Monk Comes Down the Mountain (2015)

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.

... TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE.I watch a lot of movies ... so many that the IMDb once tagged me and released me into the wild to see what theatre I would pick.After reading the other member reviews (thanks guys) I think the reason I enjoyed it so much is that I never read the novel nor did I bring any preconceptions.What I found was a beautifully filmed, acted, and directed movie which was just daffy and unpredictable enough to hold my attention.You say PO-TAE-TOE. I say PA-TAT-O.What others see as a mishmash and fighting among writers and directors I see as a puzzle that the viewer needs to put together.Recommended.

Director Kaige Chen is one of China's most acclaimed directors, so I went in this with relatively high expectations. Unfortunately, this movie turned out as a letdown, being an uneven mess of a movie. It feels like it has had not one, but several directors on set, fighting about what kind of movie they want to do. The final result is disappointing piece of work, which at least has some scenes of magical beauty to save it from being a complete failure.Mixing martial-arts and slapstick comedy is by no means a bad idea, as both genres require a lot of physical talent and choreography. And it has been done several times very successfully, see Kung-Fu Hustle as a prime example. Jackie Chan actually built an entire career on these kinds of movie. In this case however, the formula doesn't seem to work. The plot follows young monk He Anxia, who is forced to leave his temple and find his way in the real world, which is set somewhere in China of the 1920ies. On his journey, He meets several people, from an apothecary who is betrayed by his wife and his brother, to a mysterious janitor, who appears to have mastered a unique art of Kung-Fu, the "ape style". Also, somewhere in this is at least one love story, but this is hard to tell. Could be accidental. The whole piece is narrated by He's son, whom we never meet in person throughout the entire movie. Why? That is one of the many, many questions this movie leaves behind. The main character seems to be some kind of Chinese Forrest Gump (there are actually a couple of references to this movie). So, in the first act, He Anxia acts more like a retard, who is overwhelmed by the modern world he sets foot in for the first time. Unfortunately, as the movie progresses, the development of his character is completely left behind. More and more people enter and leave the scenery, as if this was a bus-station, not a movie. Likewise, new plot lines open up, only to be dropped immediately, and the whole thing becomes more and confusing. The title-giving "Monk, coming down the mountain" finds himself sidelined, as the story progresses. One cannot say, what came first, but as the movie falls apart dramatically, it also loses its way tone wise. What started more like a screwball comedy, turns into a mystical martial-arts piece and ends up as a gangster- movie. For absolutely no reason, there even is full CGI-sequence with monkey in the jungle. It has absolutely no coherence whatsoever. On the plus side, there are some beautiful shots and the fight- scenes do have some special moments. There is a glimpse of a potentially good movie here and there. It's a pity, that these glimpses haven't been brought to shine in this case. Kaige Chen is a fantastic director, but this movie feels lazy, unambitious and is not a great example of Chinese movie-making.

The only thing that deserves a bit of praise are some of the effects and kung fu scenes, but even those are a stretch to say the least.This movie is absolutely awful, and its awfulness increases as the so called "plot" progresses. JUST KIDDING, there is no plot, even a child can write such a horrendous story. The relations between characters are almost non existing. The movie does not follow the audience's pace at all, for some times the pace is so off that you feel completely cheated to even pay for this movie. Although advertised as a comedy, the only funny thing was how bad the movie is. Although I cannot give examples, imagine a lower school level story line with sci fi effects made by Michael Bay, add in some really weird elements of homosexuality, adultery, and kungfu and tadaaaaa.Do not watch, as the saying goes "if people tell you something looks and smells like poop so many times, you seriously don't need to eat it", so DO NOT WATCH IT.