Dev Patel names the movies that inspired ‘Monkey Man’
It’s all too clear from Dev Patel’s directorial debut, Monkey Man, that he has a deep-seated passion for action movies. The fast-paced, hard-hitting thriller, in which Patel stars in the lead role as a young underground fighter on the quest for vengeance, is one that pays homage to the great action movies of the past and contemporary realms of cinema.
Monkey Man is a frantic and bloody debut, though it also taps into Hindu mythology and religion, showing Patel to possess a desire to imbue his films with a symbolic meaning, regardless of how furiously they arrive on the screen. His debut certainly shows promise, and perhaps Patel will return to the action genre once again.
After all, the actor-turned-director has stated his love for martial arts movies, and when discussing the creation of Monkey Man in an interview with Letterboxd, he pointed out the films he had in mind when the writing and production phases gained traction, revealing his deepest inspirations.
Patel began by pointing out a “formative action” film that he “snuck downstairs” to watch as a child, the legendary 1973 martial arts film Enter the Dragon, directed by Robert Clouse and starring Bruce Lee in one of his most iconic roles. Widely considered one of the most influential action movies ever made, it’s easy to see why Clouse and Lee’s classic left such an impression on Patel, and he admitted it’s the reason he wanted to become an actor in the first place. “Just breath-taking to watch,” he said.
Moving on, Gareth Edward’s 2011 Indonesian action thriller The Raid was also in Patel’s mind when he came to make Monkey Man. The silat on offer through the movements of Iko Uwais amazed Patel, who felt that the film “changed” the action genre. “It’s relentless pace,” he pointed out, “And its absolute commitment to just action, just, wow.”
Not only is Monkey Man an action martial arts film but also a revenge film, and no country tends to make revenge movies better, in the eyes of Patel, than South Korea. He paid particular attention to Park Chan-wook’s iconic and eternally memorable action thriller Oldboy, which tells of a man imprisoned in a cell for 15 years by an anonymous captor who eventually gets his chance at revenge.
Elsewhere, in terms of Korean cinema, the likes of Lee Jeong-beom’s The Man from Nowhere, Kim Jee-woon’s I Saw the Devil and A Bittersweet Life are also mentioned by Patel, proving that there’s a deep love in the actor and director for many of the best movies to have come from the East Asian country. It’s also true that many Korean movies tend to have a theme of revenge present, something that Patel was keen to point out.
In light of such films, it’s easy to see where Monkey Man takes its cues from. The fast and furious martial arts of Bruce Lee, as showcased in Enter the Dragon, certainly seems to be at the forefront of Patel’s debut, while it’s perhaps the editing style of The Raid movies that finds its analogue in its constant close-up action.
Revenge is undoubtedly at the heart of Monkey Man, and with one eye casting back on the great moments of contemporary Korean cinema, Patel found much to work from. There were indeed some issues with Monkey Man, as detailed in our full review of the film, but Patel still did an admirable job of paying homage to some of his favourite action flicks.
The movies that inspired Monkey Man:
- Enter the Dragon (Robert Clouse, 1973)
- The Raid (Gareth Edwards, 2011)
- Oldboy (Park Chan-wook, 2003)
- The Man from Nowhere (Lee Jeong-beom, 2010)
- I Saw the Devil (Kim Jee-woon, 2010)
- A Bittersweet Life (Kim Jee-woon, 2005)
