Urban and nocturnal action, an assault on international markets and platforms, with Danny Quinn, an irresistible Hal Yamanouchi and the model Camila Cruz Escobar.
Having watched the preview of Iron Fighter at the LVR and loaded with buckshot, we can say that the film co-written with Sandro Arista rocks!
Claudio Del Falco is our only martial actor. Starting from this statement we can delve into a film that is unique both for its genre and for its performers and direction. On Christmas evening the former martial arts champion takes part in one last fight against his wife's wishes. He wins but it will be the beginning of a night hunt for his last breath and his last blood. The plot is an archetype: The good guy wins a tournament. The stock market is crazy, ten million euros, as is the betting business. Greed. Courage. Love is an old wound being reopened. Villains straight out of a pulp novel, a wife to save, a warrior as silent and definitive as death. Splendid cast, frenetic pace and a great parade of the best Italian martial artists, starting with the multiple Karate world champion Stefano Maniscalco, gathered by the only Italian specialist of the genre. Metacinema rather than autobiography, the protagonist is called like the actor, it starts as a sports film (Del Falco has an enviable score in Karate) but then turns vehemently towards tighter action, without pauses, without lingering on the philosophical speculations that water down so much contemporary action films. Photo Here it's all very simple and straightforward: bad guys are bad guys. And that's that. They are not victims of a society that makes monsters of them, they are greedy and violent. But not as violent as the hero... Corbucci every morning on the set of Django (the real one, not Tarantino's silly parody), said to Nero "Franco, how many are we going to kill today?", well, Del Falco threatens from up close Django's record but not only his. A spectacular massacre, deliberately trashy, exaggeratedly pop, superbly strong. in which ours exhibits the best of his repertoire entirely without stunt doubles. Claudio has a hypertrophic, sculptural, plastic, almost cartoons physicality, in a harmony of bodies, he places at his side the overflowing Camila Cruz Escobar, who will do anything to free Alpha (Hal Yamanouchi)
and her henchmen. Despite the cartoons tone, the champion has a record of 102 victories between Karate and K1, this film is supported by solid, confident direction that goes well with expert camera movements, car races and choreographers. Del Falco, making his debut as a director, directs with the confidence of someone who moves in his element. Katanas, sheets with Diabolik, and Ducati motorbikes, make up the scenography of a film with an 80s flavour, after all, Del Falco is the son of a certain cinema and in making his film, he doesn't forget to pay homage to certain milestones. Here and there you can breathe the inspiration of Rocky, the bloody formality of the first Rambo, the dream dimension of Conan the Barbarian, the narrow and claustrophobic spatiality of The Crystal Trap, all mixed together to give the new generations their hero of reference. A hero who slices enemies like pieces of meat. The film does not lack a certain feeling, Claudio is in fact divided between three loves, the one for his new wife, the one for his daughter who does not forgive him for his second marriage and the one for his first wife, the splendid Clara Guggiari, who died of a heart attack. Or maybe not...
