Monster Hunt (2015) User Reviews (28)

Contrasting between mythical bizarreness and action comedy, Monster Hunt is a strangely delightful fantasy drama.

[quincytheodore · 7/10 · 13 September 2015]

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.

What a surprise of a movie...

[paul_haakonsen · 7/10 · 15 October 2016]

"Monster Hunt" (aka "Zhuo yao ji") was sort of a movie that was entertaining in a strange way, especially since it was a combination of animation and live action. Normally that mixture does work well enough, but it was the odd cute and cuddly appearance of the monsters in the movie that just made it weird.

The story in "Monster Hunt" was actually surprisingly good, as it is a story which is suitable for both children and adults alike. And the movie itself is also suitable for children to watch.

"Monster Hunt" is about ancient China where humans and monsters live simultaneously, although the monsters are banished. The queen of the monster world is pregnant, but is being chased relentlessly. With her dying breath she passes on her egg to a human named Song Tianyin (played by Boran Jing). He is traveling with monster hunter Huo Xiaolan (played by Baihe Bai) and they are being chased by monster hunters set out to capture the royal monster child.

With a captivating story, then "Monster Hunt" is already well on the way for being a good movie. But it is really helped along by some great acting performances by Huo Xiaolan, Boran Jing, Wu Jiang, Sandra Kwan Yue Ng and Eric Tsang. And it was a nice treat to have the talented Wei Tang make a short appearance in this movie.

The CGI were good, although the design of the monsters was at first somewhat of a difficult pill to swallow for me. They were simply just too cute in their design to be taken seriously. So I guess you will either outright fall in love with them right away (which my wife did), or you will have problems with taking them seriously (as I did).

"Monster Hunt" is a fast-paced movie that has both a good storyline, but also has enough action and martial arts to keep the average fan of the Asian cinema more than happy.

While it is somewhat of an offbeat movie, compared to the myriad of Hong Kong movies released every year, then "Monster Hunt" certainly is well-worth watching. It turned out to be a very nice surprise and a very entertaining movie, and I can warmly recommend this movie, both if you are a fan of the Asian cinema, but also if you are looking for a good movie for the entire family.

"Monster Hunt" scores a rock-solid seven out of ten stars rating from me.

Strange, goofy, but never dull

[Wizard-8 · 7/10 · 11 August 2018]

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.

Wonderful marriage of state-of-the-art animation technology and charismatic acting

[harry_tk_yung · 19 July 2015]

If I have one compliant about this movie, it is the misleading title, specifically the use of the word "monster". Right at the beginning, voice-over narration spares no pain in making the point that members of this other race, regardless of how strange they may look, are in every way human's equal. Just like humans, there are good guys and bad guy, and that is all there is to it. And yet, using the word "monster" to denote them completely sabotages the all-too-obvious subtext of racial harmony. Why can't a special, neutral-sounding name be invented? Laziness? The guess I would venture is marketing considerations.

Despite the big opening about conspiracy and power conflict at high places in the monster's realm, the plot line surprisingly oozes domesticity. There is no colossal clash of two kingdoms/races as you might be led to expect at the beginning. This is how it works. The obviously pregnant queen in the monster kingdom finds herself on the losing side of a power struggle and escapes into the forbidden human kingdom, hotly pursued by her enemies from back home. We never see the monster kingdom again as the story takes on a culinary flavor. A monster baby of royal lineage, you see, is considered by humans to be multi-star Michelin fare.

While there is no lacking in Asian movie stars, many in various degrees of cameos (including lovely TANG Wei), the story is essentially about a guy and a girl who kind of adopt the new born royal monster Bupa (name given only at the end of the movie). The girl is actually a professional bounty monster-hunter with a profit motive. Eventually, they end up saving him from the fate of being the ultimate highlight of a lavish "monster feast". The little twist is that Bupa is physically born by the innocent nerdish guy, having been implanted into him by the dying pregnant monster mother. The girl eventually gets emotionally attached to the guy and the monster baby, in that order.

The two leads beautifully deliver their scenes with both outlandish tomfoolery and subtle nuances. BAI Baihe, arguably China's current princess of rom-com, is in equal measures coquettish and cocky, a sheer delight. JING Boran is about the most lovable nerd you can find today for any Asian cast.

