Mad Monkey Kung Fu Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

Mad Monkey Kung Fu Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 22, 2022

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Shawscope Volume Two.

The good news is if you have a martial arts fan you've been worried about finding an appropriate holiday present for, your prayers have been answered (for the second year in a row in fact), by the thoughtful folks at Arrow Video, who are returning to the evidently bottomless well that gave lovers of a certain Hong Kong studio one of 2021's most impressive releases, Shawscope Volume One. The bad news is, if you're a martial arts fan intrigued by this new release, you're going to have to put the rest of your life on hold to make it through not just a glut of Shaw Brothers films, but an immense assortment of supplemental material. As with the first volume of Shawscope, there's probably no doubt that some films will appeal to some viewers more than others, but the sheer variety of films in this set, along with an authoritative set of bonus features, will almost certainly make this a marquee item for genre aficionados.

If you, like a certain reviewer (ahem), have survived a seemingly endless supply of films featuring The Monkey King marauding their way through your viewing schedule over the years (whether or not you have to write a review about what you've watched), you might be forgiven for having momentarily thought Mad Monkey Kung Fu was simply another in that group. Joking aside, there actually may be a few tethers between this film and the glut of Monkey King outings, including a kind of daffy sense of humor, an at least somewhat simian hero who is also a bit of a scoundrel, and suitably "animalistic" athleticism on display. In this case the "Monkey King" is actually known simply as Little Monkey (Hsiao Hou), but he's often as uncontrollable as the figure lifted from ancient folklore.

This film also works in the time honored tradition of having a seriously injured practitioner of martial arts, in this case a guy named Uncle Chen (Lau Kar-leung), who suffers some debilitating wounds to his hands after some nefarious machinations by the film's chief bad guy, Tuan (Lo Lieh). Tuan has schemed to pretty much take Chen's sister Cuiwong (Kara Wai) hostage as a worker in the local brothel, and with those plot points in place, the film follows another time honored tradition by having Chen mentor Monkey in techniques that will vanquish evil and restore everyone to their rightful places in society.

Mad Monkey Kung Fu is a film that admittedly takes a pretty standard foundation that has supported any number of martial arts themed productions over the course of many decades, but it then manages to build a rather inventive facade on top of that element, with some almost lunatic action scenes that feature some really astounding physicality. Tony Rayns makes the case that My Young Auntie might be best appreciated as a "screwball comedy", and that same approach will probably pay dividends with Mad Monkey Kung Fu.

Mad Monkey Kung Fu Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mad Monkey Kung Fu is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. Arrow's insert booklet lumps all the films together on its page devoted to the restorations, as follows:

All fourteen films in this boxset are presented in their original aspect ratios (2.35:1 for all films except 1.85:1 for The Boxer's Omen and The Bare-Footed Kid) with their original Mandarin, English, and Cantonese (where applicable) monoaural soundtracks. Every effort has been made to present these films in their original and complete versions using the best materials available.

Return to the 36th Chamber, Disciples of the 36th Chamber, My Young Auntie, Martial Arts of Shaolin and The Bare-Footed Kid were remastered by Celestial Pictures in 2003-2007, as part of an initiative to digitally restore the entire Shaw Brothers library. The High Definition masters of these restorations, which included the original Mandarin, Cantonese and English mono soundtracks, were supplied to Arrow Films by Celestial Pictures.

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin was restored by Celestial Pictures and L'Immagine Ritrovata in 2020. Additional grading was completed at R3Store Studios, London in 2021.

Mad Monkey Kung Fu, Five Superfighters, Invincible Shaolin, The Kid with the Golden Arm, Magnificent Ruffians, Ten Tigers of Kwangtung, Mercenaries from Hong Kong and The Boxer's Omen have all been newly restored by Arrow Films in 2021 and 2022, in collaboration with L'Immagine Ritrovata, Hong Kong Film Archive and Celestial Pictures. The original 35mm negatives for these films were scanned at L'Immagine Ritrovata Asia and restored in 2K resolution at L'Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna. The films were graded at R3Store Studios, London. These restorations have used the entire film negative without resorting to the practice of "frame-cutting" resulting in the loss of film frames at each negative splice point.

