Iron Monkey

I have been a student and instructor of numerous martial arts (Judo, Jujitsu, Karate, Kobudo, Kenjutsu, Law Enforcement Defensive Tactics etc) for more than 60 years. I have also become a fan of the Asian martial arts films such as the award winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and countless other martial art films. This one is in my top ten list of fantastic martial arts films. The acting and colorful scenes in combination with some of the most intense and mind-blowing martial arts action makes this a must own DVD. The story is one to love because it is about the little guy overcoming government corruption, which is something we can all relate to if you live in the Chicgo, lllinois area. The secretive Iron Monkey slinks along in the dead of night to fight for the oppressed people. The government authorities resort to some underhanded tactics to catch the Iron Monkey, but they fail. In conclusion, if you like martial arts films with an excellent story combined with fantastic fight action scenes, you will want to see and own this great movie. Rating: 5 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Predator Hunter: A warrior's memoir)

With spectacular fight scenes and a simple (yet effective) story line, Tsui Hark dishes up a masterpiece martial arts film with "Iron Monkey". The film takes place during the latter part of the Manchu Dynasty where Dr. Yang is a local physician who runs a clinic with his wife by day but fights and steals from corrupt government officials by night as the Robin Hoodesque folk hero "Iron Monkey". The fight scenes in this film are constant and incredible. I particularly liked the pace that they were conducted in and in some ways this movie reminded me of the 1970s Kung-Fu films I used to watch during Saturday afternoons as a kid, respectfully. My main complaint with this film is that the subtitles do not stay on the television screen long enough to read them making it difficult to follow the dialogue. The fight scene at the end with Iron Monkey and Wong fighting the Chinese overlord on flaming wooden poles was incredible. I ended up following the advice of one reviewer and bought the Hong Kong version of this film which can also be bought at Amazon. If the U.S. release of this film (which I have not seen) is a watered-down, edited version then the Hong Kong version is certainly worth the wait.

After seeing (and absolutely loving) Donnie Yen in Hero and Shanghai Knights, I had to have more. Iron Monkey seemed like a good bet, so I bought it. WOW. I hit the jackpot! Rough and comic unlike the serious and elegant Hero. Chinese, Chinese, Chinese unlike the Hollywood Jackie Chan Knights. Plenty of martial arts and good natured humor. From the corrupt Governor and his many giggling wives to the evil monk who -- opps there go the many giggling wives -- to Master Fox, the heart of gold police chief, all the bad guys are comics. When the Governor orders that Iron Monkey must be arrested, the police round up an acrobat who jumps like a monkey, a man who sneezes like a monkey, a man selling...someone leans over and whispers, "Don't even say the word Monkey," but he gets nabbed, too. Even the serious Donnie Yen and Rongguang Yu have a playful chopstick fight over a piece of roasted duck. For those who love flying, there are many scenes with the beautiful antigravity choreography of Woo-Ping Yuen. Probably the most lovely is the first, when the Doctor (Iron Monkey) and Miss Orchid (the nurse) go flying around the room to retrieve a stack of papers which has blown out of their hands at the end of a busy day at the clinic. Although Iron Monkey's father had been killed unjustly and Miss Orchid's son, born of her work as a prostitute slave, dies at birth, in the present tense no one dies which is as it should be with a good old fashioned folk story. Five stars!

Okay, I should start by saying that this review is for English dub enthusiasts and I bought the Shout! Factory Blu-ray as an upgrade because I love their stuff. The previous Blu-ray edition I owned said “Quentin Tarantino presents ‘Iron Monkey’” on the cover. I have no idea how Tarantino was involved with this movie (I can’t remember, but I think it was released by Miramax- my apologies if I got it wrong). My point is, if you compare the English dubs between both discs, Shout! Factory’s edition is completely different from the Tarantino edition. First, the Shout! Factory dub is laughably bad. We’re talking MST3K quality bad. They changed fighting stance names like “shadow kick” and “Bhudda’s palm” to “no shadow kick” and “wonder palm.” I can’t hear either without snickering at how ridiculous they sound. Second, the scores on both Blu-ray editions are like night and day. The Tarantino version sounds thematic and intense, but Shout! Factory’s score sounds like the kind of music you’d hear in a Chinese restaurant. There are also a few moments where the score sounds reminiscent of a spaghetti western. Third, the Tarantino disc featured an expositional captioned opening and closing, while Shout! Factory’s cut doesn’t. However, Shout! Factory does have one strength the Tarantino Blu-ray ironically doesn’t: I noticed several more gory, violent shots in some of the fight scenes that I swear my old Tarantino disc didn’t feature. I figured he would have really pulled to keep those in the movie if he had been involved with releasing it in the US. In conclusion, if you prefer your kung fu dubbed and you have the Tarantino Blu-ray, just know what you’re getting and what you’re missing before choosing to upgrade to the Shout! Factory Blu-ray edition.

I really love this movie

Very good story line of famous non-fiction sort of. Perhaps the events are not exactly as in the movie but as far as what the story about the heroes have done is true to some degree. The movie itself is very enjoyable even after all these years. It's just one of those you can watch over and over again. Great fight scenes, it's great that practically all the stars really know the art.

Alles top und sehr schnell

懐かしくて、おもしろい！！

Remplace le dvd que je possedais de ce film, la qualité image est nettement supérieure.

I saw this movie (SKYHAWK) when I was a young lad and for years had tried to find it on DVD which is extremely rare. I knew it would be a speculative purchase since it came bundled with Iron Monkey and the subtitles are in French with the language in Cantonese hence on 3 stars!! Other than that the item was well packaged.

Excellent movies