Iron Monkey (Siu Nin Wong Fei Hung Chi: Tit Ma Lau)

 Iron Monkey is usually referred to as Hong Kong's martial arts take on Robin Hood, but I think it's much closer to El Zorro. It's got all the issues HK martial arts usually come with that jar (some of) us westerners: broad humour, brusque tonal changes, ridiculous plot developments, corny sentimentality. But, and this is a big but- even those problematic elements are done a notch better than usual and with such flair that it's still the first movie I recommend to people who aren't used to Asian martial arts films. It, my friends, is glorious.

 The Iron Monkey (Yu Rongguang) is a masked avenger who steals from the rich to give to the poor refugees who are flooding the town attempting to flee the civil turmoil of mid-nineteenth century china. By night, he stages daring raids, going up against the authorities and corrupt shaolin monks to steal their ill-gotten gold; By day, he runs a local clinic that treats the poor pro-bono as doctor Yang, with the help of the lovely Miss Orchid (Jean Wang). She's a covert martial arts master too, of course.

 Enter Wong Kei-ying (Donnie Yen), a law-abiding physician who comes to town with his son Fei-hung (Angie Tsang) in tow. He's not looking for trouble, but the (delightfully dickish) corrupt mayor learns of his martial arts skills and orders him to hunt down the Iron Monkey... taking his son as a hostage to ensure his cooperation.

 So the two noble martial arts masters are set at odds, a fact that's complicated when Kei-ying befriends Dr. Yang after everyone else in town ostracizes him for agreeing to hunt down their folk hero. Will the two reconcile and join forces against evil? Well... after a very funny episode where Iron Monkey and Orchid pass themselves off as high officers from the imperial court to steal a buttload of money, the real functionary arrives to bring order to town. The man is so dastardly even the fastidious, straight-arrow Kei-ying says fuck it, time for some civil insurrection.

 I can't emphasize just how chock-full of awesome this movie is. The fights are, of course, amazing, featuring a bunch of true masters of the form choreographed by the legendary Yuen Woo-ping (who also directs). Everyone gets a chance to shine, even little Fei-hung, in a silly but very entertaining fight where he shows off the staff skills that his historical counterpart was known for. All the combat in the film is carefully crafted and immaculately performed, with special attention paid to making each style reflect the fighter's personality and philosophy. It's a thing of beauty.
 A lot of gimmicks are used too, most memorably a grand final fight on top of wooden poles... poking out of a giant oil fire. There's a lot of wirework involved, but it enables some pretty incredible pirouettes.

 The story is also engaging, if a bit shaggy and haphazardly told. Lots of goofy humour as usual, but most of it is either pretty effective or at least likeable, and the pacing is excellent.

 The whole thing functions as a sort of fantasy backstory for young Wong Fei-hung, who'll grow up to be Jet Li in Once Upon A Time In China and other actors in other movies. You don't need to know any of that  to enjoy the film; I didn't until I looked it up - nor did I know that his father, Yen's character, is one of the tigers of Guangdong, who I do know from a couple of Shaw Brothers movies. I guess it's similar to the way Western movies would sometimes feature historical figures and their exploits. I'm too old to start learning Chinese history at this point, but whenever I find out that this or that element in a wuxia comes from the history books, I can't help but to think I'd love to have that additional dimension in my enjoyment of these films.

 Iron Monkey got a fairly wide release in the west, aided by none other than celebrity fan Quentin Tarantino: he got his erstwhile (and thoroughly disgraced) bosses over at Miramax to give the film a re-release in these shores. Well, mostly America, I guess, but I remember it briefly became part of the pop-culture landscape even in the backwoods of the world where I grew up.
 Tarantino did the world a solid; This is a film that deserves to be seen by as many people as possible.