There are exciting action sequences aplenty, offered up by a pageantry of celebrity stars, with superbly delivered animation blending so seamlessly that sometimes you totally forget that you are watching animation.

While not a major part of the movie, the background music contributes. In particular, the songs, whether a tender love duet, an uplifting spirit-raiser or outright comedy, are pitch-perfect (no pun intended), enhancing the moods of the movie at just the right moments. There is a good reason for this success: they came from the pens of a pair that can deservedly be called Hong Kong's Lerner and Lowe (or Rodgers and Hammerstein, if you prefer), Leon Ko and Chris Shum.

Chinese-weird live action and animation movie. Fun, but childish.

[siderite · 7/10 · 15 June 2016]

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.

Excellent, Enjoyable Animated Film but...

[CelluloidDog · 7/10 · 20 June 2016]

I watch animated films once in a while and I watched this right after another foreign animated film, Hero Quest (on Netflix). In contrast to the muddled, flat, at times horrific Hero Quest (probably a 3.5 rating out of 10, 4.1 on IMDb), Monster Hunt is a thoroughly enjoyable film. It fits more with the animated humor of the Dreamworks genre (more so than Pixar). Not surprisingly, Raman Hui, who worked with Shrek and other Dreamworks productions takes his energy and infuses Monster Quest into a well-done tale.

Overall, it's one of the best foreign animated films but does fall a bit short of Pixar's and Dreamworks' top 10 films. So it has a bit of Monsters Inc or Shrek or How to Train Your Dragon but falls a bit short. Nevertheless, it should rank in the middle of the pack of the better CGI animated films of the last two decades. The strength of the film is actually(!) the human characters: the lead Boran Jing who plays the bumbling Tianyin. And Baihe Bai who plays Xiaolan, the Monster Hunter and Elaine Jin, the grandmother were the strengths of the film with comedic acting that's among the best anywhere. For that, the human comedy roles get a 9.5/10. And some of the gags were terrific humor such as when Tianyin plays hide-and-seek with the Wuba, the baby king, to lure him into the cage. The chemistry between Boran Jing and Baihe Bai is terrific, it rarely gets better.

However, the storyline gets a bit complicated and it's easy to lose track. Then the couple songs in the film just don't really make the grade. In addition, it's hard to really warm up to the monsters except maybe the Baby King (Radish). The monsters had faceless qualities and never really developed strong characters unlike Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, or Sulley or Mike Wazowski (from Monsters Inc). The CGI was fabulous but it had some blandness. It's like looking at some really beautiful and delicious pizza but when you bite in, it does really have a great flavor. Hence, it never really pulls out the emotional connection.

Still, the film is wonderful fun. It just doesn't make the top 15-20 animated film list. Yet, its uniqueness and wuxia antics make it a darling for fans of Chinese films. Hence, it deserves to be #1 in China. It's better than the 6.2 rating, surprisingly low, and should move up with time. I gave a 9 to balance the act but the real rating is 7.2-7.5.

Simply adorable!

[paulclaassen · 6/10 · 5 June 2018]

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!!

Man always solely wanted to dominate the world and its other species.

[Reno-Rangan · 7/10 · 4 November 2015]

As far I remember I've not seen any Chinese or the Hong Kong movies in the past 12 months. So I have heard about this film a lot that it was the China's highest domestic gross movie ever. Since then I have marked it to check it out as much soon as possible and after the watching with a high expectation I'm here right away. I've been watching movies since my childhood, but it became serious after the 'The Two Towers'. So first I'm a fantasy film fan before becoming neutral. But still sometimes I'm very keen on them like I was for this one.

In the present era, we've zombies, superheroes, vampires, werewolves, aliens, robots, so on varieties for making a good entertaining flick. But just half a millennium ago when there was no motion-picture, but literature and the stage play, there were only good vs bad, god vs devil, man vs monster and beasts. So the modern creations were sci- fi and the old ones are fantasies. After CGI is becoming very flexible, the filmmakers are on the race to get on-board into one of those genre franchises. So nowadays we are witnessing head-to-head contest between these two genres, but a great treat for the movie fanatics like me.

