Film Review: Monkey King: Cave Of The Silk Web 孙悟空大战盘丝洞 (2020) - China

Monkey King: Cave Of The Silk Web 孙悟空大战盘丝洞 (2020) - China

As part of the ongoing Film Critics - Martial Arts series - “Discovering the world of Martial Arts cinema”

Reviewed by Andrew Chan (Film Critics Circle of Australia) 

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Wong Jing is back to what he does best in rehashing and milking classic Hong Kong TV and movies better moments. Wong brings back Benny Chan who rose to fame as Monkey King in the TVB follow up as Dicky Cheung’s replacement. Chan is more than capable as the fight-ready playful and loyal Monkey King. The good news is that this Mainland production uses largely Hong Kong main cast including the much missed Law Kar Ying as the master monk and Lam Tze Chung as the hopeless romantic “Pig”. These are all welcome elements and the film is surprisingly fun to watch even if it feels like longer TV episode.

Benny Chan is excellent as Monkey King and is right at home in a role that propelled him to stardom in Hong Kong and China. Chan holds the film together with plenty of good action moments and charisma required with a monkey with fur. Veteran Law Kar King reprise his famed role as master monk with plenty of confidence and play on words. Meanwhile Lam Tze Chung provides the perfect comic relief as the hopeless romantic pig with a good heart. Connie Man plays the main villain as the Spider queen and provides one of her better performance.

All in all, “Monkey King: Cave Of The Silk Web”  plays like as if being a continuation of Benny Chan’s TVB series. The good news is that Wong Jing knows what the market wants and will milk it for all the commercial value it may have and for this movie, it is one of those mindless entertainment that just about works. The fight scenes are well shot and the CGI provides a fun backdrop and proceedings. The Hong Kong cast makes it an interesting affair, even if it is entirely for the Mainland audience.

I rated it 6/10

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