw that a U.S./U.K. company was putting out a Blu Ray version, I had to buy it just to support their decision. This film is way more obscure than the many "Venom Mob" or Gordon Liu vehicles that get released. It's director, Lo Mar, made several films for the Shaw Brothers, however the film lacks the "star power" of the aforementioned Venom Mob, Gordon Liu, Chen Kuan-Tai, Lo Lieh, etc. As such, I don't think it gets mentioned in the same sentence as other martial arts classics from the Shaw Brothers. If you're a fan of Shaw Brothers style of martial arts movies, I'd say Monkey Kung Fu is well worth your time. As pleased as I am that this was even released on Blu Ray (with the English Dub included as well), I do feel a few minor criticisms are warranted.First and foremost for me are the subtitle translations in English. I mean, if you don't speak Mandarin, you're going to rely on the subtitles to experience this film. In my opinion, they took a LOT of liberties with the subtitle translations. I understand the temptation to "spice up" some dialogue that might seem mundane, but I feel the film is better served when sticking with accurate translations. A good example is when the two protagonists are found together (in multiple scenes), the "bad guys" will often question how they know each other. In this particular version, more than once, one protagonist states that the other is "my b*tch". "My b*tch"? Really? I suppose that may sound "cool", but c'mon. You know the actual words aren't anywhere near that (the film is set, presumably in the early 1900s, so the phrase didn't even exist). In my old DVD, the protagonists refer to each other as relatives, a god father and a god son to be exact. In another part of the film, a taunt/joke at the expense of of a bad guy by one of the protagonists is ruined via the translation. The baddie has a pet parakeet and the protagonist proclaims in the subtitles that he's going after the man's "cock". The baddie, taken aback, crosses his hands in front of his crotch in an attempt to protect himself. The protagonist then points at him, then the parakeet saying "not that one, that one". Well, we all know a parakeet isn't a rooster, so the joke doesn't land. In the English dub, the joke lands better when he says "I'm going after your bird" followed by "not that one, THAT one" (as he points at the birdcage). Even the English subtitles on my old Region 3 Celestial Pictures DVD are better ("careful with your bird" followed by "fear not, it's that one" as he points at the parakeet). Perhaps I'm wrong, but I can picture some guys in a room sitting around trying to figure out how to make the translation cooler or funnier. Give me accurate any day of the week.My second mild complaint is regarding the English dub track. While it's awesome that they included the original dub, the quality of the audio is downright awful. I know the dub itself may be quite rare, however it still sounds like a low bitrate MP3 taken from a 4th generation VHS dub of the film. The dip in quality between the Mandarin and English dubs isn't subtle. All the more reason I wanted better subtitles! That being said, I still very much recommend this disc for fans of the genre/studio who may want a fun film that doesn't wind up on the list of "the usual suspects" when Shaw Brothers Kung Fu movies are discussed.

Movie looks great, is wall to wall action with a fun tone and impressive athleticism. Just a few nitpicks, like why does the blu ray cover describe it as a "wuxia film" when it's obviously just a straight up kung fu movie? Did 88 films staff even watch it? Also I don't understand why the default setting is English dubbed audio. Collectors are who would be interested in this, not laymen. Last thing I want to hear is some crappy English dub, and be forced to change the audio settings not to hear it.

Not the Special Edition with tangible extras.