Each armed with half of a wooden key, two criminals (played by Siu-Tung Ching and Chiu-Sing Hau respectively) escape from jail in search of a treasure left behind by a kung-fu master. The treasure is not gold, silver, or bitcoins. In fact, it’s an old manuscript on the monkey style of martial arts. Before they can go up to the mountains to train properly, our shady heroes must go on the run from a pole-wielding villain named Tung Hak-Fung and his henchmen. If they don’t learn this new style soon and go ape together, they’re gonna wind up very dead.

After the incredibly colorful opening credits, I suspected that Monkey Kung Fu AKA Stroke of Death (1979) was going to be a stone-cold (if minor) classic. So far as I know, this is my first time encountering director Mar Lo. There’s never a dull moment and there’s a plethora of clever and fun fight sequences. I really appreciate the filmmakers’ restraint by not having any monkey screeches on the soundtrack or someone in a guerilla costume monkeying around. The comedy is restrained but the training montages are not. Monkey Kung Fu is a real charmer. Highly recommended.

This transfer of Monkey Kung Fu from 88 Films is practically flawless. I didn’t see any print damage whatsoever and both the English dub and the original Cantonese dialog (with English subtitles) sounds excellent. There’s an interview with fight choreographer Tony Leung and an audio commentary by Kenneth Brorsson and Phil Gillon of Podcast on Fire. There’s also a trailer for the film as well. This release comes with a booklet with a phenomenal essay by Andrew Graves and a cool reversible poster.