Iron Monkey – Blu-ray Review

The Film:

It might come to no surprise to fans of his films, as I truly think Yuen Woo-ping is the greatest action choreographer cinema has ever seen. He has an incredible depth of knowledge for martial arts, and a great eye for finding the emotional charge within the action, but he rarely repeats himself in staging the action scenes. Americans know his work from Kill Bill and the Martix trilogy, and his influence is apparent. He is also a pretty good director, although my knowledge of that career aspect is lesser than I should admit, but with Iron Monkey, he’s crafted an insanely addicting film.

Set in the 1800s, Iron Monkey plays as a mix of Zorro and Robin Hood, as a town is knee deep in corruption, when a mysterious masked avenger is out to help the innocent. This irritates the governor, and a huge reward is offered for the Iron Monkey’s capture. The film is a brisk and fun 80 some minutes, filled with incredible action pieces by Yuen Woo-ping (duh!). The aspect of the film that I enjoyed was the comedy. Comedy has beats too, and those who handle the comedic beats well, often have a funny movie, and that what Iron Monkey is. Luckily, it gels with the action, making it all so seem less in execution.

The cultural slant to the story, in my Western eyes, makes the film seem different, despite the familiar story structure. There is just something so stale now days about the Zorro or Robin Hood stories, that it’s really hard to make it feel fresh, without reinventing the characters. Donny Yen takes second billing, as in 1993 he wasn’t the international star as he is now, but this film would prove what we know now, is that he is a versatile leading man. He’s funny but stern, carrying that sense of regal to himself, and his scenes with his son are touching. He’s the most three-dimensional character in the film, as Wong Kei Ying. That’s okay. At 85 minutes the film moves at a clip, especially our cut of the film, but action and martial arts fans will eat this up.

The Blu-ray:

Audio/Video: Miramax has taking a lot of heat for this release, with an average high def transfer and a controversial call on the audio. First, the transfer is good, but could have been way better. On the plus side, details are sharp, especially in the actors. Colors are favorable. But there are some noise in the background, easily seen in the night scenes, as well as some minor print damage. It’s a good print, but one thinks a better one could have been made.

Now, while the Original Chinese track is really good; loud, bass heavy, constant rear speaker activity, Miramax chose to use the old Dolby Digital 5.1 track and gave the English dub a spiffy and quite spectacular new DTS coding. Fans of martial art cinema are particular in their original audio, so this is the controversy. The English dub is also lossless for those with that ability in the receivers.

My take is that while it’s nice to have multiple options on foreign films for audio, either both should have at least got the new DTS treatment, and not just the dub, because the real fans will always listen to the original audio first, if not always. Failure to know your audience, hurts the real potential of this release. At least everything sounds crisp and robust. Casual fans will have nothing to complain about.

The extras are ported over from the DVD release many years ago, and are in standard definition.

Quentin Tarantino interview: Tarantino talks about his Alamo Drafthouse selections, Yuen, and martial art films in general, and he’s always interesting to hear. Runs 9 minutes.

Donny Yen interview: Better yet, is this piece, since we get Yen to open up on his career and martial arts.

Conclusion: Iron Monkey is a blast from start to finish, a real treat. The Miramax Blu-ray is with some heavy flaws, but it can make for a fine upgrade for fans of Region 1.

The Film: Rating:

The Blu-ray: Rating:

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