The first impression was the film's posters which were done similar to the traditional Chinese paintings. Second, the decent trailer, I was displeased with the CGI characters in the clips, but watching them in the full flow movie it looked so much better. One of the best visually stunning Mandarin movies. Despite setting a record at the box office, the budget was doubled after the drug controversy over the original lead actor who was later replaced by another and re-shot his portions entirely including special effect were redone.

"Monsters are the most cunning creatures in the world. They hide in human skin, dress as human and speak human language!"

The director had a handful experience from working on some Hollywood projects. Literally, it was his first solo, also the first live-shot directional debut movie and he nailed it. Very disappointing when it comes to the story, because it was just a one-liner which is well known since the inception of motion-picture. Set in the ancient period China when the humans and monsters lived together and later went to the war to dominate each other. Drawn a border between the two worlds that brought peace for the centuries until one day some kind of coup happened in the monsters' side. So the confrontation restores after a few monsters hops on the other side with human. How it all will be solved is the remaining action, adventure with lots of fun.

Quite similar to current European migrant crises. People who flee from the civil war in the middle-east is not welcomed by the few locals which led to some violence in the refugee camps. In this movie as well, without realising they brought the same environmental situation between man and monster.

Of course it is a children-cum-adult movie, but killing the cute monsters and cooking them, all of them are kind of gave me a sceptical feeling. Besides, it had romance as a sub-plot and Baihe Bai was so cute. Usually movies from this part of the Earth reminds martial arts. Since the director worked in 'Shrek' films, easily noticeable that some contents influenced from the other industries as well. The human skin thing reminded me the MIB and the song Indian films. The comedies are the uplift along the exciting stunts which fought among the live and CGI characters.

There are some thing that does not make sense, but in fantasy films those are logical that we can't consider as a flaw. But explanation needs, especially the inspired mythical story from another culture and that is where it quite failed. Overall movie passes the entertainment and quality test, but it is more a family movie and less a youngster's. Definitely a sequel is on the card after the tremendous success, if they fail to bring another movie, it will be their loss. For the foreign audience, especially the western world, it might be an average or an okay movie because of quite familiar with this kind of theme. Anyway, I recommend it for those who enjoy comedy-fantasy films.

7½/10

it is rather difficult to be a true cinephile in China

[lasttimeisaw · 4/10 · 18 October 2015]

MONSTER HUNT has broken the all-time box office record in the booming domestic market, and officially it is the highest-grossing film in China, with an estimate $391.2 million. So it really piques my curiosity and decided to give it a try (since I rarely watch Chinese films nowadays).

Flagrantly branded as a film made by "the father of Shrek", which the slogan is blatantly printed in all its posters, its director Raman Hui is just a supervising animator of SHREK (2001, 7/10) and SHREK 2 (2004, 7/10), and the co-director of the substandard SHREK 3 (2007, 6/10), so I assume Dreamworks might have the right to sue the overblown statement.

Probing into the film itself, one possibly finds it is a cringe-worthy journey from the very start, thanks to the kids-friendly creations of the monsters by the so-called "the father of Shrek", 2- dimensional and cartoonish in the worst way, which betrays its overt ambition to exploit the lowest common denominator at its maximum. The storyline fictionalises a world where humans and monsters (who can hide among men with a human skin) co-exist in ancient China, after an internal war between monsters, the pregnant monster queen lams with two protectors Zhu Gao and Pang Ying (whose human shapes are played by Tsang and Ng). And our hero is a young cripple Tianyin (Jing), living with his lunatic grandmother (Jin) in a remote village. He chances upon a monster hunt Xiaolan (Bai), and farcically becomes pregnant with the monster baby from the dying queen.

This role-switch between man and woman might turn out to be the most recommendable part in the story, after giving birth to the baby monster, later named as Huba, a surrogate nuclear family is formed, while Xiaolan takes on the tough father's role and the limp Tianyin becomes the protective mother. Then the narrative navigates inevitably to a predictable standard mainstream product, Huba's life is hanging by a thread (with an uncomfortable reference of Chinese people's non-selective culinary fetish) and a final battle between the good and the evil, with a stiff twist doesn't make any sense for the villain's motivation, it is par for the course Tianyin have to progress into a valiant monster slayer (bad monsters only), conforms to the traditional value of preserve a man's dignity, despite it is Xiaolan who is the real heroine in the whole escapade and Bai is the best thing among the cast, the most bankable Chinese actress presently.