The mono mixes were remastered from the original sound negatives at L'Immagine Ritrovata. Additional sound remastering was completed by Matthew Jarman/Bad Princess Productions.

All original materials supplied for these restorations were made available from the Hong Kong Film Archive via Celestial Pictures.

Excerpts from vintage 35mm feature print elements for Return to the 36th Chamber, Disciples of the 36th Chamber and My Young Auntie and vintage 35mm trailer prints for Disciples of the 36th Chamber, Mad Monkey Kung Fu, Mercenaries from Hong Kong and The Boxer's Omen were scanned and graded in 2K resolution at American Genre Film Archive (AGFA) and R3Store Studios.

Additional print materials were made available from American Genre Film Archive (AGFA), Harry Guerro, Scott Napier, King-Wei Chu and Howard Zinman.

While this is one of the newer remasters that Arrow has provided for this set, Mad Monkey Kung Fu shows a few issues along the way, though none are overly debilitating in my view. A lot of the presentation looks rather soft, but that said, it also looks to me like, per longstanding Shaw Brothers "tradition", there are actually some focus pulling challenges on display which may play into this aspect. There may have also been an actual malfunctioning lens at times, as in the cafe scene at around the five minute mark where you can almost make out "ghosts" of the two women's profiles at the edges of the frame. The first part of the presentation in particular looks a little wan, without a very suffused palette, but things start to warm up considerably at around the half hour mark, and much of the outdoor material in particular pops quite well. There is one noticeable downturn in saturation and detail level at around the 20 minute mark during a disturbing scene featuring hands getting mangled. Grain is somewhat variable looking throughout the presentation, at times tightly resolved and adding appropriate depth and texture, but at other times looking kind of yellow and chunky. There are some age related signs of wear and tear that have made it through the restoration gauntlet, and this is another Shawscope effort where clear anamorhpic squeezing can be made out on the edges of the frame in particular.

Mad Monkey Kung Fu Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As with many of the films in the second Shawscope volume, Mad Monkey Kung Fu offers Cantonese, Mandarin and English audio options, all delivered via DTS-HD Master Audio Mono. In this particular case, I frankly didn't hear any huge differences between the three in terms of amplitude and mixes, though once again, as if frequently the case across many of the soundtracks in this set, highs in all three tracks can be decidedly bright and brash to the point of maybe even being slightly painful at more aggressive moments. Otherwise, dialogue, effects and score are all delivered cleanly and clearly. Optional English subtitles are available.

Mad Monkey Kung Fu Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Arrow has packaged Mad Monkey Kung Fu and Five Superfighters together on one disc. However, after selecting Choose Film on the Main Menu, the Special Features then also change to reflect that choice. This film features the following supplements:

• Commentary by Frank Djeng & Michael Worth


• Tony Rayns on Mad Monkey Kung Fu (HD; 19:56) is a newly produced effort and another worthwhile information dump from Rayns.


• Interview with Hsiao Hou (HD; 39:59) is another Frederic Ambroisine piece, this one from 2004. Subtitled in English.


• Shaw in the USA (HD; 32:12) is a new interview with Grady Hendrix and Chris Poggiali, authors of These Fists Break Bricks.


• Trailer Gallery

  HK Theatrical Trailer (HD*; 4:01)

  
  

  US Theatrical Trailer (HD; 2:34)

  
  

  Digital Reissue Trailer (HD*; 1:08)

• Image Gallery (HD)

*720

Mad Monkey Kung Fu Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Mad Monkey Kung Fu is often good gonzo fun, even if it has a hoary melodramatic plot underpinning everything. Technical merits are generally solid, and the supplements very appealing. Recommended.