Iron Monkey
(1993)
Chinese Title: 少年黃飛鴻之鐵馬騮
Translation: Young Wong Fei-Hung – The Iron Monkey
Starring: Donnie Yen, Yu Rong-Guang, Jean Wang, Angie
Tsang Sze-Man, Yuen Shun-Yee, Yen Shi-Kwan, Hsiao Ho, James Wong
Director: Yuen Woo-Ping
Action Directors: Yuen Woo-Ping, Yuen Cheung-Yan, Yuen
Shun-Yee, Ku Huen-Chiu
I can’t
recall what Tai Seng-released film I watched in 1999—I’m guessing it was The Magnificent Warriors or Project A 2—but before the movie, there
were the usual trailers for other releases from that particular company. One of
them began with a voiceover like this: “From Yuen Woo-Ping…the legendary
director who brought you the action scenes from the hit sci-fi film ‘The
Matrix’…” and then we cut to a trailer of featuring people in Qing Dynasty
costumes and ninja-like outfights doing wire-fire and kicking their opponents
about seventeen times without dropping their legs. As far as I was concerned,
that was the greatest movie ever made.
A few
months later, I learned that a friend of mine, Hung Nguyen, had acquired a copy
of the original Tai Seng release[1].
He let me borrow it, and yes, I thought it ranked right up there with Drunken Master 2 and Fist of Legend as one of the greatest
martial arts movies I had ever seen. I just had
to get a copy of it. The Virgin Megastore in Sacramento carried a copy of the
newly-restored version, but it sold for a steep $59.95 at the time. I put the
film on my Christmas list anyway, and I felt less guilty about making my
parents buy me such an expensive film when I saw it at Sam Goody in Stockton
for only $19.95. Whether or not they actually bought that, or got the expensive
one at Virgin, I don’t know.
While still
on Christmas vacation, I called my friends Jacob and Paul over to my house to check
out that film, along with Fist of Legend
and Righting Wrongs. I’m sure that by
the second fight scene, Iron Monkey had
already entered our Classics List. Fistof Legend ended up on the list, too. Despite my pleadings on behalf of Righting Wrongs, it didn’t quite make
the cut. But that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
The movie
is set circa 1860 during the Qing Dynasty. Famous physician and martial artist,
Wong Kei-Ying (Donnie Yen, of Drunken Tai
Chi and Kung Fu Jungle) and his
son, Wong Fei-Hung (Angie Tsang Tze-Man[2]),
are visiting a city that has recently been hit by floods and is suffering from
an outbreak of some disease. The local governor is a greedy, corrupt fellow,
withholding supplies and relief from the dying masses in the nearby rural
areas. Fighting for the people is a mysterious figure named Iron Monkey, whom
we learn in the first act is actually the kindly Doctor Yang (Yu Rong-Guang, of
Mirage and My Father is a Hero). Iron Monkey is essentially the local
equivalent to Robin Hood: he steals from the corrupt politicians and business
owners and gives to the poor.
When the
local authorities begin a witch hunt to find out who the Iron Monkey is, Wong
Kei-Ying and his son are arrested after getting into a kung fu fight in public.
Their rationale is: if he knows kung fu, he may very well be the Iron Monkey.
The Iron Monkey makes an appearance at the governor’s kangaroo court, thus
absolving Wong Kei-Ying of the accusation. But the wily governor has Fei-Hung
thrown in jail, telling Kei-Ying that he’ll be released after the Iron Monkey
is apprehended.
Wong
Kei-Ying soon becomes a pariah to the locals, who don’t take well to an
outsider going after their local savior. The only people who don’t judge
Kei-Ying happen to be Doctor Yang and his assistant, Orchid (Jean Wang, The East is Red and Once Upon a Time in China IV). By this point, we know who they are, so it’s only a matter
of time before Wong Kei-Ying will discover who he’s really trying to bring in.
Matters are further complicated by Wong Fei-Hung contracting “the plague” while
in prison and the arrival of a substitute governor, a vicious former- Shaolin
monk by the name of Hin Hung (Yen Shi-Kwan, of The Heroic Trio and The Royal
Tramp 2).
By the time this came out in September of 1993, local audiences had already been subject to no fewer than four Once Upon a Time in China films, of which this acts as a sort-of prequel. The first three of those movies had epic-scale stories with a strong emphasis on the historical aspects of the story, with Chinese folk hero Wong Fei-Hung getting involved with important events in Chinese history. The fourth one was little more than an amalgamation of themes from parts II and III. This approach to storytelling was toned down for Iron Monkey, which is understandable, since Yuen Woo-Ping as a director was never one to trade in the action for history and the more thematic-approach to storytelling. Thus, Iron Monkey is a far less pretentious film than its predecessors and subsequent wire-fu films like The Blade and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. As a result, this ends up being one of the more outright fun kung fu movies of the early 1990s wire-fu boom, which has helped to endear so many fans to it over the past three decades.
