IRON MONKEY (1993)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

Critics sometimes argue about whether a given film is a "director's movie" or a "writer's movie." IRON MONKEY feels like a "fight choreographer's movie," even though in this case said choreographer was the same as the director: Yuen Woo-ping, whose would later choreograph such films as the MATRIX trilogy and CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON.

The bare-bones script for MONKEY is ostensibly based on a legend from the history of real-life martial artist Wong Fei-Hung, though from a period when Wong was still a child traveling with his father, and the two of them encountered a masked Robin Hood figure in a Chinese town circa 1858. 

Little Wong (Angie Tsang) and his dad Wong Kei-Ying (Donnie Yen) happen to traveling in this Chinese town, and Wong is forced to fight off some robbers with his superior kung fu skills. The local guards see his abilities and assume that he must be the black-costumed Iron Monkey, who constantly plunders the community's corrupt hierarchy in order to give the riches to the poor. 

In truth Iron Monkey is the double identity of local doctor of traditional Chinese medicine Yang Tienchan (Yu Rongguang), aided by his nurse Miss Orchid (Jean Wang), who also sometimes dons a black masked costume for a few kung-fu stunts. Since Yang doesn't want an innocent victimized by his deeds, he appears at the governor's mansion to demonstrate that he's not Wong. Wong, however, is so desperate to distance himself from the accused criminal that Wong tries to apprehend the fugitive. After a vigorous battle, Iron Monkey escapes. The governor, wanting to enlist Wong's talents, holds his son in prison so that Wong will go hunting for the Monkey, and Wong dutifully tries to bring the supposed criminal to heel, thus inciting the hostility of the lower-class locals. 

Of course after assorted battles the two heroes become allies, but that time real villainy enters the fray: a highly skilled Shaolin monk and his aides in service of the corrupt government. I assume they came in response to someone else's summons, since if the local governor knew they were coming, he would have no reason to involve Wong. The main villain even has a special "Buddha palm" that somehow transmits poison into his opponent's system, and this stratagem almost does spell doom for Iron Monkey.

Aside from admittedly dazzling fight-scenes (including one for the little kid), there are also a few comic bits involving Iron Monkey masquerading as an official. But the characters, as written by producer Tsui Hark, are too blandly  "good" or "bad" to inspire any strong sympathy. Going on memory, I believe Yuen had much greater success character-wise in the following year's WING CHUN, also based on a legendary historical figure, but that film had a different writer.