Dev Patel is making his directorial debut with the bloody action revenge film Monkey Man, whose neo-noir aesthetics and black-suit-centered costume design instantly drew comparisons to the massively popular Keanu Reeves-led franchise John Wick.
Early reviews for Monkey Man hailing from its South by Southwest festival premiere are excitingly positive, gracing Patel with an approval rating of 91 percent. Critics highlight the movie’s combination of violent action with sincere social commentary on Indian society’s most outcast communities. Most also note the John Wick influences, revealing some spoilery details about how Monkey Man navigates these similarities that we’ll keep vague here for the sake of preserving everyone’s first-watch experiences.
Patel, however, has made it a point to resist this simplified parallel. In an interview at SXSW where he was directly asked about people labeling Monkey Man the South-Asian John Wick, the British actor elaborated on the many inspirations from all around the world that drove the making of his passion project, essentially telling audiences to think beyond American cinema.
Dev Patel’s action influences in Monkey Man that are not John Wick
Dev Patel has long wanted to become a special brand of action hero. After years of the movie industry failing to see his potential in the genre, he took matters into his own hands and wrote, directed, and produced a star vehicle for himself.
Monkey Man is a product of Patel’s genuine admiration for the action genre that has been present in his life since he was a little kid. As a result, the film often pays tribute to the cultural icons from which it was spawned and does it proudly. Patel cites the Hong Kong martial arts cinema tradition of legends like Bruce Lee, Sammo Hung, Jet Li, and Jackie Chan as a primary source of inspiration, and credits one of Bruce Lee’s final films, 1973’s Enter the Dragon, for making him fall in love with the genre as a little kid.
After that, it was South Korean cinema that revolutionized the actor-director’s cinematic perceptions. While Patel hasn’t exactly name-dropped which Korean movies, stars, or filmmakers he cherishes as his muses, we’re sure Park Chan-wook’s Vengeance Trilogy, namely Oldboy, and the country’s tradition of revenge movies played a part. Monkey Man, for context, begins when Patel’s protagonist Kid decides to avenge his mother by going after a group of corrupt leaders.
Also mentioned by those lucky enough to watch the film early are the Indonesian action staples The Raid – which is known among fans of the genre as one of the most influential, yet underrated, of its kind – and the more recent The Night Comes for Us.
Completing the tapestry, of course, is Bollywood cinema. Patel’s decision to set Monkey Man in Mumbai and inject it with rich depictions of Indian spirituality, culture, and specific societal maladies was very much intentional. His character not only wears a Lord Hanuman-inspired monkey mask as a fighter in an underground ring, but his journey also mirrors the folklore associated with the Hindu deity, embodying qualities of “devotion, loyalty, valor, strength, humility, and discipline,” per Hindustan Times. The director also spoke about it at the screening.
“Hanuman really captivated me. He has been sort of an emblem for my father and many in my family. If you go to any gym in India, there’s Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ronnie Coleman and Hanuman. What baffled me growing up was this iconography of this super-strong being who could hold mountains in one hand and split his chest open. It reminded me of the iconography of Superman. I was like, this is amazing, I wish the world knew about it. When you go deep into it, he is sort of a guy who has lost faith in himself and had to be reminded of who he was.”
If early reviews are to be believed, fans of all these global action genre cinematic traditions should be excited for the arrival of Monkey Man and filmmaker Dev Patel. For Inverse, Matt Donato writes, “Patel presents like a student who wants to make their master proud, never outright copying for clout, but instead using inspirations to embolden his unique, bigger-picture take on action cinema.”
That sounds a whole lot more exciting than the “John Wick in Mumbai” description the movie was stuck with from the moment its rights were bought by Netflix. Thanks to Jordan Peele, who watched the movie, decided it needed a theatrical release, and bought it from the streamer, Monkey Man will not be restringed to TV screens but instead will grace theater rooms everywhere on April 5.