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.

While I adore Hong Kong cinema and have enjoyed pretty much every sub-genre of film-making to come from that part of the world in the last half century, mainland China is another story. The only consistently quality genre of films that the mainland seems able to make is the historical epic, full of sprawling battles, horses, and martial arts. Everything else is a letdown and MONK COMES DOWN THE MOUNTAIN follows that trend. The narrative is barely focused and involves a monk who is kicked out of the Shaolin Temple due to his misbehaviour. Said protagonist is played by the guy who was the villain in KUNG FU KILLER, Wang Baoqiang, and he's an entirely unprepossessing chap, lacking the charisma and grace to make a role like this work.The plot just sort of ambles along endlessly, throwing in digressions involving supporting characters (the usual martial arts masters, a doctor, a CGI monkey in one random interlude) and plenty of CGI-enhanced fight scenes. I love martial arts fights and some of it is okay here, but too much of it is wire work assisted with flying and gravity-defying feats which aren't to my taste. The supporting cast is better, but underutilised: Lam Suet as a cop, Jaycee Chan as an underwhelming antagonist. The guy who played the Bruce Lee lookalike goalie in SHAOLIN SOCCER is here too, along with Tiger Hu of MAN OF TAI CHI fame. Best of the bunch is the criminally underrated Yuen Wah, playing another badass late on in his career; don't let the occasional bit of doubling fool you, Wah still has it and is by far the best thing in the entire movie. A shame the rest of the film can't match him.

Life after Shaolin school-the movie gives us a look at this. From someone who got kicked out and actually might not be qualified to be called a Shaolin. But apart from technicalities, this is about an individual who tries to make a living. One way or the other, but always dishing out respect to others. Doesn't change the fact, that he has some major flaws (what Shaolin would steal really?).But that's why the movie has kind of a unique flavor. It's a bit of a mix of things, that make this weird and not as accessible as other martial arts movies, but it still has a lot going for it. Like the fight scenes, which arguably are not the best ever put on film, but are still entertaining enough, if you are into that kind of thing. Which is a statement that rings true for the entire movie

I couldn't disagree more with the first two reviews. I give it 7/10. I mean I liked it and I watched it 3 times, there is no shame in that and I'm truthful with myself. There is a lot of wisdom in the movie. Of course it's a Chinese movie and there is a lot of beautiful choreography, but if you listen carefully and you practice martial art, you may like it. The movie is about Kung fu, it's an art but it's also about life about philosophy. Of course, I don't agree with all that said in the movie, but most of the time I agree. But again, it'a Chinese movie, if you don't like IPman, Jet li, Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee don't watch it. Nevertheless, if you don't like them but you like philosophy and wisdom, you may love it anyway.