Iron Monkey

Jeez, doesn't Tsui Hark know any Chinese folk heroes other than Wong Fei-Hong? Every time I turn around it's another Hark-produced Wong Fei-Hong Fest, and frankly, I'm getting sick of the guy. Okay, maybe I'm overreacting a bit. After all, Iron Monkey is way above average when it comes to Hark's later material. And, to be fair, the inimitable Wong is really just a side note in Iron Monkey -- he's only 12 years old here. The meat of Yuen's acrobatic story comes from the provincial government's skirmishes with the Robin Hood-esque Iron Monkey, a black-clad, masked bandit who robs from the rich and, well, you know…. Young Wong is traveling through town with his father when they are caught up in the governor's Iron Monkey-induced dragnet. Holding Fei-Hong captive, the governor forces the elder Wong to attempt to capture the Monkey, and before you know it (before the opening titles are over with, actually) you're treated to what Joe Bob Briggs would characteristically call 90 minutes of quality “monkey-fu.” Director Yuen shot Jackie Chan to stardom 15 years earlier in Drunken Master, and he does an excellent job here as well. Lengthy fight scenes are choreographed to a “T,” and for once, you really have to strain to see the wires. A ballet of flying fists, feet and bamboo staffs, Yuen is a master when it comes to action directing. On top of that, he's pared the story down to a more readily understandable level, eliminating much of the extraneous, loopy mysticism that has impaired much of Hark's Film Workshop work. With a fiery climax that needs to be seen to be believed, Iron Monkey is a nonstop period actioner that ranks alongside Once Upon a Time in China as one of the best films to come out of the Hong Kong cinema in years.