Audacious, brutal, and unrefined, Dev Patel’s directorial debut, “Monkey Man,” is a movie that wears its influences unapologetically on its sleeve. A lot of the movie’s narrative facilities round a thematic realignment with one’s roots. So inside Patel’s admirably entertaining however undeniably messy imaginative and prescient, a transparent through-line is felt between the pulpy, bloodstained martial arts movies which have formed many a burgeoning youngster’s style for violence and the filmmaker’s personal try and go that affect onto the following technology. It solely feels proper, then, to take a second and take a look at a few of these films to look at for those who appreciated “Monkey Man.”

All through the press run for the movie, Patel has been very forthright in regards to the particular movies and motion stars that loomed over his imaginative and prescient of “Monkey Man,” so it could be pointless to merely reiterate those self same speaking factors in essay type. Fairly, this checklist will serve to focus on a few of these talked about movies alongside others which will scratch that very same primal itch if Patel’s movie left you bloodied, crushed, and finally glad. (Suffice it to say, a reference as surface-level as “John Wick” needn’t be talked about right here—Patel sealed that envelope when he had one in every of his characters within the movie name-drop it outright).

From Hollywood to Hong Kong and in every single place in between, the movie’s forebears and brothers will be discovered scattered throughout the globe. Whether or not the similarities are available in style, story, or visible model, Patel’s movie affords no scarcity of sturdy branches to hint again to these even sturdier roots. So listed below are eight films to look at for those who appreciated “Monkey Man”:

1. The Raid (2011)

One of many movies Dev Patel has immediately cited as an affect on “Monkey Man” is Gareth Evans’s 2011 runaway Indonesian hit “The Raid.” A contained massacre pushed by rising motion star Iko Uwais, the movie revolves round a tactical police squad (and one member specifically) pressured to battle their means out of a closed-off condo advanced run by a drug lord after a bust gone improper.

The primary mainstream publicity for Western audiences to the Indonesian martial artwork of Pencak silat, “The Raid” trades in a stage of handheld brutality that’s simple to hint on to Patel’s personal affinity for knuckle-breaking beatdowns. Each punch and kick looks like a kiss from a freight prepare, and “The Raid” manages to make use of its restrained tower setting—full with its apparent use as a form of “boss ranges of accelerating problem” scheme that Patel additionally borrows—to up the adrenaline and maintain the stress at a near-constant excessive.

There’s a critical argument to be made that “The Raid” and its 2015 sequel represent the perfect outright motion movies of the 2010s. Whereas “Monkey Man” doesn’t essentially carry that mantle into the following decade, the direct shot of stripped-down fight makes for an simple passing of the torch.

2. Police Story (1985)

Tonally talking, Jackie Chan’s “Police Story” might show to be a considerably uncommon advice for individuals who loved “Monkey Man.” Not solely is Dev Patel’s movie decidedly not “pro-authorities,” however Chan’s noticeably extra comedic slant to his stunt work could appear an odd selection coming off one thing so downright feral. But when we wished to easily suggest an inventory of flicks precisely like “Monkey Man,” we’d simply say to look at “Monkey Man” once more; all issues require steadiness, and Chan’s comedic tackle the “police defending the courtroom witness” mildew—boasting its personal star-as-director similarities with Patel—may make for a worthwhile ‘80s tonic after such a brutally trendy tackle the style.

Except for the famous distinction, “Police Story” is marked by Jackie Chan’s well-known use of props as a benchmark for his distinctive preventing model, some extent of affect that certainly carries over into “Monkey Man” in key moments. Whereas the chosen tone might initially throw you off, there are greater than sufficient nail-biting battle scenes in Chan’s world to fulfill anybody recent out of Patel’s.

3. Jawan (2023)

No, this isn’t a case of “decide the newest Bollywood movie the white author has seen since we’re speaking about an Indian-set motion movie.” At the least… that’s not totally what that is. True, Patel’s personal background might skew considerably distantly from his ancestral roots—proper all the way down to starring in a few of the most undeniably British “Indian” movies since Jean Renoir made “The River” again within the Fifties—however he has cited Bollywood as a department on the larger “Monkey Man” tree. Atlee’s newest “Jawan,” then, serves not solely as a case of recency bias advice but in addition offers some real narrative and stylistic similarities value noting.

