Drunken Monkey
January 6th, 2010 by Planet Chocko
The Master Killer & The Shaw master Director!
Wu Jing going Ape Shit!
Drunken Monkey is a period piece Kung Fu flick depicting the 1930’s era in China. The film was released in 2003 which was directed by Lau Kar Leung, one of the legends of the Shaw Brother studio orchestrators of the past. He directed such classics such as the 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Legendary Weapons of China, 8 diagram Pole fighter, & Shaolin Mantis. Some of you new schoolers might have recognized his work in Drunken Master II with Jackie Chan in the 90’s. Drunken Monkey stars Lau Kar Leung, Gordon Liu(real life adopted brother of Lau kar Leung), & Wu Jing(classmate of Jet Li). This movie was marked as a throwback to a classic period piece Kung Fu movie of the past, which I partially agree with. The film is about a proprietor of a respected delivery company played by Lau Kar Leung who discovers his younger brother addicted to opium. Lau Kar Leung, a master of his art of the Drunken Monkey Fist was then ambushed & ousted by the brother & other evil constituents in order to take over the business & thrive in the opium industry. Lau Kar Leung was left for dead, presumed drowned, but the old Shaw Master somehow survives the ordeal & takes refuge with an adopted daughter. The story starts to materialize when 2 youngsters in search of a teacher happens upon the Drunken Monkey master. Wu Jing’s character finally meets this famed teacher & the rest is history. The detective, played by Gordon Liu pops up in the story when he discovers that his righteous hero & friend, Lau Kar Leung is still alive. The evil empire soon discovers this & the game is on. The master killer, Wu Jing, Shaw Master director, & the daughter soon find themselves in a rumble with the Opium gang! I won’t tell you the conclusion to this because you martians should appreciate the film for yourselves! Mr. C gives the movie 6 out of 10 ‘Shiao Baos’-‘Steamed Roast Pork Buns’ . The quirkyness & comedic stuff in the beginning of the flick was least desirable for me, but the Kung fu action is top notch! Lau Kar Leung showed a life like Monkey Fist, with rolling, & acrobatics to boot. The fighting spirit & choreography was off the meat rack! We all know that the acrobatics of Lau Kar Leung in the movie was done by a stunt double, but the fighting choregraphy was done by no other. With the addition of great martial artists in the film like Wu Jing & Gordon Liu, it’s no wonder the kung fu movements were transferred to the screen like eye candy with such ease! My only other dislike of the film was that the film speed seemed to be increased in the fight scenes. This really bothers the heck out of me! If you have the horses,talent,& spirit of such actors such as the master killer, Wu Jing, & Lau Kar Leung, why do you need to increase the frames per second? The throwback kung fu action is being delivered by seasoned veterans, why ruin it by making it more unrealistic with advancing the frames. May buddha bless you, Donnie Yen does the same shit! The Yen man has extraordinary skills in all 3 elements of HK cinema with his marksmanship in kung fu, directing, & acting. For buddha sakes, you don’t need to speed up the frames & use so much wire fu if you have the stallions already in your stable! Just a rant, y’all! Check out ‘Drunken Monkey’ at your nearest bootleg enclave! The 3 actors in this film should say it all!
–Mr. C (6 out of 10 steamed roast pork buns!)
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Tags: bakery, drunken monkey, dvd blowout, gordon liu, kung fu, lau kar fai, lau kar leung, mei lai wah, mei li wah, monkey fist, shaw brother, throwback, wu jing
Posted in movies, mr. c | Comments (2)
January 7th, 2010 at 4:18 am
hey this nice post and also bookmarked your site to look for more updates…thanks.
January 7th, 2010 at 7:36 pm
Tune in AliceMatt! We have a whole smorgasborg full of stuff!