Monster Hunt

This is a Chinese film aka Monster Hunt. In ancient China, mankind had driven the monsters into the remote mountains after once living in harmony. There is a civil war within the monster world. The old king has been killed and the pregnant queen is on the run. Song Tianyin is the young mayor of a small village. His grandmother claims the family to be monster hunters. Huo Xiaolan (Bai Baihe) is a mercenary monster hunter. Song is shocked when Huo reveals two travelers to be monsters in disguise.

The basic premise is good. The story structure is fine. The characters are good. The creature designs are a little creepy. The small eyes and the tentacles make them look like part monkey and part octopus. The baby's radish look is good but again the tentacles bother me. I can't see these creatures being sold as cuddly toys. I would get rid of the tentacles. There are other creepy things that happen. Whether it's the pregnant dude or eating monsters, some of this is off-putting especially in the western sense. Sure, Arnold got pregnant in Junior but it wasn't a monster and Junior wasn't actually liked. The sashimi monster is disturbing. Of course, the reference is clear. It's especially compelling since exotica animal meat trade seems to be the genesis of the recent viral outbreak. Nevertheless, the creep factor is on the high side for a family film. This is generally good but some of the absurdness gets creepy.

Chinese animation has been through a rough time, it missed the mark so many times when used to create epic legend. However, it seems that the eccentric animation just found its niche with the blend of humor, drama and action fantasy that is Monster Hunt. It shockingly deals with a few eerie themes yet presented in family friendly light humorous way, almost like MIB in ancient China.

In a world where monster and human live in inharmonious way, an ordinary man finds himself in a struggle between the monster kingdom and human hunters. It opens up with typical fantasy troupe, then escalates with good comedic tone as well as healthy dose of martial art stunts. The cast works fine, especially with famous names as supporting characters or cameos, some of them are added for comedy relief.

The tone might feel awkward, it's often playful but then it displays incredibly creepy prejudice against the monster, even down to eating and torturing them. Granted, some of them look like radish or salad, although the abrupt change of pace can be startling. There are definitely some odd twists here. Fortunately enough, the core drama is light humor, with endearing family value thrown into the mix. It mostly deals with platonic funny theme, and fans of Chinese cinema should find the humor familiar.

For a movie that uses animation and action choreography at the same time, Monster Hunt looks amazing, especially in the second half with gorgeous setting. It's one of the best animations Chinese has produced, it's much smoother than the rest and these silly designs are well integrated into the world. The feel of uncanny valley actually works in their favor since the monsters only partially resemble human yet they look harmless enough to be friendly.

Monster Hunt has all the elements of Chinese fantasy movie, the visual effect and also the soundtracks enhance the flamboyantly cheesy premise. It's a well-produced action comedy and definitely a crowd pleaser.

Whether you're into monsters or not, this adorable film will appeal to a wide audience. Whether you love it for the action, the stunts, the visual effects, or the cuteness of the baby character, there's something here for everyone to adore. I just loved everything about it. I found it incredibly cute and delightful and a pleasure to watch. Some scenes were jaw dropping incredible!!

I wanted to see this movie for quite some time after hearing that it was a smash hit in its native China; I wanted to see what regular Chinese people found so appealing. After seeing it, in some ways I am at a loss for words. The movie is a fantasy comedy, though both the fantasy and the comedy will seem very strange to most westerners. The fantasy portions are unlike anything in Hollywood movies, and they sometimes seem to depend on viewers having an extensive knowledge of ancient Chinese culture; if you don't have that, you'll probably be lost at times, like I was. And the humor is far from subtle, much of it being extreme slapstick that westerns might find extremely excessive. But the movie is so different in these two regards, that I was always interested to see what was coming next, since I had never seen a movie like this before. This is definitely not a boring movie. And the movie looks extremely polished for the most part, though the CGI is a bit too cartoony at times.... though this might have been intentional, to give the movie a goofy feel. While I think that many casual western moviegoers might find the whole package a bit bewildering, viewers who want something different and fun will probably find this an amusing diversion.

There is one scene that makes the whole movie worthwhile, when they say goodbye. It has such an Asian feel to it: it's all heartbreaking but inevitable.

Other than that, it goes from weird kung-fu action against cuddly 3D animated monsters to fart jokes, birth jokes, marriage jokes and family problems, then back again so fast that you don't really know what you're supposed to be watching. And occasionally they just randomly start singing, fortunately not too often.

The story follows a hapless young man and a young female "monster hunter" in the context of a monster hunt. On orders from a very powerful man, all hunters are on the lookout for the monster queen and then her infant offspring. These are all very powerful kung-fu masters, but somehow they get thwarted by the power of youth and love and after much adventure and a twist, a happy ending.

My conclusion is that this film combines a lot of classic Chinese concepts: the humor, the fighting style, the overlaying culture of it all. My guess is that it was aimed at young Asian children and, while it will probably be enjoyed by children everywhere, Western adults might find it crass and infantile.