Kung Fu Monster (2018)

Kung Fu Monster (2018) Full Recap

The film takes place in China hundreds of years ago during the last years of the Ming dynasty. The country is a mess and the real power sits with the Unix of the palace. The worst of them all is Crane, the boss of a secret police force called the Eastern Depot. One day, a friendly kingdom sends the emperor a strange gift, a little beast covered in black fur.

But Crane gets his hands on it first, and he has his own plans for it. He has it chained up in a dark hall and the poor thing cries every time the chains pull tight. Crane hands the creature to Ocean, the best animal tamer in the Imperial Police. Crane wants him to turn this little toy into a killer.

Make it afraid of you, he says. Ocean looks into the creature's big eyes and can't do it. He has trained beasts of every kind, but this one is sweet by nature, and his conscience won't let him turn it into a weapon. So, he breaks the chains, sets the creature free, and runs off.

Crane is furious. He puts up wanted posters all over the country. Whoever brings back the black monster alive gets 30,000 silver coins. And there's the same reward for ocean that sends every fighter in the land on a crazy treasure hunt. Priests, swordsmen, monks, and beggars all pour into the mountains to catch the monster, but nobody can find it.

So, they end up fighting each other instead. Watching from the bushes are two scruffy bandits, Dash and his sidekick, Sauy. They call themselves the South Sichuan Bandits, and they're about as scary as two wet kittens. While the others fight, Sauy is busy eating a bun, and Dash is upset he didn't save one for him.

They decide to sneak away quietly so nobody sees them run. Meanwhile, in a quiet town, two young fighters break into a rich family's house at night. Their Blade and his fellow student, Bella. They belong to a rebel army, and they steal from rich officials to pay for it, but the house turns out to be full of junk.

Then, a mysterious woman in white shows up on the roof. She tells them she has a real job for them. If they're interested, they can steal 30,000 silver coins. All they have to do is meet her at the Hatian Courier station tomorrow night and use the secret code words. Her name is Frigid.

Bella doesn't trust her one bit. But Blade says the army needs the money, so they'll take the risk. Crane, on the other hand, is having a great day. His monster hunters have all been wiped out, and he's laughing about it. It turns out the monster hunt was a trick all along. Crane sees these fighters as a danger to the throne.

So, he used the reward to lure them out and let them destroy each other without lifting a finger. Then, a message arrives. Constable Wang has captured Ocean and he'll be spending the night at the Watch Courier station with his prisoner. Crane decides to head there right away. Back on the road, the two bandits are starving.

Dash is too proud to beg for food, but he ends up begging anyway. Bella feels sorry for them and gives them her last piece of bread. Then Saucy smells something. Bella has a pack full of meat and she gave them stale bread instead. They follow her all the way to the old Huatianne courier station.

Inside, Blade and Bella say the secret code words to an old man named Mount who is famous for his deadly triple moves. The bandits burst in to rob the meat and get beaten in seconds. But instead of throwing them out, Frigid says they can join the team. The more people the better. Then Frigid explains the plan.

Very soon, Constable Wang and his soldiers will pass by with a chest full of Imperial silver. They'll ambush them and steal it. Dash points out that stealing from the emperor is punishable by death. Frigid tells him that if he backs out now, he dies anyway. Blade reminds everyone the silver is for the rebel army, while Mount just wants his 30%.

The real trick is the meat in Bella's pack. It's drugged. All they need is for the soldiers to eat it, and the silver is theirs, but nobody can agree on how to make them eat it. Suddenly, a man crashes down from the sky. He's carrying an Imperial police badge, so everyone thinks he's a spy.

He swears he's just a janitor who found the badge on the street. While they argue, he quietly sizes them all up and figures out their plan. Then, he offers a better one. Six armed strangers hanging around an abandoned station will scare off any soldier. So, they should clean the place up and turn it into an inn.

They'll block the road with a boulder, wear the soldiers out, and serve them the drugged meat when they're hungry and tired. Everybody's impressed. The man says his name is Cyprus, but Frigid doesn't trust anyone that clever, so they tie him up and hide him away. The soldiers arrive at the boulder and try to push it, but it won't move.

Then Constable Wang steps up, simply picks it up, and throws it aside. The gang watching from the trees can't believe how strong he is. So, the two bandits jump out to stall them. They pretend the soldiers smashed their family's treasure. Then, they pretend it was their parents' ashes.

Then, Mount shows up dressed as their stepmother, and the story gets so silly that the soldiers just push right past them. Back at the station, Bella scrubs the floors and grumbles to herself. She still thinks Frigid is a swindler, but by the time Wang walks in, the old station looks like a brand new inn. The gang greets him like a royal guest.

