The Master of kung-fu

Director Chen is prominent in the business in greater China and not a total stranger in Western film buffs circle. He is somewhat like the legendary Tsui Hark of Hong Kong. Both used to have great moments in the early stage of their career but followed up with commercial-oriented lousy stuff, to the point that both critics and audience know there shouldn't be any expectation before watching their new works.

If "preaching too hard (say, 3 or 4 in a scale of 10)" is considered a flaw of a movie, MONK COMES DOWN THE MOUNTAIN (2015) easily reaches 9 on that scale. What makes it even worse is that such preaching is a weird mixture of Taoism, Buddhism and self-asserting doctrine/mentality of Kung Fu world. Our protagonist, the one who comes down the mountain, is absolutely a Taoism practitioner. Yet this movie title ridiculously calls him a (Buddhism) monk. Would you label a victim of plane crash has died of car accident? Or, describe a dog-walker is having a good time with kitten?

There are too many laughable (not because of the humor) plot, arrangement, performance and dialogue. MCDTM is poorly rendered into something you simply cannot take it seriously. During the long 123 minutes I almost felt like watching a Monty Python flick from 1970s - despite some modern cinematography, choreography and editing.

A benevolent monk is sent to the world of saints and sinners.

While trying to survive, he meets different people with different motives. It's up to him to perceive whom to trust.

Black is sometimes white and white is sometimes black: there's no person completely good or completely bad. Behind the weird circumstances there's always a good reason why someone's on your way.

Anyway, great intro, was really promising. The flow was kinda confusing and sometimes seemed excessive but at the end it made sense.

A heart of a saint will find its way to survive in the world of sinners.

It's neither fish nor fowl. The combination of Conan's aura of death, Brokeback Mountain's friendship and a generation of master's pretense and coercion made this wonderful work possible. What does the first 30 minutes have to do with the rest? Daoist monks go to the monk temple every day to ask for people to be enlightened. You simply have to convert to it.

A young monk embarks on an adventurous journey after being expelled from his monastery. As he faces the trials, tribulations and seduction of the real world for the first time, he encounters many masters along the way. Boss Zha, an opera singer with a knack for spears, as well as Zhou Xiyu, a Taoist who knows how to wield a stick.

Boring, however, cool and sometimes even funny, the first half was more pleasant, the drama more involving, the second half lost the dramatic content, became less captivating, focused on the action scenes, the photography and impeccable costumes, it pleases the allegory too, from ancient China, regular, almost cool...

A really average movie. Story was really lame. Action ok but CGI heavy mist of which was of a poor standard. Disappointing watch. Bit boring. Young guy who was a monk who tries to find a master. Main character was actually quite annoying and definitely behaved as monk should not which I found really frustrating.