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

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.

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.

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.