They serve him fancy tea, introduce Mount as a famous chef from the capital, and even give him a milkfoot bath for his health, but when they bring out the meat, Wong refuses to touch it. He's no fool. He pulls out his weapon, and the whole act falls apart. Mount tries to introduce himself with his long fancy fighting name, but Frigid gets tired of waiting and attacks.

The lights go out and a wild fight breaks out all over the inn. Dash swings his abacus. Saucy steps on his own boss's foot, and somehow the gang wins. Wang escapes, but he leaves the chest behind. They think they're rich. Then something comes crashing toward the inn. Strange clouds roll in and everyone hides.

Out of the dust walks a tiny furry little creature with big round eyes. It's the black monster from the posters and it's adorable. Bella falls in love with it right away. She thinks it's a puppy. Blade thinks it's a monkey. She tickles it and plays with it and it loves the attention.

But then Bella does something it doesn't like and in a flash, the little creature grows into a giant beast. Everyone runs for their lives. Cypress has escaped his ropes and he's having the worst day of his life. The monster chases him everywhere, sniffing him like it knows him. Blade pulls out his sword and someone yells to put it away.

The monster gets angry when it sees a weapon. Blade starts begging it to eat Dash instead because he's the fattest. Dash ends up stuck in the monster's mouth and the others have to pull him out. Then the monster finds the silver chest and rips it open. There's no silver inside. Instead, there's a man chained and badly hurt.

It's Ocean. He calls the creature by its name Lucky. And the giant monster shrinks back down and runs to him. Lucky has a nasty burn on its back. And Ocean wants to know who did this. Then Frigid steps forward. She's been looking for Ocean all this time. And that's when the truth comes out.

There was never any silver. Years ago, the Eastern Depot killed Frigid's whole family, and Ocean saved her life. She owes him everything. So, when she heard he was a prisoner, she tricked everyone into helping her rescue him. Blade is furious. They risked their lives for nothing. Ocean can't fight back right now because Wong sealed his powers with 12 silver needles.

Then, the others realize the man in front of them is worth 30,000 silver coins, too. They hold up the wanted poster and argue about his hairstyle, but Ocean's power suddenly bursts out and blows them all across the room. Ocean tells Frigid that she has suffered enough because of him. If turning him in gets her the reward, she should do it.

He won't blame her, but Friid won't hear of it. Then Ocean turns to Cyprus. Lucky was chasing him, so Ocean wants to know, did he burn it. So Cypress tells his story, and he tells it like a song. He used to be a top student who joined the prison guards. Then one stormy night, someone attacked the prison and killed his friends and he gave up on his dreams.

He ended up in Jew village where the people were scared of a monster in the mountains. So he came up with a plan. He set the mountain on fire to drive the monster out. The villagers called him a hero. Now everyone knows exactly who burned Lucky. Then Mount looks at the wanted poster for the monster.

That's another 30,000 coins. If they catch both Ocean and the Monster, that's 60,000. The bandits brag that they've been chasing the monster for weeks. And Saucy keeps telling everyone it was only since yesterday. Blade has an idea. They'll feed the drugged meat to Cyprus and use him as bait since the monster wants him so badly.

Bella can't believe what she's hearing. She asks Blade how that makes them any better than Crane. Blade says he'd do anything to keep the army going. That's when Bella realizes she means nothing to him either, and she storms off into the night. Out in the dark woods, Bella finds Lucky all alone, and it's crying.

She sees the burn on its back. She takes out the last of her medicine and tells it to sit still. If it doesn't let her treat the wound, it will get worse and she'll be really sad. Lucky gives in and lets her put the medicine on. Then it starts to laugh and Bella thinks it's the cutest thing she has ever seen.

Lucky takes her to its home, a big cave in the mountains. The walls of the cave are covered in old drawings of martial arts moves. One of them explains how to stretch your body and change your size. So that's how Lucky learned to grow. And there's a drawing of a fighter with only one arm.

Bella gasps. It's Yang, the legendary one-armed warrior. She's his biggest fan and she says she'd give anything for his autograph. She studies every move on the wall, copying them one by one while Lucky watches her. The bandits go out to look for Bella and end up in a creepy graveyard.

They get scared and run back. At the same time, Constable Wang finds Crane on the road and tells him rebels attacked him at the courier station. Crane listens calmly, then asks if Wong has a family at home. Wong has served him for 15 years, but he failed, and Crane doesn't forgive failure.

Wong won't be going home. Then Crane orders his soldiers to march to Hatan. From the woods, Bella sees the soldiers heading for the station, and she tells Lucky to hide. At the station, everyone panics. The bandits and Mount pack up to run, and Blade wants to go to. They leave Frigid and Ocean behind.

