Drunken Monkey stars Lau Kar-Leung as Man Bill who owns a delivery service. When he notices that one of his colleagues, Pao, has been using the delivery service in order to smuggle opium, Pao decides to kill Bill (no pun intended) and turns the business into a trading firm. Bill is eventually rescued by a girl named Mandy (Shannon Yiu King) who he teaches monkey kung fu. About a year later, Tak (Wu Jing) and Ka-Yip (Lau Wing-Kin) are trying to finish writing a handbook for monkey kung fu and seek out Man Bill. When they find him, Bill finds out about what has happened to his company and tries to take back what’s rightfully his.
Drunken Monkey was directed by kung fu maestro, Lau Kar Leung, and presented by the Shaw Brothers Studio. Of course, this movie had some pretty big shoes to fill. And Drunken Monkey only partially lives up to the studio's/director’s reputation. As an old school kung fu movie, the fighting is still awesome. A lot of it is contrived and unrealistic, but it’s still extremely impressive and exciting. Most of the fights in this movie are very short, but the training scenes and finale at the end are especially exciting.
And just like an old school kung fu movie, the acting is very overstated and the humor is sometimes more strange than it is funny. This movie really goes to show how dated Lau Kar-Leung’s style can be. Of course, for kung fu movie fans, his style is fantastic, but it doesn’t work as well nowadays. If only there were more charismatic actors, this movie probably would’ve been much more entertaining. Besides Lau Kar-Leung, Gordon Liu, and Chi Kuan-Chun, there many aren’t other other notable Shaw veterans that star in this movie. Though I thought Wu Jing was really fantastic in this movie, I could easily see someone being irritated by the overacting.
Drunken Monkey was directed by kung fu maestro, Lau Kar Leung, and presented by the Shaw Brothers Studio. Of course, this movie had some pretty big shoes to fill. And Drunken Monkey only partially lives up to the studio's/director’s reputation. As an old school kung fu movie, the fighting is still awesome. A lot of it is contrived and unrealistic, but it’s still extremely impressive and exciting. Most of the fights in this movie are very short, but the training scenes and finale at the end are especially exciting.
And just like an old school kung fu movie, the acting is very overstated and the humor is sometimes more strange than it is funny. This movie really goes to show how dated Lau Kar-Leung’s style can be. Of course, for kung fu movie fans, his style is fantastic, but it doesn’t work as well nowadays. If only there were more charismatic actors, this movie probably would’ve been much more entertaining. Besides Lau Kar-Leung, Gordon Liu, and Chi Kuan-Chun, there many aren’t other other notable Shaw veterans that star in this movie. Though I thought Wu Jing was really fantastic in this movie, I could easily see someone being irritated by the overacting.
If you haven’t seen many kung fu movies before, this certainly isn’t the best introduction to the genre. There’s a lot of overacting and annoying comedy. But still, despite its flaws, I wanted to watch this movie immediately after I finished it. The action and the acting, though both unrealistic, are so energetic that it’s kinda infectious. Even then, this movie unfortunately isn’t the resurrection of old school kung fu movies that the audience/filmmakers would’ve wanted, but it’s still fun and nostalgic enough to earn a recommendation. If only the story could match the fight choreography.
Images from HKMDb and HK Cinemagic
Images from HKMDb and HK Cinemagic