Tarantino presents Iron Monkey

I just saw Iron Monkey (the 1993 version). I liked it; he fight scenes were good and it followed what I think of as the Hellraiser plotline– just as the protagonists are getting used to dealing with the villain, a bunch of tougher, meaner villains show up!

Something I didn’t get is the kid is supposed to be Wong Fei Hung, who is sort of a folk hero… Much as Iron Monkey is sort of a folk hero, except Wong Fei Hung was a real historical person.

How did I make this connection? I totally didn’t; I watched Quentin Tarantino’s commentary on the DVD. And it was actually pretty informative! It sounds silly but it’s easy to confuse Tarantino’s annoying on-screen persona with his actual identity, and his interview will do a lot to clarify the difference. Dude knows his kung-fu movies.

One element I liked in Iron Monkey is the use of poison. Sorta like Jade Fox in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. But you know, the direction and romance of the characters in Crouching Tiger make that a superior movie, in my opinion. I can’t help but imagine hypothetical movies, like what if the kung fu in Iron Monkey had the story and direction (and budget) of Curse of the Golden Flower?

Part of this is unreachable for a single movie. Not only did you get a director in CTHD who specializes in romances (Ang Lee), but you also have a rich backstory which is only hinted at in the course of the plot. The Crane-Iron pentology is, yes, FIVE books, and CTHD is only the 4th one.

So you get the love story, which is the love that can never be which has apparently spanned decades. But my favorite plotline is the saga of Jade Fox. Not only is she the big baddie they must fight, she’s also extremely sneaky. She’s killed and betrayed the old master, so we know she’s a snake.

Jade Fox is also a “tragic villain” if there is such a thing… she did everything she could to be the best, even betraying people who trusted her (the old master). But in the end, she’s just not good enough– unable to decipher the stolen kung-fu manual, she can only ape the motions of the master. In the end she is surpassed by her own student, doomed to mediocrity. And her anguish is visible in her face, her venom stems from a deep sense of failure and a frustration that has become a seething hatred.

There are even crazier elements in CTHD. You have exotic poisons, stolen kung-fu manuals, spies, a princess posing as a man, rebel chieftains, a magic sword, implausible kung fu weapons… damn!!

Anyway inspired by Tarantino, I’m listing a bunch of Woo-ping Yuen movies on my queue now.

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