Last Kung Fu Monk

One of the first Mainland of China movies that got released worldwide in 2010. Last Kung Fu Monk is a drama with kung fu about handle different situations in a different surroundings.

Meet mr Li Long, a Shaolin monk that leave his beliefs and move to America to find his brother. Instead he hear the news that his brother and his wife died in a car accident. His brother has a son though and Li volunteered to take care of him. To make money, Li befriend a Shaolin fan named Dave who tells him he can help him to open up a kung fu school. What Li doesn't know is Dave is connected with the Russian Mafia and the Russian mafia boss wants his money back for tribute the schools fundings.

When the movie came out on 1st October 2010 in the cinema I just thought this movie was just ok, and didn't even put it as a top 20 favorite. But now after 8 years since the release the movie starts to grow on me, and nowadays the cinema is filled with stereotypes hero movies and crappy CGI style, this movie has started to grow on me so much that it is on my top 5 list of my favorite movies of 2010s.

And to compare with nowadays, this movie doesn't deserve the harsh treatment as it got through the early years, this movie is it own movie, and to compare with other Chinese mainland movies, this movie is lighthearted and not much propaganda and quite a cute movie to watch.

I have raised the bar of this movie now and give it a 10/10 because it deserves it.

OK, so I only saw about 15 minutes worth of this thing. It falls under the category of B movie making, so you shouldn't expect much other than some halfway decent "kung-fu like" moves. What I wanted to mention was how messed up the young social worker is. We have a young, hot looking girl in New York City who is showing the main character around the city, because, you know, he's visiting from another country. So anyway, he's obviously older, and her brain sort of works so she knows he's a monk. But somehow in the span of about a day, this hot young girl decides to get horny for this older foreign monk and tries to kiss him.......wait stop the picture....what the hell just happened? Are you telling me a hot young girl in NYC can't find one halfway decent boyfriend in a city of 8 million people to spread her legs? She's got to give it up to a visiting foreign older monk? Well that's about the most insulting thing I've ever seen in a movie. Time to leave.

MY quick rating - 3,8/10. I suppose the fighting scenes were OK but completely unbelievable (and not in the good neat looking wire effects) but overall the story was boring. Same old Asian guy from out of town to beat up the dumb Americans thing. Could be fun but here is some of the worst acting in a long time. I have seen actors that look afraid to say their lines in front of camera, but this movie found EVERY single person afraid to say their lines. This major flaw is coupled with the worst editing possible. Think of how your home movies look and you use the fade button on your 200 dollar camera, that is what this whole movie is for any scene change. It reeks of low quality all around minus Li Zhang who obviously has been trained well. Maybe if this movie was a documentary or based on someone who went through this, it may have been a bit better off, but stand alone fiction, nope, I suggest passing on this one.

There are few movies that a film lover would rent without first taking into consideration the quality of the acting - Chinese martial arts films are certainly an exception to this rule. This film is a quintessential example of that caveat, turning what initially would be perceived as a poorly scripted, amateur attempt at entertainment into a rather enjoyable two hours of remarkably impressive fight sequences. Even after reading what the movie was about, I'm still not sure the plot ever actually permeates into a logical series of events. And I've seen better acting from college kids with a video camera pretending to have talent. But that's not the reason we choose to rent these kinds of flicks is it? We rent them to have a few hours viewing of ass kicking while enjoying a late night indulgence - and to this extent the movie achieves a most lovable form of quality. What the cast lacks in talent, they make up for in looks; the supporting actresses are gorgeous and the lead actor is in fine shape. The direction and editing is notably horrific. The choreography, on the other hand, is on par with most other movies of its genre. Last Monk of Kung Fu never lives up to the level that Ong Bak set (the plots have considerable correlation) but it does provide a great few hours of action and unintended laughs.

When I purchased this 2010 Kung Fu action movie from Amazon, I had no idea what it was, nor did I know anyone on the cast list. But being a Kung Fu movie was more than enough to catch my interest. And the fact that it was about maybe £2 or £3 with shipping, then it wasn't a massive loss if the movie was not a great one.

And now I have managed to finally get around to watch it, and I can in all honesty say that this movie was nowhere near as good or entertaining as I had hoped for. Sure, I didn't have much expectations to begin with, but this movie still managed to disappoint. And why is that? Well, because of the storyline and the lack of proper acting talent throughout the movie.

The action in "Last Kung Fu Monk" was quite good, and there was a lot of it. And it should be said that Peng Zhang Li does have some impressive martial arts skills and manages to deliver a nice display of his talent. However, his martial arts could only carry the movie so far, because his acting was downright wooden and rigid.

I managed to get somewhere near 45 minutes into the movie before I had to give up out of sheer boredom. The lack of proper acting performances were really wearing and tearing at me, and it was ultimately this which made me give up on the movie. The fighting was good, but it was hardly nowhere near enough to keep the movie afloat.

If you enjoy movies where the main character is forced into fighting in underground fighting rings, then there far better movies available. "Last Kung Fu Monk" doesn't really offer anything which haven't been seen in countless other martial arts movies in the past.

I am rating "Last Kung Fu Monk" a mere three out of ten stars rating solely for the martial arts in the movie.