Trying to blend as many genres as possible, action, comedy, fantasy, romance, even musical (it is utterly mortifying to watch the tasteless and jejune music numbers jammed into the story), in addition with a cast complemented with a string of household names with special appearances, namely Wei Tang, Chen Yao and Ni Yan, along with child stars from a topical reality TV show, MONSTER HUNT is meticulously calculated to its core, in order to cash in on viewers' attraction, but at the expense of dumbing down the story to a frag-mental absurdity. But a dispiriting truth is that this picture IS the record-holder, bearing that in mind, one must wail for the future of Chinese cinema rooted deeply in the unhealthy soil, and one day, hope not too late, this seemingly prosperous bubble will burst and a wake-up call is imminent, but right now, undeniably it is rather difficult to be a true cinephile in China.

good but a bit creepy

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 17 February 2020]

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.

A forgettable meat-and-potatoes movie

[komodovaranku · 3/10 · 22 October 2015]

This movie is sometimes serious. Sometimes action. Sometimes outright hilarious. Sometimes even a musical, for absolutely no reason. This movie tries to hit every genre, and fails pretty much at doing so, and instead leaves the critical viewer with a confused and forgettable impression.

The story is simple. Man meets woman meets monster. Then there's some in-your-face standard romance, an evil protagonist and a sword. That about seems to be it. Oh, and the man inexplicably becomes pregnant with a monster. But not really in a woman-empowering way, but more like in a he-has-a-fat-tummy way. And this inexplicable event carries most of the narrative.

Then there's the animation. There's nothing wrong with it, per se. Thankfully, it doesn't look like sock puppets, but it doesn't fit into the traditional Chinese narrative at all. The monsters don't really add much to the story. They look like green and blue blobs with big eyes, and they don't make much sense. There's not really any explanation of why they're there, why people want to get rid of them, or anything else about them really. They're not shrouded in mystery for the viewer to figure out. They're just there. Let's not forget that "monster" is half of the movie's title.

All in all, it mostly felt like a meat-and-potatoes mass-produced Disney production shoehorned into Chinese lore. The kids will surely have a laugh, but more mature audiences (read: 5+ years) should probably look elsewhere.

It should be mentioned that this is a milestone in Chinese animation and technical prowess, as lackluster as it may be in other departments. However, since Chinese moviegoers also have access to Transformers, Avengers and other blockbusters, it makes Monster Hunt seem lackluster in the technical department as well, and the only thing that seems to keep this movie afloat is some sort of patriotism for homegrown material. It can't possibly be because of the Chinese people's genuine appreciation of such a terrible flick, can it? For the sake of China's future entertainment industry, I hope not.

Monster Hunt – The Radish That Has Made $240 Million

[rongrudy · 9/10 · 28 July 2015]

The Chinese local film "protection week" has been heavily criticized by Hollywood, especially when, the Universal's recent hit, Jurassic Park's run was cut short with gas in the tank. However, this year's protection week finally accomplished something. It gave birth to the top- grossing Chinese film in history – Monster Hunt. The fantasy comedy film that led by, "Shrek"'s creator，Raman Hui sets the new Chinese box office record this week. The movie's production was a huge adventure, itself, with no predecessor Chinese film containing heavy interactions between CGI characters and real actors. It has been generally considered as too risky, considering the comparably big budget and the government's potential intervention. A typical Chinese college love- story film, the genre that dominated the market in the past six months, costs less than one tenth of Monster Hunt's investment. According to the record, our government had not been a big fan of imaginative characters, which can stop the expensive project from going on to the screens. The creative ideas in Monster Hunt, such as the promotion of harmony between monsters and humans, are unorthodox, which could be raised to a political level. However, the producer, Bill Kong -- the producer of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, still wants to take the bet. As a kid, he was a fanatic gambler on horse racing and card games. Later as a movie producer, he gambled on high budget movies and won numerous awards along with billions of dollars. He believes that the market is finally ready for partly animated, largely live-action films and the Chinese visual effect teams are mature enough to make an attractive one. Besides the production method, Monster Hunter is also one of the few movie franchises that were one hundred percent originally created by the production company in China and could be expanded to a collection of movies, books, and TV episodes. It was made to be a commercial movie, but its creative original content and the production team's accurate understanding of the market's favor end up fulfilling the interest of a wide range of Chinese audiences, which won them the praises that exceeds anyone's expectation. The movie begins with a cartoon that mimics the style of wall painting in the era of cave men combining with an unidentified narrator's voice that sounds mysterious and antique. Through the prologue, we understand that the story sets in a world where humans and monsters co-exist, but humans got tired of this and started a war driving the monsters into the far reaches of the mountains. The story's background is familiar to the audiences, since the similar backgrounds were portrayed in Chinese classics "Shan Hai Jin" and "Liao Zhai Zhi Yi". Instead of shouting out the theme of comedy, the movie gives a sense of "Lord of the Ring" or "Harry Porter". However, the mood of a thriller was broken when the camera zooms in on the adorable image of the monster queen and her chubby tummy. When the reckless evil monster revolutionaries try to overthrow the royalty, the queen flees to the land of humans and impregnates a human man with Huba, the cute monster baby. They started an adventure together to escape the capture. I can hear the audiences' hearts melting, when they go AWW during the scene that the radish looking Huba opens his eyes as a lovely baby monster.

