Iron Monkey

I saw Iron Monkey last night on DVD -- it's been a while since I saw good kung-fu, chop-suey movie. The action was amazing! It's directed by Woo-ping Yuen, the man responsible for the fight scenes in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the Matrix. Made in 1993, the movie is seeing wide release in North America, thanks to Quentin Tarantino. The movie follows the exploits of the Iron Monkey (Rongguang Yu), Wong Kei-Ying (Donnie Yen), Miss Orchid (Jean Wang) and Young Wong Fei-Hung (Sze-Man Tsang -- a girl playing a boy) -- the Iron Monkey is a Robin Hood character, that robs from the corrupt governor, who has a obsession with shark fin soup and his harem, and gives to the poor. Along the way, he must combat the bumbling local police as well as the Shaolin monks gone bad (yes, they like shark fin soup and women too). The final fight scene was out of this world. The Iron Monkey and Wong Kei-Ying battle the evil guardian of the Shaolin Golden Palm, while balanced on tall, thin, bamboo reeds, which are on fire, as is the ground around them. Cool!