Mad Monkey Kung Fu (1979)

This ridiculously fun Shaw Brothers movie features the perfect mix of action, comedy and kung fu. Just about the only kung fu movie I've seen that comes close to this one in terms of pure fun is Iron Monkey (1993).

When the local gangster Tuan finds the beautiful young actress, Miss Chen, he must have her in his brothel. The only problem is that her brother Chen (played by martial arts choreographer Lau Kar-leung) is a Kung Fu master known for his monkey style and his powerful Monkey Fist. This problem is easily dealt with, as Tuan tricks Chen leading to his disgrace and Miss Chen volunteering to work in Tuan's brothel. Before letting Chen go, Tuan breaks Chen's hands so that he ca
n never use his Monkey Fist again.

When we next see Chen, he is a broken man working with his trained monkey as a street performer. To add insult to injury, street thugs shake him down every night and take all his earnings. Chen is befriended only by the orphan and petty thief, Monkey (Hsiao Ho). When the street thugs kill Chen's monkey, Monkey seeks revenge against them, only to get beaten up by them. Monkey convinces Chen to teach him his monkey style to him and if you've seen only a few examples of the "master teaches a protegee" sub-genre of kung fu movies you can get a pretty good feel for how that goes.

After a good deal of physical training Monkey returns to town and solidly humiliates the street thugs in a hilarious fight in the streets. Forcing them to take him to their boss, the street thug leads him to Tuan's brothel where he is attacked by the army of hired muscle he finds their and barely escapes with his life (thanks to the aid of Miss Chen). He returns to Chen for even more kung fu training. In the end Chen and Monkey return to Tuan's brothel for the final confrontation, but if you want to find out how that goes, you'll have to watch the movie for your self.

This is why he's called Monkey.

As I said at the beginning of this article this movie is pure fun. While it lacks the layers of intrigue of The Five Deadly Venoms, or the eccentric cast of exotic characters of Master of the Flying Guillotine, and sticks to the formula of it's own particular sub-genre, this movie is an excellent example of the 70s Kung Fu genre. If you have an interest in the genre, you should definitely add this one to your must watch list.

Mad Monkey Kung Fu

Super Inframan (1975)

What would you get if Ultraman was redone by in Hong Kong by the Shaw Brothers? You'd get Super Inframan of course!

When the evil Demon Princess breaks free from the center of the Earth where she had been imprisoned since the ice age, she immediately declares to the world her intention to conquer the Earth.

When she sends her demons and her army of Skeleton Men to attack the Science Headquarters (Yes, you read that right. It's a big metal dome with lots of blinking lights, exactly the kind of place you'd expect Kirk, Spock and McCoy to beam into along with an ill-fated red shirted ensign- in other words, it's a Science Headquarters), it falls to Rayma (played by Danny Lee) and the science patrol to stop them.

The Evil Demon Princess and her blond wig. 

Now the Science Patrol may be motorcycle riding kung fu experts dressed in silver jumpsuits that would make Evel Knievel jealous, but these monster are just too much for them to handle. That's when their boss, Professor Liu Ying De breaks out his secret weapon: he transforms Rayma into the kung fu cyborg superhero, Inframan. As Inframan, Rayma wastes no time battling the Demon Princess's minions, starting with the Plant Monster and the Spider Monster.

The Professor goes boating with Drill Mutant and a skeleton man.

For a while Inframan seems to have the demons on the run. That is until they steal Inframan's blue prints  and kidnap the Professor and his daughter in order to lure Inframan into a trap. Inframan and the Science patrol go the Demon Princess's lair for the final battle with her and her minions, but will they survive?

If you love Shaw Brothers movies and Superhero movies, find a copy of this movie and watch it.  This movie is pure fun and has surprisingly good special effects for a low budget movie from the mid 70s that looks like a power ranger episode.  If you need more convincing watch one of these clips:

Imdb

The Mighty Peking Man (1977)

If you can see only one campy 70's King Kong remake, see The Mighty Peking Man. If you wanna see two campy 70's King Kong remakes, see The Mighty Peking Man twice.

When an earthquake in the Himalayas unleashes a gigantic ape man and his bikini-clad pet blond girl (played by Evelyne Kraft), fortune seeking adventurer Johnny (played by Danny Lee) hauls them both off to Hong Kong and puts them on display. The ensuing antics pretty much follow the rest of the plot of King Kong.

 This movie the Shaw Brother's response to Dino De Laurentiis's 1976 King Kong remake. The Shaw Brother's film in my opinion manages to be much more fun while having a smaller budget than other.

I got my copy as part of the Rolling Thunder Pictures Presents
triple feature along with Detroit 9000 and Switchblade Sisters. However if the prospect of nearly six hours of low budget movies doesn't excite you, this movie is also available to stream on Netflix.

Also known as Goliathon.