The legendary Dragon Fighter Lo Han (Stephen Chow) makes a wager with the Goddess of Mercy (Anita Mui) that he can go to Earth and change the destinies of three people without using magic. The three souls in question: a prostitute, a villain, and a beggar, are cursed to be reincarnated and thus relive their awful lots in life unless Lo Han can help them change their ways. With the help of his pals Tiger Fighter Han Lo (Ng Man-Tat) and Unicorn (Wong Yat-Fei), Lo Han might, just might, have a chance to help these people and earn his place in Heaven.
After the passing of Ng Man-Tat this year, I decided that I needed to get back into the films of Stephen Chow and watch some unseen-by-me titles. Luckily, The Mad Monk (1993) was on Amazon Prime. Unluckily, that version didn't have the original Cantonese dialog. Now don't get me wrong, I don't speak Cantonese at all but a big part of Stephen Chow's comedy is his amazing voice and I'm pretty sure that all of his films are dubbed into Mandarin for the mainland. So if possible, I always watch the Cantonese ones (with English subtitles, of course). That being said, I still really enjoyed this film.
The screenplay by Sandy Shaw is funny, sweet, and bonkers. It really plays well with the collective comedic talents of the cast. But the thing that really impressed me most about The Mad Monk is the imagination that went into the special effects and set design. For instance, when the King of Hell tricks Lo Han and comes to Earth, he retains his giant stature and lays waste to a pint-sized city. I'm not sure if I'd say that I'm in a big hurry to watch this one again but I'm glad that I finally got around to it.
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