I decided to sit down and finally catch up on some of the well known martial arts films that I have never seen. Of course, with my poor and broken mind, I went through my collection and chose a movie I've never heard of instead. That being, The Super Reverend Monk. It's a movie that is hard to find any information on. You know, my kind of film. Anyways knowing nothing about this, I decided to dip into the 1990's world of monks, Buddha, and Kung fu.
The movie follows two warring tribes as they keep on killing each other. This time though, one side has gotten the advantage and killed the leader of the other. When going to execute the wife and unborn child of said leader, the reverend monk shows up and convinces them, through magical martial arts, to let the mother go. The baby is born and then given to said monk for protecting, sending the tribes into an 18-year journey of revenge and redemption.
I admit, that I liked this movie a lot more than I thought I was going to. Although, a bit goofy at times with its wirework, and fancy backward flips, most of the fight scenes were fun, and not too overdone. The story was also deeper than I originally thought it to be and even surprised me with a more thoughtful ending, that then leads to some mystical rock smashing and death-dealing kung fu. One of the monks has a Drunken style, that is just so fun to watch, as his character acts like a lazy good-for-nothing, but always seems to be in the right place at the right time. I know that's kind of a Kung-Fu movie cliche, but I enjoyed it anyway. In fact, there wasn't anything all that new or crazy in this film, it just ended up being entertaining enough to have some fun with.
With a solid story, acting, and fight choreography, The Super Reverend Monk kicked its way into my heart. If you can find yourself a copy of this one, I think it is worth a watch or two.