Yuen Woo-ping
Cast
Yu Rongguang, Donnie Yen, Jean Wang, Angie Tsang, Yuen Shun-yi
Why so great?
It's the Robin Hood story transferred to the Ch'ing Dynasty, helmed by Yuen Woo-ping, the martial arts director that would go onto create such western fighting spectaculars such as Kill Bill and The Matrix Trilogy. Iron Monkey is an action romp starring the then fresh-faced Donnie Yen, so chock-a-block full of breathtaking fighting sequences that you barely have time to place the popcorn in your mouth. If it's the nuanced acting seen in Crouching Tiger you're looking for, you've come to the wrong place, but set pieces such as the knife fight, and the final balancing-on-top-of-giant-sticks rooftop battle are stone cold classics of the genre. And, it's fair enough to say, this has yet to be beaten in terms of fight skill and direction.
Hollywood remake?
No remake as such, though when Quentin Tarantino campaigned to have it released in the US, notable Westernisation occurred around the mention of the Chinese folk character Wong Fei-hung that Yen plays.
No remake as such, though when Quentin Tarantino campaigned to have it released in the US, notable Westernisation occurred around the mention of the Chinese folk character Wong Fei-hung that Yen plays.
Prizes
Two minor nominations, but nothing in the actual cabinet.
Two minor nominations, but nothing in the actual cabinet.
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