The Mad Monk

Ji Gong (濟公, pinyin: Jì Gōng; The Mad Monk in English) is a 1993 Hong Kong comedy film directed by Johnny To, and starring Stephen Chow as the "Mad Monk" Ji Gong, a popular Chinese folklore figure from the Southern Song Dynasty. The film follows "Dragon Fighter Luohan" as he accepts a challenge from the gods to change the fate of a beggar, a prostitute, and a villain in three heavenly days. He is reborn on earth as a mere mortal and ultimately battles an evil demon to stave off hell on earth.

Ji Gong
Chinese DVD cover
Directed byJohnny To
Written bySandy Shaw
StarringStephen Chow
Maggie Cheung
Anthony Wong
Kirk Wong
Ng Man Tat
Release date
1993
Running time
85 min
CountryHong Kong
LanguageCantonese

Plot

The gods in heaven complaining to the Jade Emperor about the malicious practical jokes played on them by Dragon Fighter Lohan. The Emperor summons Dragon but Tiger Fighter Lohan (Ng Man Tat) appeared instead. Dragon (Stephen Chow) appeared to give excuses for his behaviour. He also rebuked the various gods for their horrible judgments on mankind and insisted that he can do a better job. The Jade Emperor refuted Dragon's argument and banish Dragon to be reincarnated into an animal. The Bodhisattva Guan Yin (Anita Mui) intervene to spare Dragon's fate. Jade Emperor issued Dragon a challenge that if he can change the fates of three people—a beggar, a prostitute, and a villain—doomed to nine incarnations in the same role within three heavenly days (thirty human years), without heavenly powers, he will not be punished. The Bodhisattva gave him a magical fan that can only be used three times a day for sleight-of-hand-like magic tricks to help him in his mission. However, Dragon was forced down from heaven when Tiger took the fan away from him.

When Dragon's future parents visit a Buddhist temple to pray for a child, the statue of Dragon Fighter Lohan leaps from a wall to their feet, signaling his rebirth on earth to them. While Dragon grows into manhood, Tiger enlists the aid of a heavenly soldier (Wong Yut Fei) to help him reincarnate on earth so he can bring Dragon the magical fan. As Tiger is to be reincarnated, it is too slow for him to grow up and pass Dragon the fan, the heavenly soldier uses his magic breath to cause Tiger to rapidly grows to his proper age but his mental abilities remains as of a baby. Dragon's earthly parents adopt Tiger and treat him like an infant son.

Stephen Chow as "Dragon Fighter Lohan" (right) and Ng Man Tat as "Tiger Fighter Lohan" (left).

Dragon eventually regains all his memories after being struck by lightning and soon encounters the prostitute (Maggie Cheung), the beggar (Anthony Wong) and the villain (Kirk Wong). Tiger regains his memories when the clouds block the moon, when heavenly security is the most relaxed, and gives Dragon his magic fan before being forced to return to heaven. Dragon tried to instill dignity to the beggar, persuade the prostitute to change her trade and the villain to turn over a new leaf but failed in various attempts. Noticing the beggar retaining some dignity while in front of the prostitute, Dragon arranged a date for the both of them. The villain chose to attack Dragon at the moment. Dragon transforms himself into Shaolin's patriarch, Damo, to combat the aggressive attacks of the villain but his power eventually was exhausted for the day. The villain then murdered the beggar and forced Dragon to watch while he brutally raped the prostitute. The beggar, before dying, regained his dignity and recognised himself by his own name and not as a beggar.

Dragon rushes to the same temple to retrieve the holy golden-skeleton of his body from a former life and uses it to travel to the underworld to retrieve the beggar's soul. Once there, Dragon confronts a demon who handles all the souls travelling to hell and trades his skeleton for the beggar's soul, but the demon keeps both and kicks Dragon back to the land of the living. Dragon rushes back to the temple and learns that all of the local gods and arhats housed there are leaving the temple as they do not want to be associated with Dragon, who has made a deal with a demon. The statue of Guan Yin wept and then subsequently collapse. In a fit of anger, Dragon waves his magic fan to repair it but the fan disintegrated instead. Dragon then seeks out the prostitute and promises to marry her if she gives up the sex trade. She agrees, but when Dragon begins to transform into a tree because of a prohibition against gods marrying mortals, she thinks he is playing a joke on her and disfigures her face so no one would ever love her.

Meanwhile, the villain slaughters all the people in the brothel so he could acquire the blood of 49 people and immerse Dragon's skeleton in it to rid it of its power. Dragon goes to the brothel to confront the villain and, with the help of Tiger and the heavenly soldier, is able to regain his proper form. With the help of Tiger and the heavenly soldier, Dragon beat up the villain and discover he has been given an invincible body by the same underworld demon. Dragon pulled his heart out to show the villain that the demon gave him a stone heart to control him forever. Betrayed, the villain revealed that the demon has schemed to force all the gods out of the temple so it can retrieve his scepter hidden in the temple. He then repented, crushed the stone heart and wished to be an animal in his next life.

Dragon was given a chance to return to heaven but with a three rank demotion if he admitted defeat. However, he decided to remain to prevent the demon from retrieving its scepter and brings destruction to all. Dragon imbues his power into his golden skeleton, pounds it into powder and made into golden paint. He then use it to write protective talismans around the temple. However the demon blew away the talisman which forces Dragon to run away with the scepter as the demon demolishes the town looking for it. In the process of escaping, Dragon met the temple abbot and the remaining golden paint was swallowed by the abbot. The abbot revealed that he had borrowed two of the skeleton's golden teeth to substitute his own. The abbot managed to make the demon laugh and open his mouth. Dragon, with his 2 golden teeth, jumps into the demon's mouth while he was laughing, causing the demon to explode and die. Dragon perished during the explosion also.

The gods begin to celebrate in heaven as Dragon seemingly lost the bet and was going to be demoted to an animal. Guan Yin interrupts the festivities and shows how he succeeded in changing the fates of the three people: The beggar is reborn into a rich family, the prostitute changed her trade and opened a bean curd restaurant, and the villain is reborn a pig. Instead of reincarnated as an animal, Dragon was promoted to a senior arhat. He was then presented with a tiara and sceptor in a promotion ceremony and asked to give his thoughts.

Cast
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See also
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