I’ll say this upfront for Iron Monkey fans who have been hoping for a release of the original film: this is not the Blu-ray you are looking for.
By that, of course, I mean that it still has the same edits and erroneous subtitles that changed the story from the 2001 American theatrical release. That’s because this release is nothing more than a port of the original DVD release, consisting of only the movie and two video interviews. Not that we should expect any differently since it’s just a rerelease of a foreign kung fu movie with limited appeal, but it’s disappointing all the same.
A little background of what the problem is: when Quentin Tarantino first urged Miramax to release this 1993 Hong Kong film in America several years ago, for some reason they decided to implement some unnecessary edits and changes. It’s really annoying how they rewrote a chunk of dialogue and insert a brand new origin story for the Iron Monkey (even with my very limited command of Cantonese, I could tell that that’s not what’s being said at all). The problem is not only that it’s a tired revenge story, but since the film provides flashbacks for other backstories, it’s terribly strange for them to not do it for the most important one at all that supposedly heightens the drama between the hero and the villain. Even more annoying was the decision to edit the fight choreography, which is rather insulting. But these are all old complaints—and I’m only listing them out of dismay that they didn’t rectify this misstep.
Hey, at least the film still kicks monkey ass (note: only one actual monkey meets his doom). This might not be my favorite Donnie Yen showcase (that would be his face-off with Jet Li in Once Upon a Time in China II) but it’s a great, brisk, action-packed martial arts film that borrows heavily from pulp novels. It’s short on story but brilliant in the choreography by director Yuen Woo-ping, who later went on to choreograph fight scenes for The Matrix, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Kill Bill.
The Iron Monkey is essentially a masked pulp hero, fighting oppression for the good of the peasants—or as QT succinctly put it: “He’s the Chinese Zorro.” Even though Donnie Yen gets top billing, he’s not the one playing the Iron Monkey—that would be Rongguang Yu. Instead, Yen plays historical figure Wong Kei-Ying, the father of the legendary Chinese folk hero Wong Fei-hung. Interesting to note is that neither of them are the true protagonist of the movie. A young Sze-man Tsang plays the young Fei-Hung, who being such a known figure, is the draw (the intention of the film can be seen as showing Iron Monkey’s influence on Fei-Hung’s destiny to become China’s greatest hero). In fact, the original title of the film is The Young Wong Fei-Hung: Iron Monkey.
Audio & Video
Unfortunately, the very speedy turnaround of Hong Kong films tends to mean that the studios aren’t very good with film preservation, so I doubt they had the luxury of remastering originals (which I don’t think they would have bothered with anyway). It doesn't look it, at least. The picture quality of the Blu-ray doesn’t show much difference than an upscaled play of the old DVD release.
Sound-wise, though, it’s crisp. Every punch, every kick and every block rings as they should, although the English dub is actually recorded in the better-sounding DTS-HD lossless audio, while the original Cantonese track is not.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
Not much. Just two old but really good interviews: one with Quentin Tarantino explaining the context, the history of the film and his reason for wanting to bring it to America; the other with Donnie Yen telling the story of how he got into the game and what the Hong Kong film industry was like, including a healthy rivalry with Jackie Chan’s team.
This is an inferior cut of a great kung fu movie that would most likely stay that way in the US. It’s a good introduction to Yuen Woo-ping’s work, though he’s done better. If you already have the 2002 DVD release, the quality upgrade is too marginal to bother.
"Iron Monkey" is on sale September 15, 2009 and is rated PG13. Action. Directed by Yuen Woo Ping. Written by Tai Muk-Lau, Cheung Tan, Pik-yin Tang, Tsui Hark. Starring Donnie Yen, Rongguang Yu, Jean Wang, Sze Man Tsang.
