“Monkey Man” Theatrical Poster
Director: Dev Patel
Cast: Dev Patel, Sharlto Copley, Pitobash, Vipin Sharma, Sikandar Kher, Adithi Kalkunte, Sobhita Dhulipala, Ashwini Kalsekar, Makarand Deshpande
Running Time: 121 min.
By Will McGuire
Monkey Man is Dev Patel’s love letter to Southeast Asian action cinema from 8 Diagram Pole Fighter right up to The Night Comes For Us. It is what a lot of action fans have been clamoring for: a mid budget, carefully produced and crafted, R-rated, revenge film. It comes from a place of actual understanding about what makes kung fu films work, and if you want a short, snappy, takeaway from this review it is this: the actual martial arts action of Monkey Man is a little less extreme than the marketing may have led you to believe however, the soul of a classic kung fu movie is under the bones here.
Monkey Man is about Kid (Dev Patel, who also wrote and directed) a young man who works as a hapless pit fighter to make money in order to infiltrate a criminal organization through a pleasure palace run by Queenie (Ashwini Kalsekar). We soon learn that Kid wants access to Queenie’s place because it serves Rana (Sikandar Kher) the local police chief, who used to work for psychotic guru Shakti (Makrand Deshpande) who destroyed Kid’s home and killed his mother. Kid’s first attempt at revenge goes awry and he barely escapes to a Temple with his life where he rededicates himself under the tutelage of Alpha (Vipin Sharma) an androgynous guru who leads a cabal of transexual monastics. Kid, rededicated to his cause, seeks his final revenge on Diwali just as Shakti’s ultimate plans for control seem primed to reach fruition.
Monkey Man has been marketed as a no holds barred Indian John Wick revenge thriller and while it is certainly violent enough to warrant the R, it is a much more thoughtful, collected, emotionally driven film than that description would warrant. In the same way that classic kung fu films reflected Hong Kong’s changing identity and concerns of being pulled between the colonial and the communist influences, Monkey Man is really about the psyche of India itself. “Remember who you are” is the refrain Kid hears as he works himself into shape but it also serves as a message to the Indian population that’s going to be watching this film about the rising tide of nationalism under Modi.
So while the politics are much less subtle than any of those old Shaw films, I like how the structure and morality of them is clearly preserved. Kid is clever and tough from the beginning but he’s governed only by rage and so he’s not really a threat to the social order. It isn’t until he’s undergone a spiritual transformation: a reconnection to a higher order of meaning, that he’s rewarded with the strength of purpose to finish his story. To create a metaphor: he goes into this film as Chen Kwan-Tai and ends it as Gordon Liu. I also like the wrinkle that the process of training him to fight is not one that comes easy to his guru Alpha– it isn’t his way of doing things– but it’s not about what the Master wants, it’s about what the Student needs. That’s the kind of stuff that keeps me coming back to Shaw films time after time because of the mythic power of the stories.
The film is excellent in technical terms: I love the moment early on where Kid is asked his name by a drug dealer and responds “Bobby” and then as the camera swings around we briefly catch that he was standing right next to a shelf of “Bobby’s Rat Poison”. That’s rewarding the audience for being active while giving your main character some detail without slowing the movie down. The fights are well staged, but lack the rhythm of the very best Asian work. They’re miles ahead of most films but if you’re looking for a challenger to the New Indonesian Action cinema you’re not going to find it here. Credit where it’s due– there’s a knife fight in an elevator that briefly calls back to the maniacal bloodlust of Iko Uwais’ best films and I loved it.
Monkey Man is an anomaly of globalization that I never imagined: an English language thriller with an Indian cast that patterns itself on the storytelling techniques of Cantonese cinema. It does not scale the top of the mountain– but I think fans of Asian action will be happy with the view from where this film takes you.
Will McGuire’s Rating: 7.5/10
I was hoping to see a proper review. I can imagine people being disappointed in this film if they only care about the action, but Monkey Man is a lot more than that which is why I will watch it several more times.
The finale was like a reward for investing in the story and characters, and it doesn’t try to re-invent the wheel. Dev Patel was like a wild animal with the way he went after henchmen, and we had a great combination of low TKD kicks, elbows, wrist locks, arm breaks, and how anything not bolted down became a weapon. He was not a one man army, and how he kept getting hurt and fighting through the pain made him relatable.
It wasn’t lost on me how when he’s training, it was like an Indian flavor of the training scenes in Shaw Brothers films which included him holding buckets of water like in 36th Chambers, and in his final fight with Rana, the mirrors hanging from the ceiling were used similarly to the mirrors in Enter the Dragon.
I hope there’s enough of a demand for another Monkey Man as the movie shows that he’s taken the role of Hanuman, and thus will be needed to keep protecting everyone else.
I felt like I wrote a proper review given how much we agree on the heart of the film.
The proper review Andrew is referring to is your own William (versus our previous news post which just covered the synopsis + release date).
I should have been more specific as I meant to say that I was looking forward to a proper review on this website, since COF would have a better understanding of this film.
Andrew was 100% giving you a compliment about your review buddy! Will McGuire…. you really have your guard up!!!! What’s the deal bro?
My apologies I didn’t realize until I read the responses that he meant it as a compliment. I literally read it as “I was hoping this would be a proper review.”
Thanks for the support and pardon my misunderstanding
No worries. Online, context isn’t obvious, and tone is non-existent. It’s easy for me to forget that way I talk to someone in person might not come off the same way in the comments section.
He died at the end, how is there going to be a Monkey Man 2?
Thanks for ruining the ending for all of us who’ve yet to see it Josh. You’re the true hero.
Without going into details, I think the ending is ambiguous, and it can go in either direction. Think about other movies where even though it makes sense that the main character shouldn’t have survived, they still returned for a sequel.
I haven’t had a chance to check out ‘Monkey Man’ yet, but your reference to Hanuman makes me think it could be a good movie to double bill with 2022’s ‘Shadow Master’, which also showcases a character who turns into the same Hindu deity (and was actually released in some territories under the title ‘Hanuman’).
This movie was awesome
I thought it was disappointing. I had to watch Farang after. When we finally see Dev kick ass it feels like the best part of the film. The one on one at the end proved that they didn’t put in the effort they could have.
I’m not sure how it could have been different at the end. The scene was more about how much Kid hates Rana as opposed to having the kind of finale as Iko Uwais vs Joe Taslim.
Interestingly, Farang is wrongly advertised as an all action film which is no different from how the trailer for Monkey Man wrongly makes it look like it’s all action.
I thought they were trying to prove something with the action. They couldn’t pull off a hand to hand like One Percenter or even watered down Jackie Chan