The Grateful Monkey Dir: Wong Yiu Scr: Lau Sang Cast: Tang Bik-wan, Yu Kai, Cheng Bik-ying, Kwan Hoi-shan, Cheung Yuen-chau (aka Yuen Chau), Lee Yuen-fu (aka Yuen Fu), Chu Yuen-lung (aka Sammo Hung), Mang Yuen-man and students of the Chinese Opera Academy 1963 / B&W / D Beta / Cantonese / 91min

Master Yu Zhanyuan’s clan is mobilized to monkey around for this funhouse ride of a film. The Grateful Monkey, a genre blender typical of 1960s Cantonese cinema, is a costume sing-song palatial drama with a supernatural dimension. The boys and girls wear Disneyland-like cute animal outfits to play primates that are forced into dirty palatial politics, their amazing acrobatics employed to manifest not only animal qualities but also super-human capacities. Opera star Tang Bik-wan may get top billing for the film, but it is the monkeying kids who steal the show.