Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

2hotFeature one of my absolute favorites!

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

cricketbat Iron Monkey is a fun film and an interesting chapter of Chinese folklore. The story is compelling, the acting is well-done and the choreographed fights are quite impressive. I'm not a huge fan of Kung-Fu films, but this one is definitely worth watching.

tomgillespie2002 When Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was released back in 2000, it was hailed as the arrival of a new form of martial arts picture. The use of wirework and trampoline techniques combined with the natural fighting styles of the actors was actually nothing knew, and wuxia had in fact been around for decades. Nevertheless, the success of Crouching Tiger saw the re-release of many Hong Kong classics: titles that would be instantly recognisable to the initiated, but were fresh ground for those swept up in the martial arts explosion (which was arguably cranked up even further after Tarantino's Kill Bill films). One such title was Iron Monkey, an early 90s Golden Harvest production featuring an early performance from Donnie Yen. While it isn't quite as polished as Ang Lee's hit, Iron Monkey puts its fighting scenes to shame, delivering a rollicking 90 minutes of action and fun that I could have quite happily watched again straight after it had ended.The name Wong Fei-hung may be unrecognisable to Westerners, but it is a name as popular as Robin Hood within Chinese folklore. He was a famous martial artist and physician, and his exploits have seen him become the subject of over a hundred movies and television shows, the most famous of which is Hark Tsui's Once Upon a Time in China, which starred Jet Li as Fei-hung. With Li wanting to call it a day on the role after Part III was released in 1993, attention turned to a prequel, and Iron Monkey was born. Fei-hung here is a 12 year old, and played immaculately by Sze-Man Tsang, a girl. Most of the attention is given to his father, Wong Kei-Ying (Yen), who arrives in town with his son in tow just as the governor's guards are rounding up anybody who looks suspicious. The corrupt governor is looking for Iron Monkey, a skilled martial artist who is causing a nuisance around town. Under the threat of execution, Kei-Ying agrees to track down Iron Monkey in return for his son's freedom, but quickly learns that there is more to his mysterious foe that initially thought.The Iron Monkey is local physician Yang Tianchun (Rongguang Yu) who, along with the beautiful Miss Orchid (Jean Wang), battles to overthrow corruption and the mistreatment of the people. The plot is as thin as the wires launching the actors into a variety of graceful getaways, but director Woo-Ping Yuen grabs the attention with a non-stop wheel of dazzling action scenes. The speed with which Yen and Yu jab and spin beggars belief, dusting off faceless henchman with a spectacular array of inventive moves, all of which we get to learn as the characters are fond of announcing the title of each form of punishment upon delivery. Best of all is Tsang, who not only convinces as a boy (I didn't realise until I read up about the film after it had finished), but proves to be just as effective as her older colleagues in showing off her skills. As the bad guys get increasingly tougher, Iron Monkey becomes more ridiculous, but this is counter-balanced by a fine vein of humour throughout. It saves its best for last, as our heroes team up against the big bad on top of wooden poles wedged into the ground as a huge fire rages below them. They balance of vertical sticks, horizontal sticks, and at one point, they are on top of each other on one wobbly pole. It's breathtaking stuff, and proves that Hong Kong cinema had this action stuff worked out long before Hollywood caught on.

poe426 While IRON MONKEY boasts some outstanding production values, it's this budgetary largesse that seems most to blame for the film's shortcomings. Well laid out (in the fashion of ROBIN HOOD or ZORRO or THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL, et al), with some beautiful cinematography and special effects, IRON MONKEY nonetheless falters when it comes to its very reason for being- the martial arts sequences themselves. Reality never rears its ugly head (it rarely even comes close): the mechanically-enhanced martial arts mayhem blatantly defies the laws of physics to an astonishing degree. This undermines the solid all-around performances by the actors. The final battle, for instance, reminded me of the lyrics from a song: "They swing through the air with the greatest of ease- those daring young men on the flying trapeze." Instead of a realistic, nail-biting hand-to-hand battle, we end up with cgi-enhanced acrobatics. Again. (I saw this one first on DVD, then again during its theatrical run- but it wasn't until I saw it again just recently that the over-the-top action called to mind The Big Top itself.) Had the martial arts sequences been better done, I would've had no compunctions about rating IRON MONKEY a ten.

callanvass This is a wonderful martial arts film, that's now become one of my favorites,with a fantastic story, and some of the best fight scenes i have ever seen!.All the characters are wonderful, and, it's also quite funny and imaginative, plus Rongguang Yu and Donnie Yen are simply amazing in this!. It had the feel of a Jet Li film, and all the characters were extremely likable!, plus James Wong is great as the Govenor!. The dubbing is actually some of the best i have seen, and i thought Donnie Yen and Rongguang Yu had great chemistry together, plus the fight choreography is incredible!. I found the whole poisonous palm sequence to be fascinating and the scenes involving Donnie Yen and Wong Fei-Hung were great, plus The stunts were absolutely fantastic!.The main fight is incredible, and, i was extremely impressed by Sze-Man Tsang(Young Wong Fei-hung)'s fight skills for a young kid, plus The finale was just awesome!. This is a wonderful martial arts film, that's now become one of my favorites, with a fantastic story and some of the best fight scenes i have ever seen!, Go see it right this instant you won't regret it!. The Direction is amazing!. Woo-ping Yuen does an amazing job here, with incredible camera work, awesome angles, lots of other amazing shots and he kept the film at an incredibly fast pace!. The Acting is wonderful!. Rongguang Yu is AMAZING as the Iron monkey, he is extremely likable, had a great sense of humor, is a wonderful martial artist, played an extremely likable character had great chemistry with Donnie Yen and Jean Wang, is a great unknown find, and just did an amazing job overall!. (Yu Rules!). Donnie Yen is also AMAZING here, while his character may seem like an asshole, i found him extremely likable and like Yu's character found myself rooting for him all the way, he also has tons of charisma, he was amazing!. (Donnie Rules!). Jean Wang is fantastic as Miss Orchard, she is beautiful, was very convincing, and had great chemistry with Rongguang Yu!, she is also a great martial artist. Yee Kwan Yan is fantastic in his role, and did a fantastic job!. James Wong is extremely menacing as the Govenor, and had a great evil laugh. Sze-Man Tsang is wonderful as young Wong Fei-Hung, she did an incredible job, for a young martial artist, did fantastic in her emotional scenes, and was very funny at times!. Rest of the cast do great. Overall Go see it right this instant you won't regret it!, it's one of the best martial art films ever in my opinion. ***** out of 5