The casting was another factor that contributes to the success. The movie was originally finished in 2014. However, the protagonist, Kai Ko, was arrested for using marijuana before the movie's release. The movie was banned with his involvement. However, the producer, Bill Kong, still believes that Monster Hunt has to be finished. He invested another $15 million to retake the parts of Kai Ko, which basically is 40% of the movie. Many famous actors and actresses admired Kai Ko's persistence and offered to be guest actors. The movie ended up with an all-star team that covers fans' age group ranging from 15 to the 50s.

Monster Hunt is a new break through in the Chinese Movie industry. Creativity is Chinese movie industries' future. We are glad that the protecting good monster's theme was not banned, that Raman Hui found an investor that was persistent and visionary, and that the new attempt of comedy fantasy was widely accepted.

Bener bener funny

[jondolzbima · 6/10 · 29 March 2021]

Lucu abis nih, but overall CGI and stroy is good for me, plot per plot kurang jadi nilai dari gw 6/10.

Maybe okay for little kids...

[Carsten Witte · 1/10 · 18 April 2022]

...but I had to finally switch it off when they started singing. That was obviously to soon for a proper review of 150 characters or more. But I will not turn it on again.

Appealing Weirdness

[billygoat1071 · 22 January 2016]

Monster Hunt begins telling the history of the war between mankind and monsters, when the humans won, the monsters have separated themselves from them until years later, their queen escaped while bearing a child who will become the prince and being tracked down by other monsters and a human army. The opening doesn't bring anything fresh within its backstory, the actual plot doesn't get any less original either, when we cut to a young hero who doesn't get any luck after this plot came and other colorful set of character join to his journey. Despite of these done to death tropes and premise, the movie however brought something appealing, and that's definitely how seriously weird it is. It's packed with a lot of amusingly strange ideas which becomes its own personality. It's good if it runs less than two hours. The stock plot doesn't get any better and the climax feels a little too long for its own good. But to what it is, there is something delightful to its weirdness.

So the hero lives in a small village, he lives with a relative anyone but his parents, he feels like an outcast, an underdog, etc. At this point of this film, it's just totally uninteresting witnessing the same tropes, even without trying to make its own spin out of it. And then he discovered that there is more to this world than what he has always knew. There is a girl who is stronger than him... is this even worth paraphrasing? You get the bottom line, however, the film gets better when it shifts to being downright weird. The pregnant queen can transfer her egg to another womb, which is given to the male hero. And this little antic is actually quite amusing. After the laboring, the movie continues to play off the concept as they raise this little monster. It's a delight, but it still doesn't help the plot that much.

Even before the climax comes, it's still felt uncertain where the story is going. It feels a little busy playing around to some of its side villains. Now when it comes to the actual climax, it would have gone better if it was shorter than it was. And then a twist reveals that is kind of generic. There just isn't much to it, the story between the relationship of the monsters and humans remain thin. It's the main characters and the baby prince is the only strong moments in here.

And to be fair, before the climax that eventually wears off, the pacing is kind of nice, making every moment reasonably entertaining. The action scenes are watchable. The special effects are alright, though the only likable digital creature is the prince which is admittedly adorable. The performances seem to be having fun on what they're doing, bringing energy into this film's silly nature of being a cartoon.

