Zui hou nu

One of Chen Chi Hwa's early works, this film is a rare hong kong film that ive only seen commercially under the title "Lady Iron Monkey." It tells the story of Ming Ling Shur, a girl who was raised by apes and thus has a natural ability with monkey kung fu. She also resembles a monkey for most of the film (not really explained why). She grows up and falls for a prince who is really an evil kung fu master, who exploits her abilities for his own gain. Now here's why the film works; Kam Fung does an excellent job as the Ape Girl, being very excentric at times with the actions of a monkey. Also, we see early performances by Lo Lieh as an assassin, and Chen Sing as the prince. The martial arts sequences in this film are well choreographed, and the films story is very unique compared to other films. One of my top 3 favorite Hong Kong films, and definately worth the watch.

Raised from infancy by apes, her natural ability for deadly Kung Fu is frequently the cause of flamboyant jackanapes! So, it is with great shame that I openly admit to having only just recently discovered the acrobatic antics of sultry simian sired Chop Socky siren Lady Iron Monkey! Where has she been all my Kung Fu-loving life? As the great poets so often claim, love can be found in the most unexpected of places! This pacy, enchantingly silly Kung Fu fantasy stars Kam Fong Ling, Chen Sing, Lo Lieh, Wong Tai Liang, and is fuelled by dynamite electro funk, fabulously acrobatic fights and a fearsomely feral protagonist you certainly don't want to monkey about with! Festooned with oddball characters, a consistently goofy vibe, and boisterously interspersed with playful episodes of broad slapstick tomfoolery. While I think it is entirely fair to say that the more noisome comedic interludes get lost in translation, on the whole, Lady Iron Monkey's jocular shenanigans are pretty fun! This magnificent monkey girl sets my heart in a whirl, a dazzling kung Fu pearl, heroically hirsute, button cute, a ready match for any bellicose brute, Lady Iron Monkey is a bona fide hoot!

It opens with a dwarf and fat guy teased by monkeys. Their kung fu master takes on the female monkey as a student. After about one minute of training our monkey girl now speaks English (or Chinese) and has excellent martial arts skills. She goes off to explore the human world.

There is a school of comedy where monkeys are always funny. Personally I find monkeys not even interesting much less funny. If you are from the monkey school of comedy this movie is for you. I can respect that some people enjoy this sort of movie so I will hold back on my criticism.

I rate this movie as below average for a 1979 martial arts movie for other faults. First, the fighting is nothing special and less than I would expect for someone as good as Chan Sing. Second, in his first scenes Chan Sing is one heck of a nice guy. Then on becoming the emperor he goes from nice guy to evil after one page of script. One more detail - her tail. She never had a tail until having a tail was a problem.