Tie hou zi

Ma (Chen Kuan Tai) is too busy gambling and womanizing to be of much help when his family is rounded up by a local general. By the time he realizes what's going on and tries to intervene to save them, his relatives refuse to openly acknowledge that he's a member of the family. He's beaten senseless by a benevolent benefactor who claims that Ma is HIS insane son. Thus is he saved. To stop a younger son from revealing the truth to their jailers, Ma's father strangles the boy with a chain. The entire family is subsequently murdered. The next time we see Ma, he's a sneak thief known simply as "Monkey." He's allowed to join a Shaolin Temple he's been stealing food from and an elderly monk observes: "In your life, someone has planted much evil. You'll repay him in kind." Monkey, it's decided, will learn Monkey Fist from The Bitter Monk. Once he's learned what he needs to know, Iron Monkey bids farewell to the Shaolin Temple. "You're still full of hatred," the elderly monk tells him: "And, this time, I smell blood." In order to work his way up the ranks of the Ching army to get to the man he wants, Iron Monkey kills a lot of innocent people- including some "Shaolin rebels." Chen Kuan Tai doesn't monkey around in IRON MONKEY: he's a surprisingly capable director, and his Monkey Fist kung fu is far superior to the usual over-the-top antics we usually see from Monkey stylists. His fluid transitions from one stance to another are a joy to watch and he conveys a sense of power often lacking in Monkey style fight scenes.

I'm a big fan of Chen Kuan Tai. His elegant style stands apart from other martial arts stars from the same era, and you can tell that people find most of his movies favorable from the high ratings they get.

This is one of my favorite movie of his (Others being The Flying Guillotines, and Executioner From Shaolin), and also one of my favorite kung-fu movie.

He plays a rebel against the Manchus in this movie, but that's almost irrelevant. It's strait forward Chen Kuan Tai with him being at his best. I like this movie more than some of the other kung-fu movies that are considered "classics" such as "The Five Deadly Venoms". None of those characters has the appeal Chen has. In this movie, he's also the director.

One great kung-fu movie that's a classic in its own right.

THE IRON MONKEY is a vehicle for Shaw Brothers star Chen Kuan Tai, the actor well known for his villainous performances in the likes of CRIPPLED AVENGERS and his later appearances in Triad movies. In it, he plays an exile who witnesses the execution of his family before fleeing into the woods and becoming something of a beggar. Later, he turns up at a Shaolin temple and pleads sanctuary, finding himself training in the mystic arts of monkey-style kung fu before going on a rampage of revenge.

This film was made while Kuan Tai was still under contract to the Shaw Brothers studio so he must have filmed it on the side in Taiwan. It looks a little cheap in places but generally provides solid entertainment, and it's a big help that the fight scenes are well-shot and relatively exciting. The opening sequence in which a monkey battles an eagle is quite memorable although the famed monkey style doesn't really come into it until the climax. Kuan Tai's version of the form isn't as showy as that of some other actors but it's definitely hard-hitting.

I've always liked Kuan Tai as an actor, even in his bad guy roles, so it was a pleasure to see him as the imposing hero here. The film is the usual mix of fight footage and training, with the villains getting away with everything until the final half an hour. The last 30 minutes provides an odyssey of fight action, building to a violent end fight in which the monkey style comes to the fore. It's solid stuff. Ka-Yan Leung (aka 'Beardy') stars in support as one of the bad guys and gets to battle our hero in one frenetic scene.

Iron Monkey is the nickname of a young man who is a carefree and gambler but once he becomes the sole survivor of a Manchurian massacre where his father and mother are killed he changes drastically: After burying his family, a fate-filled road leads Iron Monkey to the Shaolin Temple, where he masters with agility the fearsome Monkey Fist method. He then leaves the temple to become a guard for the general who killed his family. Before he can reach him he has to take on his cronies.

There's some seriously great choreography in this above average Kung fu film with some excellent weapon work in addition to the hand to hand combat. The hero is in particular quite elegant in movement- his fight with the general is a standout climactic showdown with each getting the better of each other. But what makes Iron Monkey a good film is a solid plot, some great training montages such as training under a bed of nails, and good acting from the lead.

Fans of Sonny Chiba and Bruce Lee may not find this movie to be their pride and joy, but will probably find it enjoyable nevertheless. Iron Monkey is set in Manchuria, and is made by Eastern Heroes Video Company. This fact alone would turn me off from the movie, because of the extremely conservative fight scenes (no decapitation). There is no gore, unlike the Street Fighter, and there is not that certain charm that Bruce Lee gives to his films. But somehow this film was able to please me through many well done fight sequences and a strong ending.