Customer Reviews

Monkey Kung Fu: Monkey Fist, Floating Snake

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Monkey Kung Fu is one of the best kungfu films demonstrating monkey style. Other films such as the original Iron Monkey (1977) and Mad Monkey Kung Fu are also excellent, but their monkey style fight choreography does not match this film. The film is a true traditional kungfu movie, with a large amount of comedy. There is also some very strange and comical music in this film, but that does not subtract from the film, it only adds to the comedic element.

The plot consists of a young man wanting to learn kungfu from an old monkey style master, at first the master won't take him as his student, but he eventually does. A kungfu master who specializes in the snake style is also going around town demanding protection money from all local kungfu schools and beating up all the masters. However, he can't beat the old monkey master, so he retreats to the forest to train for their next battle. Meanwhile, the hero of the film is learning monkey kungfu from the old master.

There is a lot of comedy in the film, and it is actually sort of funny (which is rare in kungfu films). The movie also has a fight scene about every five minutes-- there is no shortage of action. The cinematography in the film is excellent, but this version of the film is not widescreen so it cannot be fully appreciated. Parts of the shot are also cut out sometimes because it is a fullscreen version. The best part of the film is near the end, when the hero is learning kungfu; the training sequences are very good, and the final fight with the snake style master is a true masterwork of choreography.

I first saw this movie years ago. I recently got the DVD of it off of here and their are parts missing from the dvd, little skips. I then got another DVD of it assuming that i got a bad copy, both where the same. So first get the VHS for the whole movie, I rencently got a new VHS of this and it has the entire movie.

Now this movie is a really good classic kung fu flick. The training of the young fighter in monkey kung fu and the training of the master of snake style kung fu are very intresting to watch. This film dosent have a deep story but enough to make this movie a great buy for anyone who likes classic kung fu.

This movie will be of interest for only those people who are looking to see real monkey kung fu demonstrated. If your looking for an entertaining movie, go elsewhere!

The movie is really just an excuse to show off some of the amazing skill of it's star, Chan Siu Chen. Chan was an actual student of Grand Master Chan Sau Chung, standard barrer of the art of TaiShing Pek Kwar (Monkey Kung Fu). He was also a the 1971 lightweight champion in the Southeast Asia Open Martial Arts Tournement. He is an obviously an accomplished fighter and skilled martial artist! One thing he is not, however, is an actor! Nor are most of the people featured in this film.

The film it's self does not appear to be made by professional filmmakers either. For instance, there are times in the film where one would swear that the director simply placed the camera on the ground, or a near by table, and let it roll! Even when there does seem to be someone at the helm, the camera will zoom in on ,literally, nothing! While this may be funny for the first couple of times and/or when you are with a group of friends that wish to watch a little camp, it is very hard not to touch the ffwd button.

As for the story...Well, you know the saying, 'If I ate alphabet soup, I could @%#! a better script." that about sums it up.

While martial artists will apprciate the 'real' kung fu presented (no wires), I belive it would be a rare person who would actually call this movie good. Yes, the fight scenes are authentic but are quite few and far between, not really worth the effort to find if you don't posses some fanatical interest in the martial arts. Add to al the above, the mvie is dubbed into english and the voices are completely ridiculous!

This is a true Grindhouse school, crappy Kung Fu flick, but, some people like that kind of thing. If you are one of them this is for you!

A fantastic revenge fight flick, great cheesy kung fu cinema.

Unfortunately, they lost 95% of the final fight scene. One moment they are fighting, the next they are bloody and tattered, and the death blow is being delivered. Great set-up, huge let down ending.

Worth the 3.98 version.

I used to watch this movie over and over, until I lost it.
Plenty of excellent fight scenes with many different characters.
Monkey style, drunken monkey style, eagle style,
snake style, tiger style, crane style, and probably dragon
(can't remember)... all represented with hilarious characters.
Nicely filmed with classic kung fu theatre sound effects.

I own this movie , you wont be dissapointed, a young man bothers a master to teach him kung fu, eventually the master agrees to teach him his Monkey Style, at the same time the master comes in conflict with another Master who has taken over all the schools in town , both Masters are hurt after the fight the good monkey master decides to make his new pupil the heir to his knowldege of Monkey Kung Fu and teaches him everything, meanwhile the evil master leaves to pefect a style called fluid snake, when the evil master comes back he rapes the young Monkey Style students female boss, and all hell breaks loose and a showdown is inevitable.

it's easily a one-star movie, by most accounts. but unless you're a big-time afficianado of older kung fu films, you shouldn't be watching this to begin with. i'm a fanatic for chop-socky and the kung fu lover in me wants to give this thing five stars. simply because it does all the things i like to see in those movies from back in the day. the ridiculous dubbing and translations. the impossible wind whipping behind every attacking arm or leg. the lousy camera work. the simplest storylines possible. true fans watch stuff like this because it's campy. all you really want is a story about a loser who learns kung fu from an old master so he can get revenge on the bad guy that took over his town or killed his brother. it's that easy. mix up that silliness with some amazing, stylized fighting techniques and you have the perfect candidate for success. perfect for quentin tarrantino to steal and make millions off it.

it's lousy and it's excellent all at the same time.

this movie deserves it's 2 stars, but doesn't come close to getting a 3. The main acrtor in this one is an unknown and get this, he finally learns monkey style with 12 minutes left in the film.

Now without any spectacular kung fu and absolutely nothing new, there are only 2 reasons why I can tell to get this, and they are reallly not good reasons.

1.)-- Yun Sang Baan- huge muscles, this might be the crazy monk from shaolin vs. lama, but I am not 100% sure. But the muscles are the thing that made me think of that guy. But I think his name is william yen, but hey, it could still be the same guy. But yun sang baan can fight really well, he is probably better than chang yi overall in this movie at least.

2.)--Chang Yi, he could have looked A LOT better in here. They cut up his scenes so much and the reversals are some of the worst ever. But this movie is actually kind of unique because chang yi is the guy who is the best fighter, so he wants collection money because he can beat everyone up. So old Mr. muscualr white har doesn't like this and takes on chang yi. THE VILLIAN IS DEFEATED AND GOES TO TRAIN SO HE CAN COME BACK FOR THE FINAL FIGHT. I have truly never seen anything like this. He has to train really hard to get back at the old man who beat him. Even though he initiated the fight, he still wants revenge. He does a lot of training and decides to stay with the snake style, he is just going to do it better this time I guess. There is a very funny moment when he is reminiscing of how he got beat, and it shows this reversal that was sped up about 20 times the speed and had the guy doing the most unnatural rolling motion you have ever seen. I don't doubt the filmmakers know at least in part what they are doing, but they could have at least viewed it once before releasing this to the movie theatres.

So overall a movie that you have seen a hundred thousand times, has a small and shortly enjoyable twist, but the fighting sucks too much for thenm to rehash the most common storyline in kung fu history.

Despite the poor reviews, I purchased this movie with an opened mind. This movie had the foot prints of a very promising old school "kickers"!! I was especially impressed by the kung fu moves, which gave me a renewed respect for the monkey style. Despite the impressive training, especially the drunken monkey, I thought the final fight scene fell really short. It almost seemed like the director cut out a hugh chunk of the fight scene, and the movie ended! The expectation was set,,and I fell for it. I'm happy it only cost me $3.98 for this "BUMBO-CLOTH" flick!!

If you love good Kung Fu movies then this is the one. It is about the Monkey Style Kung Fu. Just no nonsense and any martial arts fan should own this movie.