Iron Monkey - Watershed Wuxia | Trash Cinema Club

Mar

13

Iron Monkey - Watershed Wuxia

≡ Category: Essential, Hong Kong, Martial Arts, Movie Reviews By Country |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

Country: Hong Kong
Genre: Martial Arts
Director: Yuen Wo-Ping
Year: 1993

Rating:

TRASH CINEMA ESSENTIAL MOVIE

Iron Monkey starts off at a furious clip and never lets up.

In the mid 1800s, the Chinese countryside is ravaged by floods, so the peasants make their way to the cities, hoping to find food and the protection of Shaolin monks. Unfortunately, the monks have been coopted by greedy merchants and officials, who exploit the peasants.

Fortunately, a masked man (think Zorro or Robin Hood) who goes by the name of Iron Monkey, appears at night to protect the peasants, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. The local bigwig, Governor Cheng (James Wong) is desperate to capture Iron Monkey, so he enlists the help of Wong Kei-Ying (Donnie Yen), a famous martial artist.

I could go on and on with the plot, but part of the fun of Iron Monkey is discovering the relationships between the characters and their stories. This is a film that’s very rich in incident and character.

Some of the more colorful characters include Dr. Yan (Yu Rong-Guang), his assistant Miss Orchid (Jean Wang), a young Wong Fei-Hung (Angie Tsang), an underling of the governor, General Fox (Yuen Shun-Yi), and the chief baddie, the Royal Minister (Yen Shi-Kwan).

One way that Iron Monkey is very typical of the Golden Age of Hong Kong (1985-1995) films is that it blends comedy, action and tragedy into one hyperventilating whole, but Iron Monkey is unusual in that the blend is seamless. The humor is gentle and very funny. At one point, Iron Monkey impersonates the Royal Minister and makes a fool of the governor.

There are also moments of sublime beauty. In the home of Dr. Yan, a sudden wind blows a stack of documents into the air. Dr. Yan and his assistant, Miss Orchard use fluid kung fu movements to retrieve the papers. Truly, director Yuen Wo-Ping is the poet laureate of Hong Kong action choreography.

The fighting in Iron Monkey, while hard hitting enough to satisfy any action fan, is gorgeous to watch, as lovely as any classical ballet. And there is plenty of it. I haven’t counted them, but I’d say there are at least six or seven major action setpieces in Iron Monkey. The action is almost nonstop. It’s hard to say which martial arts sequence is my favorite, but the closing fight, which takes place over a fire on top of wooden poles, is a doozy.

Iron Monkey is one of the very best wuxia (heroic martial arts) films from the Golden Age of Hong Kong, and that’s saying a lot.