Iron Monkey 2 (1996)

Iron Monkey 2 (1996)
Chinese Title: 街頭殺手
Translation: Street Killer

Starring: Donnie Yen, Billy Chow, Wu Ma, Yuan Wenqing, Chang Jianli, Liu Geng-Hong
Director:
Action Director: Yuen Woo-Ping, Lee Hai-Hsing

Well, once in a while a movie comes out a few decades far too late. It's the type of the genre film that neither plays homage nor updates its source material, but becomes an entry in a genre that has since evolved or died. It's the type of movie that gives you the feeling that maybe had it come out a few years earlier, it'd be more accepted (or forgiven for its problems). But compared to its contemporaries, the movie simply doesn't hold up. I had that feeling as I watched Iron Monkey 2.

Iron Monkey 2 was made in 1996 after the "wire-fu" craze of the early 1990s in Hong Kong had already died down. Soon, Hong Kong would be making CGI-enhanced fantasy films and more Hollywood-styled action films to compete on the world market. The "new wave" period piece became an anachronism and no longer brought in the big bucks (Once Upon a Time in China and America being an exception). Ironically, although Iron Monkey 2 is obviously a wire-fu film, the dubbed version I have hearkens more to the days of the classic "chop-sockey" film. In this sense, it's a chop-sockey film released 20 years too late.

Now, this isn't to say this is a good movie. It's not a good movie in the sense of the word that most critics or even common moviegoers would use. However, it is moderately entertaining, and despite being mauled by fans and critics alike, it delivers where it counts a lot more than a lot of its higher-budgeted successors.

The movie begins with a rich and powerful Republic-era warlord, Jade Tiger, making a deal with some Russians in order to open a club. Some guy tries to kill Jade Tiger, claiming that he stole his land, but the attempt his foiled and the dude is dragged away kicking and screaming (I assume he is "silenced" quickly thereafter). So the entertainment for the evening is a Chinese opera rendition of "The 18 Buddhas vs. the Monkey." Well, these 19 performers are actually assassins led by the Iron Monkey (Donnie Yen). During the performance, a big fight breaks out and after a lot of kung fu, the assassins are forced to flee.

Several years later, we meet another of our protagonists: a young man looking for his father. We are introduced to him by watching him save a bunch of people in a boat who are drifting through some rapids and such. We quickly find out that his father was one of Iron Monkey's colleagues that was blinded in the aforementioned assassination and now is a beggar/(horrible) street musician.

At the same time, we're (unfortunately) introduced to our other protagonists: a young couple of con artists. These clowns live off of scamming people and acting goofy and stuff. The guy really irks me...unlikeable sap. Anyways, the couple gets involved with the daughter ("Mistress" shall be her name) of the dude mentioned two paragraphs ago (the kicking and screaming one), who's offering large amounts of money to kill Jade Tiger. The couple comes into the contact with the beggar's son, who happens to be a really good martial artist. In a scheme to rip off Mistress, the couple cons her into thinking that their new friend is the Iron Monkey and trying to get the reward money.

Later on, Jade Tiger is about to do some arms dealing at his wharehouse, but the truck carrying the guns is attacked by Iron Monkey. The threesome go to the wharehouse too and soon the beggar's son is fighting against Iron Monkey. At the same time, the con artists steal the guns and run off. Interestingly enough, instead of turning them over to Mistress and getting some reward, they give them to Jade Dragon in exchange for jobs at his club.

A quick side note. The name of Jade Tiger's club is "Club." How original. I would've expected the club to have a Chinese name. Heck, it was financed with the Russians so even Russian name would've made more sense. But Club? Come on now!

Anyways, the beggar's son (I forget his name) and the Mistress find out they've been duped by the couple. The son decides to drink away his problems and in spite of Mistress's attempt to hire him to help her, he refuses. He does get into a big fight with Jade Tiger's cohorts, though.

While that's going on, the con artists are now working as waiter and singer at the "Club." However, after being humiliated by some Japanese patrons, the couple leave, get into an argument, and part ways. This is probably the closest the movie comes to having a moral. In this case its that a preocupation with money destroys lives and relationships. The cynicism of the male con artist drives away his companion and love.

Iron Monkey reappears on the scene, once again in disguise as the brother of one of the dudes he offed in arms raid. Whatever he's trying to accomplish in his "visit" with Jade Tiger is foiled by the appearance of the dude he supposedly offed(!) who blows his cover. A fight breaks out between Iron Monkey and Jade Tiger's men and then with Jade Tiger himself. Iron Monkey escapes but the blind beggar, who was present too, is shot to death.

Upon learning of his father's death, the son goes ballistic and upon finding one of Jade Tiger's four bodyguards, beats the guy to death. The son and the girl con artist than team up to steal Jade Tiger's weapons cache. They're successful, although the girl is killed in the fracas.

By this time, Jade Tiger has brought his brother (Billy Chow) into the mix to help him against Iron Monkey. We're treated to one scene where Billy Chow randomly beats some dudes to death and has that exit where he blows something up and walks in slow motion with explosion behind him. It's an interesting scene.

The son and the guy con artist give the guns that they recovered to Iron Monkey, who from there will move them south. They then decide to infiltrate the "Club" and deal out some kung fu justice to Jade Tiger and his men. And as can be expected, Iron Monkey appears as well and all kung fu mayhem breaks loose!!