The story of the warden of a girls’s jail recruiting his finest inmates to assist him deliver steadiness to a politically corrupt society, there are actually narrative parallels to be drawn between “Jawan” and “Monkey Man,” with the latter movie’s introduction of the protagonist’s staff of transgender warriors who assist him on his personal quest. In any other case, the centering of a particularly charismatic main determine (Hindi cinema icon Shah Rukh Khan) provides “Jawan” one other related increase that may make for an appropriate screening if one is within the temper for a extra immediately native movie manufacturing that doesn’t skimp out on both the insanity or the melodrama.

Additionally Learn: My Title is Khan, And I Know It: Shah Rukh And What Else? 

4. The Man with the Iron Fists (2012)

Strictly talking, “The Man with the Iron Fists” might be the worst movie on this checklist—in reality, it’s completely the worst movie on this checklist. There may be, nevertheless, a sure appeal to Wu-Tang Clan mastermind RZA’s first foray into directing as an formidable homage to the martial arts movies which have immediately formed his personal path, which strikes an identical chord with the general spirit of “Monkey Man.”

The story of a grasp blacksmith in a distant feudal Chinese language village rampant with rival gangs, “The Man with the Iron Fists” sports activities a playful tone and equally playful solid that makes up for its huge narrative shortcomings with a good, if not all the time profitable, attain in direction of inventive visible concepts. (And, as that is an RZA challenge, the soundtrack, like that of “Monkey Man,” is noteworthy if nothing else.)

Although “Monkey Man” constitutes a much more refined—even in its personal shaky type—contender for motion debuts from a person extra comfy in entrance of the digital camera than behind it, RZA’s movie provides motion aficionados an attention-grabbing change of tempo to cross off their lists. On the very least, it would entice you to throw on Liquid Swords for the umpteenth time; is any extra motivation wanted?

5. A Prayer Earlier than Daybreak (2017)

Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s movie follows Joe Cole as a real-life English boxer incarcerated in Thailand who turns into an unwilling champion of Muay Thai competitions within the face of medication and deceit. It’s simple sufficient to see the place “Monkey Man,” a movie whose protagonist begins as a lowly heel in underground preventing tournaments getting his lights knocked out every evening, may very well be seen as an identical endeavor. Sauvaire’s challenge, for what it’s value, is one other tonal divergence, focusing a bit extra on the half-baked drama and crime world than it does on the motion. When the motion does come, although, you’re feeling the sweat-drenched affect.

One other movie that isn’t a lot “nice” as it’s “thematically becoming,” “A Prayer Earlier than Daybreak” finds in its narrative connections sufficient of a draw for these within the form of motion movies which have influenced “Monkey Man” {that a} temporary look in direction of such a tonally bleak challenge might show worthwhile.

6. Kaala (2018)

We’ve already mentioned one of many extra overtly Bollywood-esque Hindi movies that may very well be linked with “Monkey Man.” Now it’s time to make a journey to Mumbai’s Tamil-speaking sector with Pa. Rajinth’s “Kaala.” Primarily based on one other icon of Indian cinema (the effortlessly authoritative Rajinikanth), “Kaala” revolves round a champion of the underdogs who goals to guard his native Mumbai slum from the clutches of a mafia chief and the politicians he has in his pockets. By now, the theme of the little man preventing off corruption appears sufficient of a recurring sample in well-liked Indian cinema that the affect on Patel’s story needn’t be reiterated.

Rajinth’s use of coloration and smoke as a mediator of the environment is yet one more connective level to “Monkey Man.” The arrogance of this stylistic selection, full with classically unapologetic gradual movement, makes for an attention-grabbing distinction in opposition to Patel’s equally assured however extra viscerally handheld strategy to his chosen mode of motion. In the end, there’s one thing within the swaggering bravado of “Kaala” that makes it a worthy follow-up for first-timers if “Monkey Man” is the form of film that winds up sending extra Western viewers looking out eastward.

7. Drive (2011)

Drenched in neon lighting and relishing within the unrepentant brutality of its each violent second, a critical argument may very well be made that “Monkey Man” attracts a few of its juice from the works of Nicolas Winding Refn. “Drive,” subsequently, looks like a helpful level of distinction, if solely as a result of its excessive bursts of violence come as a wake-up name amid Refn’s fixed, lulling vaporwave vibes, becoming for the story of an expert getaway driver and stuntman coerced right into a felony scheme whereas making an attempt to reside his personal unadorned life.

