Jue dou Lao Hu Zhuang

For a kung fu movie that was released by the "Wu-Tang Collection," I was surprised to see how poorly made this movie was. I have not had the opportunity to see the first Iron Monkey, therefore I don't know what the standard the second movie was set to, so I have a little trouble saying that this movie was not up to par. However, there were many things about this movie that made it one of the lesser enjoyed kung fu movies I have seen.

Of all the things of this movie that made this movie weak, I would say that the film quality was the worst. Everything was grainy, sometimes the movie skipped and repeated a few seconds of footage and the lighting was beyond hope. Other weaknesses were the lack of real explanation for fights. Like in most other kung fu movies, at least a "Hey! You killed my brother!" was yelled, but not here. Not even that was uttered. One time, it was only the protagonist asking his friend "Hey, is this your knife?" and then they fought. No explanation. They just fought. Also, the fighting was pretty lame and slow. It was much slower than the other kung fu movies I have seen. There were also a lot of punches that were portrayed as hits, but were obvious misses. And how about that last fight scene! I have never seen so many people in one room all fighting each other. But what was so bad about that, is that there was very little character development for many of the minor characters, so it was very confusing to understand who was fighting who, and for what reason they were fighting.

Moderate plot, even worse cinematography, terrible lighting, bad fighting... this movie needed more time for choreography and script writing. People say that the first Iron Monkey was great, a legend of it's time, but I haven't seen it, so I can't comment. I can only say, I hope it was better than the second one.

-Scott-

**Final Judgement** More than one person may own a certain type of knife. Don't charge them with murder for it.

Many times the sequel film to the original is a weak "wannabe" of the first and this film keeps that theory correct. Cool Head is a detective that is committed to his job. The first 30 minutes involves a killing that Head tries to solve. The apparent killer is captured by Head but then the detective has doubts. Then starts the confusion in this film. There are 3 women that start to follow Head around the country. Killers also track Head and try to kill him. The women help Head. Fight scenes show nothing extraordinary. The final fight is somewhat interesting but the ending is confusing as to what happens to the detective. If you have nothing else and you feel like watching a confusing martial arts film then watch this.

This film is a pseudo sequel to the original Iron Monkey (1977) which is in its own right a kung fu classic. This film isn't nearly as captivating or cohesive as the original & it's filled with more plot holes & cliches than you could possibly imagine. If you're a fan of old school kung fu flicks & you're willing to turn your brain off for an hour and 40 minutes then this should be somewhat enjoyable for you. On a positive note, there are countless fight scenes, interesting sets, props & cliche characters galore. Although this film doesn't live up to the original or to its own potential, it can still be somewhat enjoyable for fans of the genre.

People talk today as if Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi were the first women to kick ass in the Hong Kong martial arts movies. In fact, "feminism" has been a staple of the genre since the 1950's.

Iron Monkey Strikes Back has Chen Kwan Tai, a 70's Shaw Brothers superstar, forming an uneasy alliance with the sweet-but-deadly Judy Lee. The plot allows the two to face off against each other as enemies (with the two matching each other blow-for-blow in an awesome fight sequence), then later combine forces against the evil conspirators and their henchmen.

While the kung-fu is not as fast-and-furious as the modern product, it is very engaging, but what really sets this apart is the great bi-play between the two stars, as they constantly try to out-do each other, pull pranks, then grow to a grudging respect for each other, before finally the inevitable happens.

A very nice movie to watch when you know it's a B-film. The story is fairly simple but OK. The kung-fu scenes are very nice to watch, there is humor and enouhg speed and no (mostly boring and irrelevant love-scenes). Although the acrobatic at the end is hilarious it's funny and at the end teh good guys win.