That's pretty much what Monster Hunt mostly feels like, a cartoon. Yeah, the tropes and plot are pretty stock, but it really gets more interesting when it's getting weirder and weirder, from a pregnant male protagonist to some dark sense of humor it keeps things entertaining. I sort of wished they establish more of this mythology and how this monster prince can change their world, but the movie doesn't have much of that opportunity. To what it is, it's fun, though I wish it was a little shorter, or spent those other minutes to develop the fantasy stuff. But the main characters eventually become charming, in spite of how faulty the plot is. Monster Hunt is entertaining for the outrageous stuff alone.

Honestly, went in wanting to enjoy this, but I did not...

[subxerogravity · 5/10 · 25 January 2016]

So this is the highest grossing film in China Right now? Well so far it seems that my local cinema has been given me one of China's blockbusters every week. From Mojin: the lost treasure to Detective Chinatown. I like those movies so I thought a movie about hunting monsters would be a grand slam. This did not happen for me.

I was not expecting a movie so catered for children, which became completely obvious the moment the cute little monsters dominated the screen. For the first ten minutes I thought I was in the wrong theater watching a CGI animated movie. Even the monsters that were suppose to be scary were too cute to be taken seriously.

I also did not know how much watching the non-3D version would lesson my experience as the 2D version was in an English dubbed that seem to be paying homage to Kung fu flicks of the past with it's awfulness. It's not funny when you're doing the bad dub on purpose, and I think the whole story may have fallen out of whack because of it.

The Chinese seem to be making these big budget films that can rival American blockbusters and I'm into it, just not real into Monster hunt. I found this adventure to be real boring to the point where it got painful to get through.

The special effects are quite good

[yoggwork · 5/10 · 19 February 2019]

The special effects are quite good and the pictures are beautiful. Unfortunately, the plot is too retarded and the performance is exaggerated. If it weren't for the national film protection month, how much would the box office be left?

Infectiously Innocent Fun

[DareDevilKid · 8/10 · 5 December 2015]

Reviewed by: Dare Devil Kid (DDK)

Rating: 3.8/5 stars

What makes "Monster Hunt" so appealing is its easily digestible story arc, refreshingly devoid of Confucian morality, educational historical background or nationalistic grandstanding — in short, everything that makes most Chinese children's films such a yawn. Stylistically, the film blends Western demon-slaying elements, Japanese yokai folklore, and even a distant echo of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" into a fanciful Chinese setting, beefing it up with robust martial arts action with an eye toward holding the attention of adult viewers.

In "Monster Hunt" the protagonists are greenish ogres with mushy hearts — not surprisingly, since this jolly live-action/animated Chinese period fantasy is helmed by Raman Hui, the Hong Kong-born animation supervisor who was involved with the genesis of the "Shrek" franchise. The toon creatures are the real stars in this zippy, technically accomplished entertainer, which has become the highest-grossing Chinese film of all time.

Jing, who has so far been a sturdy foil for showier leads like Eddie Peng in "Rise of the Legend" or Huang Xiaoming in "The Guillotines," trudges along with little charisma in the earlier scenes, but perks up as soon as Bai arrives on the scene. With her pixie-like charm, Bai is the spark that fuels their larky courtship. However, the narrative is at times bogged down by celebrity comedians and A-list stars jostling for attention in what are essentially glorified cameo appearances.

The film is supposedly inspired by "Classic of Mountains and Seas" ("Shan Hai Jing"), a 206 B.C. Chinese tome in which the monsters look like blowfish that have swallowed dinosaurs. But Director Hui's artistic input no doubt helped inspire a creature-design aesthetic that's recognizably Asian, yet spunkier and less parochial than most Chinese animation, with their slavish reproductions of classical Chinese templates. Thanks to high-caliber visual effects — supervised by Jason Snell (the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", "Elysium", and "Tomorrowland"), among others — the interaction between the animated and live-action characters is seamless, as are the monsters' dramatic transformations. Yohei Taneda's production design blends ethereal inkbrush landscapes with period sets that range from mundane to spectacular. The tussles between humans are choreographed by Ku Huen-chiu with snappy, cartoonish timing, but remain bound by Hong Kong high-wire stunt conventions.