The story is pretty straight-forward, with the Iron Monkey stealing from the governor and giving to the poor with rather a lot of ease, until Hin Hung and his Shaolin-trained entourage show up. Donnie Yen is drafted into tracking him down, but ends up switching sides when an even-greater evil shows up: according to an exchange between Hin Hung and Wong Kei-Ying, Hin Hung was one of the traitors at the Shaolin Temple who participated in its purging years before. As Wong Kei-Ying’s style[3] was born at Shaolin, he feels a moral obligation to take him on and punish him for his crimes. That ends up being the deciding factor that unites him to the Iron Monkey.
The action comes fast and furious, courtesy of Yuen Woo-Ping, his brothers, and his protégé Ku Huen-Chiu (Besouro and 14 Blades). The movie starts out with a crazy wire-heavy battle between Iron Monkey and some corrupt monks, with the former facekicking the lot while balancing on the head of one of them. That’s quickly followed by a fight between Wong Kei-Ying and some pickpockets, where he goes to down on them with his umbrella—the umbrella fight had become a stape for Wong Fei-Hung movies since Once Upon a Time in China. Shortly after, Wong Kei-Ying and Iron Monkey go at on a rooftop, where we learn that the two are equals, move for move. We’ll see a few years later in Shanghai Affairs that Yu Rong-Guang and Donnie Yen are indeed equals in the martial arts department.
The next fight is one of the showstoppers. My friends and I call it the “superboot” fight, in which Wong Kei-Ying takes on the aforementioned monks with the infamous “No-Shadow Kick.” Said technique was actually a fast, powerful front kick—high kicks were not a part of hung gar. But as these 1990s films had shied away from traditional Southern styles in favor a Northern Wushu, the footwork was a lot flashier. Factor in Donnie Yen, one of the great bootmasters, and you have an awesome sequence in which he kicks the monks about fifteen times each without lowering his leg, ending with one of his trademark moves: a jumping splits kick with a front kick on the way down. The film entered our Classics List at this scene.
Subsequent fights, including a nice chain whip duel with old school veteran Hsiao Ho are solid, with the grand finale being something to behold: Wong Kei-Ying and the Iron Monkey dueling with Hin Hung atop a series of burning poles. The wirework necessary to perform this scene must’ve been staggering, and that’s real fire burning the poles below (this being before the days of CGI). The suspense is drawn from the poles, weakened by the flames, collapsing under the weight of the combatants as they struggle to maintain balance and not immolate themselves in the sea of fire below. Many fans consider this one of the all-time great moments of wire-fu, and with good cause.
There’s
very little to dislike about Iron Monkey.
The acting is strong, with Donnie Yen doing a particularly good job as a father
who struggles to teach independence to his son, while hiding his fears for
their future as the external threats grow deadlier. The story, while nothing
new, is at least well developed for what it is. The action is classic stuff, no
doubts about it. Iron Monkey deserves
its place among the most lauded of the genre.
Trivia:
-
The
year 1993 saw Once Upon a Time in China
getting not only two sequels and a prequel, but also two unofficial spin-offs,
a parody, and a Mainland Chinese rip-off. The two spin-offs would be Heroes Among Heroes and Kick Boxer. The parody is Last Hero in China. The rip-off was Fist from Shaolin.
-
Some
of the changes made for the American release include:
o
Some
scenes were trimmed to tone down the violence, including young Wong Fei-Hung
getting whipped and one of the evil monks getting beheaded.
o
Originally,
some fight scenes had been sped up in places through undercranking. The United States release slowed
these scenes down to a more normal pace.
o
Several
comedic scenes, particularly ones interspersed in the fight scenes, were
removed to give the fights a more serious feel. Although such comedic devices
are common in Hong Kong cinema, the editors felt that they might appear odd to
American audiences. That includes the scene where Iron Monkey impersonates the
Legate Officer.
o
A
new soundtrack was composed that emulated the classical score to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but in doing so, the Wong Fei-hung theme song
was eliminated.
o
New
sound effects were dubbed for the fighting to make them more realistic (as
opposed to the more traditional exaggerated Hong Kong sounds).
-
Contrary
to some sources, including Thomas Weisser’s Asian Cult Cinema, the film
is not a reworking or remake of the
1977 film of the same. That movie, which stars and was directed by Shaw
Brothers alumni Chen Kuan-Tai, is a more standard revenge adventure about a man
whose family is executed by a Qing warlord for sedition. He goes to Shaolin,
learns monkey fist kung fu, and then seeks revenge. Some of the monkey style on
display is entertaining, the film on the whole is rather average. Both Chen
Kuan-Tai and the film’s fight choreographer, Chan Muk-Chuen (The Crippled Masters), teamed up again
for Duel at Tiger Village, which was
released on VHS back in the 1990s as The
Iron Monkey Strikes Back.
-
There
was a 1979 kung fu film titled Ape Girl,
which was released on VHS as part of the Wu Tang Series and was retitled Lady Iron Monkey.
-
A
1996 Taiwanese film starring Donnie Yen called Iron Monkey 2 has been billed as a sequel, although the two films
have nothing to do with each other. This one is set during the Republic Era and
features Donnie Yen as a caped superhero (called Iron Monkey in the dub) who
fights against the murderous warlords that ravaged China after the fall of the
Qing Dynasty. It is generally considered a bad movie on all accounts due to its
low production values, disjointed plot, excessively-undercranked fight action,
and incompetent editing.
