I watched this Taiwanese cheapie under the title LADY IRON MONKEY although it's also known as THE APE GIRL. Whatever the title, it's an odd little kung fu film with the main actress playing a monkey who is taken in by society and trained to be human. Of course, she can never truly part with her animal form, leading to much anguish and comedy hijinks en route to the fight finish.
The film was perhaps inspired by the popularity of the Japanese TV series MONKEY being made during the same period. Certainly it has the same slapdash, anything-goes feel along with the same bad dubbing and extremely broad comedy. The early scenes see the monkey girl teaming up with a comedy dwarf and comedy fat guy; you know they're supposed to be funny because they have stupid dubbing.
The later scenes get more political and introduce a couple of stock villains in the form of assassin Lo Lieh and evil emperor Chen Sing, both of whom are underutilised given their respective pedigrees in the genre (both are former Shaw Brothers stars given to making bad guy appearances in low budget fare such as this, always shot in Hong Kong and Taiwan). As the lead, Chin Fung-Ling only had one other film appearance (in MEAN DRUNKEN MASTER); she's pretty and fights athletically, so it's a surprise that she didn't go further. The fights are okay but not as funny as the monkey fu seen elsewhere, for example Sammo's version in KNOCKABOUT, although that effect at the climax is hilarious. The film is directed by Chen Chi-Hwa, who had directed some of the earlier Jackie Chan movies such as SHAOLIN WOODEN MEN.
The film was perhaps inspired by the popularity of the Japanese TV series MONKEY being made during the same period. Certainly it has the same slapdash, anything-goes feel along with the same bad dubbing and extremely broad comedy. The early scenes see the monkey girl teaming up with a comedy dwarf and comedy fat guy; you know they're supposed to be funny because they have stupid dubbing.
The later scenes get more political and introduce a couple of stock villains in the form of assassin Lo Lieh and evil emperor Chen Sing, both of whom are underutilised given their respective pedigrees in the genre (both are former Shaw Brothers stars given to making bad guy appearances in low budget fare such as this, always shot in Hong Kong and Taiwan). As the lead, Chin Fung-Ling only had one other film appearance (in MEAN DRUNKEN MASTER); she's pretty and fights athletically, so it's a surprise that she didn't go further. The fights are okay but not as funny as the monkey fu seen elsewhere, for example Sammo's version in KNOCKABOUT, although that effect at the climax is hilarious. The film is directed by Chen Chi-Hwa, who had directed some of the earlier Jackie Chan movies such as SHAOLIN WOODEN MEN.