Raman Hui does a perfectly competent job of keeping things together, and his experience in Hollywood working for DreamWorks, including co-directing "Shrek the Third", does give the film somewhat of an east meets west feel that differentiates it from other recent Chinese fantasies. It's certainly easy to see why the film went down so well with local audiences, though thanks to a lack of the usual flag waving patriotism and a focus on universal themes of family and community, there's nothing here to make it inaccessible to those in other countries around the world.

The film's status as a genuine home-grown blockbuster is cemented through some excellent production values and heartwarming character designs, with some top notch special effects, sets and costumes making it visually impressive from start to finish. There's really a great deal to like about "Monster Hunt", and it should have a much wider appeal than most other fantasy or family films from Asia. An important benchmark of sorts as a smash hit Chinese blockbuster made primarily for Chinese audiences, it's well-deserving of its success, and hopefully the inevitable sequels will attain the same level of highly enjoyable tomfoolery.Chinese blockbuster

What demographic is this even for?

[alicezhang-45448 · 2/10 · 24 May 2023]

We watched this in Chinese class and the few times I looked at it I saw a man getting pregnant through the mouth from a monster, a man giving birth to a carrot child through the mouth, the same man breastfeeding the child with his blood, and the parents selling the child to a restaurant which I'd probably feel bad for if I didn't have to watch it get birthed. Maybe the standards in China are different, but looking at some of the reviews... did we even watch the same movie? The plot and acting are both clearly geared towards children but literally everything else, even as a teenager, I found really disturbing and would've scarred me for life if I watched it as a kid, which is what this film is implied to be geared towards. Anyone who recommends this movie to you probably just wants to share their suffering with you. Please spare you and your children the urge to scoop your eyes out with a michelin chef grade butcher knife and watch literally anything else.

Worst Movie Ever

[adam_uppal · 16 September 2015]

As someone who often enjoys Chinese movies, and lives in China, I thought I would be able to appreciate this film. I was wrong.

This movie is somehow boring, sappy and stupid at the same time. The plot is inconsistent, the characters are flat, and the baby monster is simply annoying.

While the movie makes an attempt to include a blossoming romance, again everything is inconsistent and often ridiculous.

More often than not, I found myself getting upset at how terrible the writing was.

I would not recommend this movie for anybody older than five. Forget that. I would not recommend this movie to anybody at all.

very entertaining with lots of unexpected plot twist and joke, unpredictable

[yunareiska · 10/10 · 16 September 2015]

unpredictable storyline and jokes, with lots of surprise, fantastic jokes. with beautiful settings design, fun and smart fighting scene. good acting, even thou its a comedy movie, but the mood and sad scene really come thru well. some of the monster design is too simple, but the main monster design is quit cute, and relatable. the story and character is well build in this movie. the scenery is very beautiful. and the the set even feel like an RPG and fantasy land in a very realistic way. the concept of the world is very well build. both female and male main character acting is very good, and the relationship story grows in a natural ways. and the expression of the monster huba is also very cute , and his character is very well build as a baby. the CGI is in very good, and each hunter have different sets of skills, and unique equipment, making the fight much more interesting. with unique gimmick, and features. and how they slowly give teach that love is more important than money, is shown very well.

funny and touching movie

[katavarhelyi · 8/10 · 13 January 2016]

Amongst it's genre, this movie is a very funny and well-dosed one. All the characters are perfectly written, even the animated ones. The creators found a great balance between being funny and staying touching, between the human and monster world. Made me cry, Huba is just too cute to bear. Not to mention the visual orgy of this one. I respect how the Asian filmmakers show all the impossible as possible, I mean: all the action and fun stuff in this movie is very entertaining. Definitely recommend this movie if you like it's genre. The actors are nailing it, you can relate to most of them. There is no thing such as 'too much' in Chinese movies. Emotions and fun are just as important as the action part. The reason why I gave it only an '8' is the end of the movie. I wanted something else. Left me a bit hungry.

