Iron Monkey

A martial arts film set in nineteenth century China. Someone masked moves through a town. At night he enters the houses of rich officials, takes the money, and gives it to the people. Nobody knows who he is. They call him Iron Monkey. By day he is a doctor. Yang treats the poor for nothing at his surgery and works with his assistant Orchid. The governor is beside himself. He sends his men everywhere and rounds up every martial artist in the town. A father and son arrive. Wong Kei-ying is a martial arts master and his son Fei-hung is still a boy. The governor arrests them. The father will be released to catch Iron Monkey; his son is held as a hostage. From there the film is a story of alliance. Two masters fight each other first and then end up on the same side. What the narrative is interested in is not revenge but justice: every villain in the film is a state official, and facing them are not organisations but individual people. The boy's line connects to a well known name. The small child here is the childhood of the most frequently filmed folk hero in Chinese cinema. The fights work on wires. The choreography is the director's own and the movement is deliberately unrealistic; the scenes are built on lightness and speed. The last fight takes place on poles above fire. The film has a separate story in America. Eight years later the production was re-edited and released with new music and dubbing; that version differs markedly from the original. Yu Rongguang, Donnie Yen, Jean Wang and Tsang Sze-man are in the cast. Yuen Woo-ping directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes 1990s Hong Kong martial arts cinema and wire choreography. Who it is not for: anyone looking for realistic fighting; the movement is entirely stylised and the plot is simple.