The Critics Rave:
“Let’s
just cut to the chase: Iron Monkey is one of the most perfect
Hong Kong/kung fu movies that I can think of. Few movies come close to rivaling
it. Even though the the first time I saw it was on a small tablet while in a
cramped stuffy car on a road trip through the desert, I still loved the hell
out of it! And as you can probably guess, I’ve seen it many more times since
then. It might not be my all-time number one favorite Hong Kong movie, but it
certainly ranks as my favorite wire-fu movie, my favorite Yuen Woo Ping
directed movie, and my favorite Hong Kong movies of the 90’s; which is really
saying a lot.”
Ken Hashibe (Kung Fu Fandom Forum)
“Made
years before CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON (and directed by its action
choreographer), this anticipates some of its high-flying action techniques but
has no pretensions: just a fast, entertaining action yarn with the exaggerated
acting style of Hong Kong escapist fare. Pure fun.”
Leonard Maltin
“It's no
exaggeration to say that Iron Monkey is
one of the best martial arts films of the last decade. In terms of action, few
films could top it. Even though there's some obvious wirework, it feels more
like an enhancement rather than a "cheat" thanks to the
unquestionable martial arts skill of actors like Donnie Yen. And unlike some other
films—even ones that boast top-notch action choreography—Iron Monkey never feels repetitive. Each fight builds upon the
last one, climaxing in what could be described as a martial arts crescendo.”
Kozo (LoveHKFilm.com)
“It's a pleasure to watch
Yu Rong-guang in action, but the real eye-candy comes from Donnie Yen, who
plays Wong Kei-Ying, the traveling doctor. Yen is absolutely fluid and
graceful, and displays some of the best footwork I've ever seen in a martial
arts film. The wirework used for all the stunts is tremendous…All of the action
leads to an absolutely magnificent climax, which ranks as one of my two or
three favorite martial arts fight sequences ever. I can give this scene no
higher praise other than to say that I could happily watch just that portion of
the film over and over again. Iron Monkey is simply tremendous fun from start
to finish. For fans of the genre, it should be a must-see as it hits the big
screen.”
Kim Hollis (Box Office Prophets)
“I watch
this film and find it hard to believe that anyone would not find something to
appreciate about it. What I've really come to love about these pictures - and
what makes them so much more entertaining than the more straightforward
American action pictures - is how they turn action into an art form, using
props in such a brilliant manner that I can't help being awed at the kind of
craft and talent on display. All of it makes last year's attempt at copying, The Musketeer, look positively
embarrassing in comparison. Certainly, Iron
Monkey is all about the stunts and they are spectacularly produced here,
but there's also a very nice amount of story as well as great performances.
This is a marvelously done action picture that fans of said genre should be
delighted by.”
Aaron Beierle (DVD Talk)
“Other
than the emotionally powerful threads that run through the film, Iron Monkey is also a dazzlingly
choreographed action film. It is imaginative and mindboggling throughout and
somehow Yuen Woo Ping manages to make each action scene stand on its own merits
as a distinct gem. True, the action is speeded up and the wirework is at times
obtrusive, but it is done with so much flair and passion that the viewer simply
begins to overlook it and to take it as reality.”
Brian (View from the Brooklyn Bridge)
“If you
were to ask around what would be the top 3 Hong Kong movies featuring martial
arts, they would most likely be DRUNKEN MASTER 2, FIST OF LEGEND, and IRON MONKEY. Maybe not always in that
order but most will agree that these are three classic movies. IRON MONKEY is a
martial arts extravaganza that never lets up. This movie is definitely
recommended.”
Love and Bullets
“We love
heroes here at Heroic Cinema as you probably know. And there’s no shortage of
heroes in Iron Monkey.
Correction: I should say, butt-kicking heroes. Iron Monkey has the sort of heroes that make your heart swell
when they thump the baddies (and there’s plenty here), help the poor and save
the day. So what if the plot is simplistic and the stereotypes are stretched to
cartoonish proportions? So what if it’s a little cheesy and the dubbing is
sometimes overtly out of synch? This is still martial arts entertainment at its
classiest with eye-popping wire-work visuals. It is fun and irresistible
viewing for anyone who is the slightest bit interested in the martial arts
genre. Your gung-fu film-viewing repertoire just wouldn’t be complete without
it.”
[1] - The original releases were
the ones that still had the burned-on subtitles that disappeared whenever there
was a white background in the film itself. Those generally sold for about
$39.95 at some specialty stores.
[2] - As you can tell by the
name, Angie Tsang is indeed a girl. While casting for the role, Yuen Woo-Ping
and Yuen Cheung-Yan visited some martial arts schools. They decided that Tsang
had the age, build and martial arts talent for that particular role, despite
her gender and lack of formal acting experience.
[3] - Wong Kei-Ying was a master
of the Hung Gar style, best known for its Tiger-Crane and Five Animals forms.
It was founded by Hung Hey-Kwun, who had been the first layman to study kung fu
at Shaolin.
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