A brand-new start for Chinese Animation Film

[imim123 · 8/10 · 12 October 2015]

It is exciting to finally watch a domestic Chinese animated film. "Monster Hunt" is a combination of advanced animated technology with Chinese Culture such as Kung fu, ancient Chinese myth and magic. "Yao", nickname for mystery monsters in China, owns a long history since ancient time and plays an important role in traditional Chinese mythology. Compared to Hollywood Animation Films, although "Monster Hunt" is by no means any superior with some obvious shortcomings such as loosely written script and insufficient character modeling, it marks a brand-new start for Chinese animation industry. In fact, it already stands out in all the Chinese movies that was released this summer and it is also well-received in the market with a total box-office revenues of 2.44 billion. According to the plot, a lot more stories can be developed with regard to "Huba", the main animated character, it remains a pretty good chance that there will be a sequel to this film. The audience will be curious about what will happen to "Huba", the main animated character after it departed its father "Song Tianyin", what will become of Song Tianyin since he decided to be a professional monster hunter. Some will also wonder what Song Tianyin's father is like since he is repeatedly mentioned in the film but never actually showed up. I think everything will be explained in the sequel.

Although "Monster Hunt" is pretty good compared to certain standards, the overall Chinese domestic films are still primitive, and excellent projects are scarce in number and low in quality. Only a couple of high quality films can be produced due to China's strict censorship policy. It has a long way to go for Chinese domestic film industry, but we shouldn't give up our hope. Roma is built in one day, I believe positive changes will happen to Chinese domestic film industry in the near future.

Loved this Movie

[Trupiaar · 9/10 · 29 September 2015]

So I really enjoyed this movie. It was cute, funny, and just pretty much off the wall. Weird stuff went down, but again, just kept enjoying many of the moments from this.

I was wondering a little bit about what was up with some of the editing, but a helpful reviewer above said something essentially about the main star being replaced, and a lot of scenes having to be re-shot without him(Politics in China thing). Everything pretty much made sense after that. Glad producer decided to stick with it and finished the movie, because it still came out pretty cool.

I will definitely show this to my nephew in a couple years, it will be cool to watch it with him.

Also, I'm normally super picky in my reviews, and normally a basher, so I feel like making me happy with the movie is fairly impressive. Enjoy!

Shrek meets Kung Fu

[dafrosts · 9/10 · 30 November 2017]

The movie starts with explaining how Monsters and Humans once lived together but things soured and Humans and Monsters split to live apart. Monsters that escaped back into the Human realm were captured by the Monster Hunters and forced to live as disguised Humans or suffer a far worse fate.

Tianyin is the mayor of a small village, where no one respects him, especially his grandma who has some serious short term memory issues. His life changes when he encounters Monster (disguised as humans)on the run from Monster Hunters. He is marked by The Queen of the Monsters and held as bait by one of the Hunters so she can capture the Queen and get the reward. Things don't go as planned and The Queen dies after making Song her surrogate to ensure the Prince of Monsters will be born.

Tianyin's pregnancy is short lived - I'm sure he's thankful for that. He does have quite the appetite for a while. Much to the chagrin of the Monster Hunter who wants to take the Prince from him and sell the baby for a profit.

The animation is impressive. I like how the live action mixes with the animation. I watched it with subtitles. It is great with the actors' actual voices so you can get their emotional responses to their situations.

The relationship between Tianyin, Xiaolan (The Monster Hunter who won't admit she really likes Tianyin and the Prince) and WUBA aka Prince of Monsters, gets you in the feels. Xiaolan wants to focus on WUBA simply being a Monster while Tianyin sees him as a child in need of parenting.

Problems rise as the trio make their way to the City. They are confronted by higher ranking Monster Hunters who want WUBA for the reward. Monsters are also looking for WUBA, for their own reasons.

This is a movie along the lines of Shrek, in that it has double entendres all through it. The Kung Fu is mixed with magic, so there's a bit more of the theatrics to it. Even the monsters get in on the Kung Fu fights. The best fights occur during the grand dinner.

The journey reveals some truths about Tianyin's family that have him rethinking life with WUBA in it. This movie doesn't hesitate to have you laughing with Tianyin one moment an feeling sad for him the next. I like movies that can drag you in so deep.

When Tianyin's true heritage is revealed, he has to let WUBA go to protect him. It's a heart wrenching moment. Poor WUBA doesn't understand since he's only a child. Tianyin knows WUBA will be safe with other Monsters to protect him.

I cannot wait for Monster Hunt 2 in February, 2018. I am hoping for a happy reunion between WUBA and his Human dad. I give it a 9 because it's just one of those movies that keeps you involved from the the beginning to the final credits.