This Hong Kong martial arts is centred on Yang Tianchun who is a respected physician by day but a masked Robin Hood-like folk hero, known as Iron Monkey, by night. He targets corrupt officials and gives the money he takes to the needy. The officials are desperate to catch him so arrest anybody who has anything to do with monkey… if a man even scratched himself in a slightly simian way he'd be arrested. Amongst the arrested are Wong Kei-Ying and his son; he is also a skilled martial artist and offers to catch Iron Monkey while his son his held hostage. All the locals hate him for this and refuse to sell him food; the only people who are kind to him are Yang and his assistant Miss Orchid. Yang helps get Wong's son out of jail. Soon after a new corrupt official, a Shaolin traitor, arrives to take over Wong learns that Yang is the Iron Monkey and the two unite to fight against him and those who support him. They won't be fighting alone; Orchid and Wong's son, Fei-Hong, are also skilled martial artists.If you are a fan of martial arts films with feature plenty of exaggerated action then this is the film for you. There are lots of fights with characters leaping onto and across roofs and performing moves that nobody could really do… the way it is filmed one could almost believe it is possible at times. While most of the action is fairly bloodless the final fight is quite gory at times; not too disturbing but a little surprising given what was shown before. As well as the action there is quite a bit of comedy; this is pretty funny and doesn't detract from the action moments. The story is easy to follow with likable protagonists and suitably unpleasant villains; there are also so less clear cut characters; most notably the policeman leading the search for Iron Monkey. Rongguang Yu and Donnie Yen are impressive leads, playing Wang and Wong respectively; Jean Wang and Sze-Man Tsang provide fine support as Orchid and Fei-Hong and Yen Shi-kwan is suitably menacing as the main antagonist. All of these really impress in their martial arts scenes. Overall I'd certainly recommend this film to all fans of the genre.These comments are based on watching the film in Cantonese with English subtitles.

I'm not usually a fan of '90s-era Hong Kong action cinema, which is inevitably over-reliant on wirework and over the top style, but I can make an exception for IRON MONKEY, which is in itself an exceptional film. It's a retelling of the Wong Fei Hung story with a twist: this time around, Fei Hung is a child who plays a supporting role to the central thrust of the storyline which is about a Robin Hood-style freedom fighter battling corrupt politicians.The great thing about IRON MONKEY is the action, of which there is plenty. It's ably directed by Yuen Woo Ping and, put simply, it kicks ass – despite the plentiful wirework. Donnie Yen is a past master at this kind of material and delivers an action-oriented performance that never lets you down, while the real surprise is Rongguang Yu, a very familiar face in Hong Kong cinema who proves his worth in the kung fu stakes.The narrative is fast-paced and fuelled with conflict and action and the whole film has a colourful, old-fashioned vibe that keeps it moving merrily along. There's humour in spades, some truly devious villains, a decent script and quality performances. But it always comes back to the action, and for once IRON MONKEY deserves the hype. It's a keeper.

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.

I saw this movie a couple of years ago and just watched it again. With 14 years since its release, I think it's safe to start calling this a "classic" of martial arts cinema. Granted, the plot is very simple, there's no real surprises. And it doesn't have the visual beauty of a film like "Hero" or "Seven Swords" but it is entertaining from start to finish with some really fantastic kung fu action (Donnie Yen coupled with martial arts director Yuen Wo-Ping - need I say more??). And it's not just Donnie Yen - the kid who plays the young Wong Fei-Hung, "Miss Orchid", and the "Iron Monkey" are all fantastic and really showcase the beauty of the art form known as kung fu.My only real complaint is that with Donnie Yen's skill, they didn't need to speed up some of the fight scenes the way they did.Also really interesting is the importance that food plays throughout the whole movie - rice, steamed buns, stewed mutton, peking duck... I wonder if this as some special significance in the Wong Fei-Hung stories?? Humour is sprinkled throughout which adds to the entertainment. There are some really great one-liners that are probably more elegant in Cantonese, but in English they are hokey and I love it... for example "You will die soon as you have been hit by my King Kong Fist!", and "You, failure! Come try that again!". You gotta love it!! My only warning is that if you aren't a martial arts film fan and are expecting Crouching Tiger, you will probably be disappointed. This is straight-up 1970's and 80's style kung fu cinema.