This film came to my attention only recently with the advert stating "From the creators of "The Matrix" and "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" comes "Iron Monkey!" . Hold on. How come I've never heard of this?

Next thing I know is that my brothers bought it on the special digitally remastered DVD version . Well I wasn't just going to sit there and look at the box , I immediatley stuck it in the machine.

"Iron Monkey" was originally released in 1977 so its no wonder I'd never heard of it. The films plot is fairly basic but brilliant none the less. Government Officer Che'ung is corrupt and wasting all of the peasant's money and the people are starving in the streets. Even the "police" are corrupt . People even turn to stealing to try and make a living. We are then introduced the character of Dr Yang who is treating to the flood disaster victims in his clinic along with his assistant Miss Orchid and is giveing out free medicine to the needy but charging the rich huge amounts for pharmaceuticals. The town seems to be in a desparate state but dont worry , there is hope!

Enter Iron Monkey , a masked clad-in-black robin hood-esque character , saviour to the peasants , annoyance to the corrupt , and no prizes for guessing who it is.
Then who enters into the town but Wong Kei Ying and his son Fei-Yung get caught up in Iron Monkeys exploits but is not aware of Iron Monkeys alignment and wants to capture him , even though he is friends with his alter-ego Dr Yang .

From there the story continues on with fantastic scenes involving the majority of the characters , most of which are a sight to see. From the start the film kicks off with Iron Monkey taking on all the royal guards and four shaolin monks (and winning of course) . And dont think these fight scenes obey the proper rules of gravity either. Nope , but with that in mind the film gets a certain comic , even s
lapstick element . Its hard not to start cackling when the evil government inspector called Hin Hung (whose evil background is that he burnt down Wong Kei Yings former shaolin temple) starts fighting with the quote ,
"No one can beat my Shaolin King Kong Palm!" ,
or the way Wong Kei Ying beats up a load of pedestrians with his umbrella.
Saying any more would probably spoil it , but the fight sequences can in no way be expressed in words , they have to be seen to be believed.

Speaking in terms of the film score , I have to say I was disappointed , there seems to be only one tune to each fight scene . The photography is by no means a patch on Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragons" panoramic scenes as mostly the film seems to take place indoors aswell . But then again it was filmed in the seventies and it has been brilliantly touched up for the DVD version , the colours of the characters look vibrant aswell as the backgrounds looking modern aswell.

The plot is fairly basic , but enjoyable . There is a touching scene between Wong Kei Ying and his son which may bring a tear to the eye but dont worry , you'll be either on the edge of you seat or laughing at the fight scenes soon after. As with any Kung-Fu film it builds up to a dramatic end fight which lasts for about four whole scenes in which nearly everybody gets involved.

The DVD is brilliant , you can choose all sorts of features like narrated actors backgrounds , set description and interviews with the director and production staff. Whats also brilliant , if crucial about the DVD is that you can choose between English/Cantonese language and subtitles.
Take my advice , always watch ANY cantonese film in Cantonese with subtitles . In the English version you get corny american voice-overs doing bad translations. The subtitles make more sense and dont distract from the action. If you really want to laugh put on the english language with the subtitles in english a
nd see how bad the language is translated and often missed in a lot of places.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film , great action with some great laughs and astounding work by the characters with the action sequences.