Viking Night: Iron Monkey
By Bruce Hall
May 1, 2012
BoxOfficeProphets.com
And lost somewhere in the middle of this joyous resurgence was the release of a charming little action flick called Iron Monkey.
It was not a huge success in the United States, and it wasn’t any kind of groundbreaking milestone in Hong Kong cinema. It didn’t become the same consumer friendly hit Rumble in the Bronx would a few years later. It did not possess the romantic allure of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. But it’s an overlooked classic - one of the very best period martial arts films made prior to 2000, and it’s stuffed full of every essential genre cliché you could ask for.
There’s a reluctant hero. There’s a village in danger, and it’s crawling with Shaolin monks. There’s an innocent love interest politely hinted at in Victorian terms. There’s a Dirty Traitor and a Revenge Angle. There’s a talented young prodigy just beginning to emerge from his father’s shadow. There’s even a Wacky Sheriff and a Dead Wife. And because the Chinese Action Movie Name Generator is the greatest thing in the world, the movie’s even correctly titled. Everyone knows that some variation on, or derivative of 30 Fists of Iron: Flying Jade Monkey Dragon Syndicate is the only acceptable title for a quality Hong Kong actioner.
The story is a brilliantly solid mash up of generic kung fu movie standards all in one efficient package. A prosperous village is preyed upon by a corrupt Governor and his bodyguard contingent of corrupt monks. A concerned local doctor named Yang Tianchun (Rongguang Yu) spends his off hours leaping between rooftops in a ninja outfit, stealing from the Governor’s rich friends and handing out the swag to the poor. It’s sort of a Batman meets Robin Hood thing, but in China, and without the green tights. Our hero calls himself the Iron Monkey, and he is an inspiration to the villagers.
Of course, the Governor (James Wong) hates his guts - so much so that he initiates a brutal regime of oppression against the village, designed to bait the Iron Monkey into a confrontation. It works, but the authorities are again outwitted and humiliated by their nemesis. What’s worse, the big bosses back at Evil Headquarters have grown impatient with the Governor’s inability to capture the outlaw. The unscrupulous bastard’s days of long lunches and pretty girls are at an end unless he can solve his Monkey problem - and fast.
Luckily, a famous kung fu master named Wong Kei-ying (Donnie Yen) happens to be passing through town with his son Fei-Hong (Sze-Man Tsang). This is a little like having Michael Vick walk on to your JV football squad, so the Governor forces Wong to get involved - by having Fei-Hong arrested and thrown in prison. For the sake of his son Wong reluctantly agrees to help, inadvertently becoming the Town Asshole in the process. Shunned by the public for hunting the Iron Monkey, Wong is eventually taken in by the good doctor Yang and his lovely assistant, Miss Orchid (Jean Wang).
After an evening of Top Chef Schezuan and polite conversation, Wong suddenly remembers he's one son down and explains his dilemma to Yang and Orchid. Of course, the elephant in the room is that Wong has no idea he's been stuffing his face in front of the Iron Monkey all night. The obvious irony is that the man Wong has sworn to destroy will now spring into action to save his only son. And the tragedy is that this means Wong and Yang are officially on a collision course. But soon, the two men have bigger problems. By interfering with the Governor's plans, the Iron Monkey uncovers a far more sinister truth, and incurs the wrath of a far more powerful enemy.
(Note to self: I've never written copy for DVD jackets but I'm starting to think maybe I could.)
As I warned you earlier, very little of this is much different from hundreds of other kung fu flicks, both good and not so good. But the pleasant thing about Iron Monkey is the relatively seamless way each cliché is weaved into the narrative. Yang Tianchun is dashing and noble, with a mischievous contempt for authority. He runs a compassionate clinic, only charging his patients what they can afford. Like any well crafted hero, he’s impossible to root against.
His assistant Orchid is a former courtesan, rescued by the Iron Monkey from a life of forced servitude. And, like most prostitutes, she is apparently a 19th degree black belt. She has chosen to use the precious gift of freedom to help Iron Monkey unburden the less fortunate. Without question she and Wang seem like the perfect couple, and the script isn’t shy about dangling this narrative carrot in front of us from time to time. It’s an essential story hook, and it’s used well.
Wong the elder is the prototypical stoic kung fu warrior in the Bruce Lee mold, sworn to a life of grim, remorseless duty. He’s hard on his son but occasionally betrays the pride and love he feels for his progeny – telling him that real men don’t cry, even as he’s holding back his own tears out of fear for the boy’s safety. Fei-Hong shares his father’s sense of honor and disdain for injustice, and in some ways is the true protagonist of the film - but let’s not spoil things, shall we?
Bumbling Chief Fox (Shun-Yee Yuen) makes a good Heel early in the film, but at the Governor’s transgressions become more grievous, we find that Fox may be more of a man than we thought. Again - a relatively predictable story doesn’t have to be a relatively bad one, provided you have a compelling hook. And Iron Monkey’s got more of them than a tuna trawler.
The script hits all the required story beats of a kung fu adventure classic - everyone is either a target for redemption, growth or vengeance. The good guys are delightfully good; the bad guys are delightfully bad. Dudes are flying around on wires, busting out the Drunken Crane and Poison Buddha Fist Style, jumping off rooftops and landing on the head of a pin, and putting their heads through stone walls like they’re made of Styrofoam (probably because they are).
And of course, being an old school Hong Kong action flick of the first order, Iron Monkey has an irreverent sense of humor. Even the methods used to film the combat make it hard to take what’s happening completely seriously, and that’s a good thing. As awesome as it is to watch a guy catch ninja stars in his teeth or bust open a brick wall with his chin, you can’t seriously expect anyone to believe it. If you want your audience to accept it, tempering these superhuman feats with either humor or romance is essential.
Forced to languish in the dark days before the martial arts resurgence of the late ‘90s, Iron Monkey is often overlooked by American audiences and that’s a shame. I’d forgotten how much I loved the hell out of this film when it first came out, not to mention how hard it was to find at the time. This is simply a fun and thrilling story of good versus evil, love versus hate, boy versus man, right versus wrong that’s simply impossible to resist - unless of course, you’re a terrible person with no taste in movies. But if you’re reading MY column, you’re obviously totally awesome and are browsing Netflix right now, adding Iron Monkey and everything else with Donny Yen in it to your queue.
Because you’re a terrific person, and because you read Viking Night, you have terrific taste in movies – right?