First, our classic kung-fu check-off list:

1. Appearance of low budget: check.
2. Use of historic anachronisms: check.
3. Fights that seem to break out for no reason: check.
4. Racist portrayal of Japanese: check.
5. "Bad" dubbing: check.
6. Scenes of bad guys randomly attacking innocent bystanders: check. check.
7. Period setting: check.
8. Use of music from American movies: check (this time it's from True Lies.
9. Excessive use of the word "bastard": check.
10. Mistaken-identity suplot: check.

Yup, this is indeed old school chop-sockey released two decades after it should have. I gave away most of the story mainly because it's presented in such a disjointed manner that really isn't that important. For example, after the beggar's son saves Mistress at the restaurante, he character disappears for the rest of the movie. There are four scenes that are basically random acts of violence against people that really don't have much rhyme or reason to them.

In all honesty, however, I could easily live with a kung fu movie with a disjointed plot. I loved Young Hero of Shaolin Part 2, which consisted of almost nothing but random fight scenes. That's no problem for me. This movie, however, does something that I dislike: allow the non-action scenes to be carried by annoying supporting characters.

In this case, it's the con-artists who carry most of the story scenes. Anyways, the con artists (especially the guy) are annoying and irritating. A lot of Hong Kong movies are guilty of filling in the gaps between fights with idiotic humor. Yes, Madam is probably worst culprit. I mean, how can you have movie starring Michelle Yeoh and Cynthia Rothrock, and then have three supporting stooges take up most of the middle of the movie. Maybe it happens whenever you have a thin plot and need some filler in between the fight scenes. This is another example.

So if the con artists are the major characters, where does that put Donnie Yen? Well, that puts him in a secondary role as a supporting good guy. By that, I mean that he just appears on screen every now and then to get into a random fights with the bad guys. His character is written to only have one dimension to it, if that.

The bad guys are an interesting bunch. In all honesty, Jade Tiger is really a bland villain. He's not even all that villainous, or at least he doesn't come across as being really cruel and despicable. His right-hand men are more imposing than he is. Two of his bodyguards are Caucasian and two are Chinese. One Caucasian wears a cowboy hat and uses a gun. The other wears a bad wig, an eyepatch, and uses a gun. Out of the Chinese guys, one has a birdcage that turns into a flying guillotine-esque weapon and the other looks like a carrot (his hairstyle) and can kick really good. They too are bland, but at least their appearance is quirky...kind of.

The VHS cover I have gives Billy Chow (Fist of Legend, Dr. Wei and the Scripture with No Words) second billing. This must've been on account of his relative star power (compared to the rest of the no-name cast). However, it's a case of deceptive advertising as he doesn't come in the movie until the last act. We first see him making a deal with Jade Tiger, than he kills a bunch of people in a random scene, and then he fights the protagonists in the climax.

So we have a messy plot and bland characters. This doesn't mean that the movie is necessarily bad or unwatchable, it just means that the movie from this point forward will rest on its fight scenes. I'm happy to say that this film delivers, thanks to a fairly talented cast and Yuen Woo-Ping's direction.

I'm not sure what the story is with Yuen Woo-Ping and his involvement in this film. I've heard different stories. The opening credits list him as the fight choreographer. However, I've read one account that says that Donnie Yen signed on the film since Yuen was working on it, so he did out of respect for him. I also heard that Donnie Yen and Yuen Woo-Ping clashed on set and the latter left the film, and Donnie kept his name on the credits. Or something. In any case, the fighting is of a pretty good calibre, which is most important.

Being a period-piece of the 1990s, there's a fair amount of wire fighting to be expected. The usual tricks are there: flying bicycle kicks, no-shadow kicks, kicking up floorboards, high jumps, etc. For the most part everything is executed pretty well (i.e. there were no glaring problems in the use of wires). The wire FX were certainly better than those of The Medallion and such. As is typical with most movies with Donnie Yen, there's a lot of undercranking. I didn't find it all that distracting. It's there and noticeable, don't get me wrong. It was a lot more jarring in Crystal Hunt than in this film.

As usual, the Chinese excel at object-driven combat...filming it, that is. In this movie, Yuen Woo-Ping and company provide us with fights involving spears, swords, rope-darts (I love fights involving those), ladders, carts, flying guillotine-esque bird cages, guns, logs, ropes, killer Chinese cloth (anyone who's familiar with the genre knows about that), poles, etc. The last fight is very inventive, in which our heroes take on the villains in the "Club," which is being renovated. As another reviewer commented, they really do bring the house down. Also, watch for a fight where Donnie takes on the beggar's son in a lumber yard--for those of you who like more technique-driven combat, Donnie does some excellent wing chun in this fight.

You may have noticed that I didn't make much (if any) mention to the connection between this film and the first. The reason is that there is no connection. Heck, even the Chinese names of the movies have nothing in common*. The first movie is set in the Qing Dynasty during the 1860s (or so) and is a prequel to the Once Upon a Time in China series. This movie takes place in the Republic era of the 1920s or so. The Iron Monkey in this movie is different from his counterpart of the last century. The greatest difference was that the original Iron Monkey looked like a ninja. Donnie Yen, when not in disguise, has black outfit, black cape, and a very silly gold helmet to wear. Luckily, scenes with him in that embarrassing get-up are few and short.

I suspect that Donnie did this film in order to pay the bills. He said about some of the low budget films from the early 90s that he took part in. I can't imagine his artistic vision translating into this film, although he might've brought it to the fights, had Yuen Woo-Ping really left the project. Whatever the case may be, if you like good ol' fashioned old school butt-whooping, than this movie is worth at least a rental.