Monster Hunt

[Drunk Monk]

To refresh your memories:
[youtube]FbhsvxqoCG4[/youtube]

A cook/mayor/ne'er-do-well dude gets impregnated by the refugee monster queen and gives birth to a four-armed radish. Monsters, monster hunters, paper-cut golems and exotic meat chefs are hunting for the radish baby using magic and Kung Fu. The radish baby becomes full-auto weaponized when fed fruits. The monsters look like doughy versions of How to Raise Your Dragon dragons, but they are really yao, which here are depicted mostly as anamorphic vegetables. Sword fights, Bollywood dance numbers, Disney deaths, cool sets although a little H.R. Pufnstuf-ish, monster fart jokes, mediocre CGI. Entertaining fight scenes. Shrek-esque dance numbers and annoying musical interludes in monster language (which is subtitled in Chinese and translated into nonsense syllables in the English subs). Mostly predictable although there are a few decent mcguffins. The good monsters go vegetarian.

This was a major blockbuster in China and another reason why China won't have a global hit soon.

[Drunk Monk]

Monster Hunt 2
Began and ended with Bollywood numbers.  Wuba, the baby radish yao who looks like the pillsbury doughboy with four tentacles as arms, gets caught lost.  Demon hunters search for him, but he gets picked up by a gambler con artist (Tony Leung) and his accomplice Benben (dumbdumb), full grown radish demon. It was a little better than the first one for me because I've got a better grasp of how they are depicting the yao world.  But it's not much better.  Not recommended.  This franchise can end now (but it probably won't).

[Drunk Monk]

I watched MH2 again because I’ve been watching Tony Leung films lately. I had absolutely no memory of watching this before. That’s troubling because it’s happening more often with me. It keeps thing fresh I suppose.

My opinion didn’t change on the 2nd viewing but I’ll say that the sets and costumes are lavish. It’s a shame they are wasted on such a mediocre movie. Tony is okay but this isn’t way below him. He’s clearly phoning it in. The monster world is lush and beautiful, but the monsters annoy me. China’s yaoguai world is so rich and diverse, yet the film chooses to make up monsters. Except for the radishes, Wuba & Benben, the rest of the monsters are just chunky dragons and ogres, just weird made up stuff.  

Most of the cast returns, although some just for short cameos. The ending credits have NG outtakes, including many with the CGI monsters, which reminds me of how CGI Barbie movies had outtakes. That’s just silly.

There are sword fights, even a magic flying sword skateboard.

Not DOOM recommended.