THE IRON FISTED MONK
Starring - Sammo Hung - Chu Ching - James Tien - Fong Hak-On - Chan Sing.
Director - Sammo Hung.
Manchu rascals enter the town and begin to intimidate the owner of the noodle stall, he is beaten whilst his employee Husker watches on, they eventually turn their attention to him and start to beat him too, a passing Shaolin master joins the fray and teaches the rascals a brief but concise lesson in etiquette. Unfortunately the old man dies from his wounds, Husker swears revenge but the master offers to take Husker to the Shaolin temple to teach him patience and tolerance. After a time Husker’s anger has not subsided so he sets forth from the temple to take vengeance on the ruling Manchu’s and their corrupt officials. After entering the city Husker comes across Manchu officials openly bullying children. Husker helps the kids out only for the desperate Ah Niu to rush in and murder one of the officials. The sister of Ah Niu had committed suicide after being raped by the corrupt officials and Ah Nui also decided to take revenge on these evil men. The pair are reacquainted when Husker is appointed by his master to take both Ah Nui and his work colleagues as students. Still on the trail of the murderer, the Manchu officials soon enter the workplace looking for the alleged murderer.
The iron fisted monk is one of those movies that just falls short of the mark, it’s not that the story or the action is bad, it’s just neither are actually really that interesting. This may sound callous but I never really felt anything towards the alleged evil Manchu’s. Their despicable acts should have stirred more emotion from me, but they just didn’t. The fight scenes are also a tad boring with half decent choreography but it all seems too deliberate and staged without ever consisting of any fluidity. The finale however is another matter altogether with some great fighting and fast paced action it definitely is the major redeeming point of the movie. Unfortunately it felt as though this section could have been taken from a totally different film. The VCD print I watched also consisted of some badly overlaid sound effects onto the original soundtrack and too added to my negative feelings. This was Sammo Hung’s directorial debut and obviously helped him with his career, but maybe it was a bit too adventurous for his first title.
Not the most interesting kung fu flik I have ever seen but worth watching just for the finale.
6******stars. |
