Siu nin Wong Fei Hung chi: Tit ma lau

This film has everything you'd want in a good martial arts film - characters, story, setting and of course, martial arts. The comparison to Robin Hood is apt as it centres on vigilante justice.

I have three words for this movie: Yuen Woo Ping.

This movie is action packed with Ping's trademark unique fighting sequences. Whether it's bodies slamming through tables, hopping from roof to rooftop, there's so much action, then story, then more action!!! Donnie Yen's martial arts is impressive and his character is very straight to the point, but very noble. Guang as Dr. Yang is heroic as well and plays his dual role very well. Most of best battles have both men sharing the screen with lightning speed quickness!! Tsang is good as young Wong Fei Hung and the beautiful Jean Wang is visually pleasing to watch as Miss Ho (who can also whoop butt). Master Fox provides funny moments too.

Overall, the main emphasis here is the martial arts. The bad guys are very bad (including one deadly renegade monk) and the action is intense. Besides "shadowless kicks" and "King Kong fists", weapons used vary from staffs & swords to umbrellas, benches, and very sharp tacks (OUCH!) The finale is mind-blowing and is like nothing I've ever seen before.

Iron Monkey (Siunin Wong Fei-Hung tsi titmalau), released in North America on the coat-tails of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, was actually made in Hong Kong in 1993. Plenty of special effects augment the fight choreography, which brings to mind Matrix and Crouching Tiger, but this film, in its simplicity, is more enjoyable to me than either of these.

I didn't realize how much I liked this movie until it came on digital cable and I watched it every chance I could get. This movie is eye candy. It's not bothersome or preachy or heavy. It's just fun to watch. And the utter absence of Hollywood is like a cool breeze on a hot summer day.

I really loved this flick. A Kung Fu Robin Hood fights corruption in officialdom whilst providing for the poor and needy. Kung Fu skills go from fancy kicks and hand work, to wok skills, balancing on poles and beating up bullies with an umbrella. Once the visiting doctor realises his mistake in wanting to defeat our hero, a dynamic team up results against the evil foes from Shaolin who misuse their art to the obligatory Kung Fu bad guys (and girls). The characters are quite good, even the little kid didn't irritate me (good skills). This movie has some padding, with the father-son routine. It worked ok, adding some plot and human interest to the movie. Even one of the corrupt officials (Master Fox) moves beyond 1D, though the Shaolin monk is truly the 1D bad guy. Well done Tsui Hark.

Hong Kong film director and martial arts expert Yuen Woo-ping is absolutely outstanding. In "Iron Monkey," one scene I admire most is the poetically quiet, beautiful interaction of fluid movements in graceful progression: as Dr. Yang and Miss Orchid close shop (the clinic), a whiff of wind blows the papers (written prescriptions) up in the air, and Yang (who's actually Iron Monkey) elevates himself up into the air to catch the flying papers, while Orchid, with a few agile movements and glides, catches the balance of the flying papers. It's like a short interlude - a silent romantic song with punctuated accents - with a slight kick from Miss Orchid, a stool plops into place upside down as it should be on another neatly ends the piece. I actually relish this quiet segment much more than the awe-struck extensive finale scene, which is truly an amazing display of exquisitely choreographed martial art movements of three masters (two good forces tenaciously team up against one skillful evil monk) on multiple wooden poles with inferno-like fire a-dancing below. Fantastic performances from Donnie Yen as Wong Kei-ying, father of Wong Fei-hung, who's deftly portrayed by a young girl Tsang Sze-man, and Yu Rongguang as Dr. Yang/Iron Monkey, with Jean Wang as Miss Orchid, to the upstanding police chief, the devastating evil monk and all.

Iron Monkey is essentially a film about the legendary Shaolin kung-fu master (also known as drunken master) Wong Fei-hung when he was young. In fact, the alternate title is "Siunin Wong Fei-hung tsi titmalau," literally: Young Wong Fei-hung's iron monkey.

Follow this up with Jet Li's "Once Upon A Time In China 2" ("Wong Fei-hung ji yi: Naam yi dong ji keung" 1992, literally: Wong Fei-hung #2 - young man should be self-sufficiently strong) and the adult Wong Fei-hung portrayal will be better understood: why he's so good at his knowledge and practice of Chinese medicine, why he acted so restrained and coy with Aunt Yee, whom he very much loves but won't express so - all due to the austere teachings from his father as noted in "Iron Monkey." We also learn that he lost his mother at a tender young age - though from Jackie Chan's "The Legend of Drunken Master" (2000 USA, "Jui Kuen 2" 1994, literally: Drunken fist 2), we can see he has quite a wonderful stepmother - smart and wittily portrayed by Anita Mui! See it if you want another excitingly fun, martial arts action-packed drama about the adult Wong Fei-hung.