What Ryan Gosling does with a hammer or along with his personal boot in a cramped elevator shaft is greater than similar to what Patel achieves with a switchblade clutched between his enamel, which is to say nothing of the stylishly lit automobile chase Patel manages to shove into his personal movie (pointless to state {that a} movie referred to as “Drive” will provide some worthy factors of curiosity on that entrance.)

Additional stylistic similarities come within the respective movies’ decisions of their soundtracks; whereas Patel has a notably extra hip-hop-oriented taste versus Refn’s synth-pop, the fusion of genres and remixes creates a style hybrid in every case that makes each movies notable workouts in modernized approach. In case you appreciated “Monkey Man,” you’ll in all probability like “Drive” (although for those who appreciated “Monkey Man,” you’ve in all probability already seen “Drive”).

8. Oldboy (2003)

Capping off this checklist of “Monkey Man”-adjacent suggestions, it solely appears inevitable {that a} collection of revenge movies would culminate within the one to finish all of them. Park Chan-wook’s seminal “Oldboy” has primarily grow to be the golden customary for revenge-fuelled cinema, so even when its similarities to Dev Patel’s directorial debut began and ended with that plot element, it could be sufficient to suggest the South Korean movie as a follow-up.

Because it stands, although, “Oldboy” can be simply as bloody, brutal, and harsh as “Monkey Man” whereas being ten instances as unrepentant and contemplative via the strategy of a seasoned grasp like Park. Any battle scene set within the confines of a cramped constructing will inevitably be in comparison with the one-take hallway battle scene in “Oldboy,” simply as any revenge saga flashback will undeniably draw recollections of the tragedy that drives this movie’s story ahead. By way of all of it, Park Chan-wook proves to be a grasp craftsman at his peak who can be a vital case research for any revenge/motion cinema guru to discover in depth. There’s little doubt that Dev Patel has finished simply as a lot himself.

Particular Mentions:

 Ip Man (2008)

Shifting on from Bruce Lee to the lesser-known man who skilled him, Wilson Yip’s “Ip Man” collection chronicles the story of its titular Wing Chun grasp, a humble however lethal combatant consistently thrust into conditions the place his fists should do extra negotiating than his sage demeanor. The primary movie, centered on Ip Man’s life expertise through the Sino-Japanese Warfare, offers a wildly entertaining however appropriately solemn take a look at the story of the person behind the person, behind each martial artist since.

Led by an extremely nimble Donnie Yen, “Ip Man” marks a worthy precursor to “Monkey Man” in its makes an attempt to deliver equal focus to the motion and the larger non secular goal behind the preventing. In each circumstances, the movies come up considerably brief on the latter, however the effort remains to be admirable earlier than you even account for absolutely the devastation Yen’s fists of fury will trigger to anybody unlucky sufficient to search out themselves on their receiving finish.

Enter the Dragon (1973)

The opposite major affect—maybe the dominant affect—on Patel’s challenge is the enduring legacy of Bruce Lee. So, whereas the apparent reference factors is probably not essentially the most enjoyable to dig up, it could virtually really feel disingenuous, to not point out at the very least one in every of Lee’s iconic bouts. It might be tempting to go together with “The Method of the Dragon” (particularly given the similarity of the motion stars directing themselves), however Robert Clouse’s Lee automobile “Enter the Dragon,” as Bruce’s most distinguished effort, appears rife for dialogue.

As with “Monkey Man,” “Enter the Dragon” retains the inducement for its motion fairly easy, specializing in Lee as a person spying on against the law lord on his distant island below the guise of collaborating in a martial arts match. Already, the connections will be made to Patel’s personal framing of his protagonist as an underground fighter, however his equal deal with the physique as each a weapon and a middle of focus provides him a extra strong standing with the works of the grasp. Past that, “Enter the Dragon” affords an pleasurable, distinctly ‘70s peek into exactly the form of hand-to-hand fight cinema that has gone on to increase its attain over each different forthcoming filmmaker within the style for years to return.

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