Then Frigid tells Ocean the truth. She picked this station on purpose far from everyone because she came here to fight the Eastern depot to the death. She wants revenge for her family. One by one, the others come back and say they're too loyal to leave the weak behind. The truth is they're surrounded and can't get out.

Crane arrives with a whole army, but the gang is ready with one more trick. Frigid puts on a mask and pretends to be a messenger from the crown prince. She accuses Crane of training the beast to attack the prince and hiding his crimes. She says the proof is inside the station. Crane is so scared that he drops to his knees and begs for mercy.

Then Lucky comes running into the room. Crane looks at the monster, then at the bag of so-called evidence, and he realizes it's all fake. If the beast is right here, the proof can't be real. He stands up and he recognizes Frigid as the daughter of a traitor. The way Ocean looked at her gave her away.

That's when Blade loses it. He yells at everyone. He says Frigid dragged them into this mess to save her friend, that the old man is greedy, the bandits are wild dogs, and Cypress is a curse on anyone he meets. Then he walks up to Crane, bows down, and asks to call him Godfather.

Crane is delighted. Everyone else is disgusted. Bella can't believe her eyes. Blade says he just wants to live. But it's all part of the plan. Crane's weak spot is his heel, so the gang picked the one person who looks most like a traitor to get close to him. Blade stabs Crane right in the heel.

Then the whole gang attacks. Dash and Sauy try their famous bandits combination fists, but they get knocked down before they can even finish the combo. One of Crane's men pulls out a gun, which everyone agrees is cheating, and Sauy wants one for himself. Mount takes on the soldiers, and Ocean's power comes back.

Crane's men give up and beg to join the rebels. But when they turn around, Crane is standing there without a scratch. He has trained his body for so many years that he no longer has a weak spot. Crane grabs Frigid and fights Ocean himself. Crane is too strong. With one terrible blow, he knocks Ocean down.

Frigid runs to him. Ocean whispers that nobody can beat Crane now. The only thing in the world that can defeat him is the one-armed palm. And that move was lost long ago. Then Bella speaks up. She knows it. She learned it on the cave wall. Nobody believes her, but there's nothing else to try.

Bella throws the one-armed palm, and the others put their hands on her back and pour their own power into her. Cypress can't decide whether to run or help, and for once, he decides to help. It works, but Crane pushes back harder. Then Lucky comes running in. Crane laughs at the little thing, so Lucky grows into a giant and slams Crane across the yard.

The gang cheers it on. Crane gets hit in the face again and again. Everyone thinks he must be finished. But Crane isn't done. He has one last trick. A signal rocket that tells his army outside to fire their cannons at the station. He'd rather blow everyone up, including himself. Then Cypress pulls the rocket out of his own pocket.

He stole it earlier when he pretended to work for Crane. The problem is nobody knows how to use it, and he fires it by accident. Cannonballs rain down on the station. Lucky runs out into the explosions, grows huge, and shields everyone with its body. The gang hides wherever they can.

Kung Fu Monster (2018) Ending Explained

The two bandits say goodbye and offer each other their last bun. And then Saucy finds out Dash had another one hidden all along. Then a giant blast of power comes crashing toward the station. Lucky throws itself in front of it to protect its friends, and the whole yard disappears in a flash of light.

When the dust settles, Lucky is lying still on the ground. Bella runs to it, calling its name, and begs it to wake up. Everyone thinks the little hero is gone. Then Lucky opens its eyes and starts laughing. Bella laughs and cries at the same time. As for Crane, he's beaten and weak, and he begs Ocean to save him, but everyone he hurt is standing right there, and he gets exactly what he deserves.

Frigid thanks them all for standing with her. Then Lucky starts chasing Cypress around again and Cypress can't understand why. It turns out he picked up a bracelet in the woods and it belongs to Lucky. Ocean puts the bracelet on Lucky and tells it that the world is too dangerous for a little thing like it.

It belongs in the woods. He hopes the bracelet brings it luck. Lucky looks back at everyone one last time and runs off into the forest. Bella asks if they'll ever see it again. Blade says, "Of course they will. Lucky is smart. It'll find them. Frigid thanks everyone and says she's sorry for dragging them into trouble.

Cyprus says he's the one who should be grateful because nobody ever believed in him before. Then he asks if he can tag along with them. Everyone welcomes him. The bandits say they've done something meaningful for the first time in their lives and they decide to follow Ocean from now on.

Mount tells them about an Eastern depot vault nearby full of gold and totally unguarded. Blade and Bella suddenly remember they have somewhere to be. And somewhere deep in the forest, Lucky is back home, wearing its Lucky bracelet and waiting for its friends to come back.