Quentin Tarantino selected this film for his first film fest, and going into this one knowing that piece of trivia made it a lot of fun to watch, as it becomes quite clear why he highlighted this martial arts film in particular. High crime, Ultra violence, and some really quirky characters sprinkled through out, especially David Chiang's "The Rover" (aka "Rangler" in Chinese), a super cool mystery man. If I had to describe through Tarantino, think Kill Bill meets Reservoir Dogs.
The plot is pretty straight forward, but I suppose the most important thing to focus on is the fact that the world changes around them, and it's interesting to see who stands their ground and who instead falls and changes with it.
The camera work is very impressive here, as the majority of screen time revolves around David Chiang's "Rover". It actually feels like while the rest of the world rages on, a quiet box sits around him. It really stabilizes the tone of the film and solidifies his role as one of the Top Bad-A** characters he's ever played.
The sound mixing is a bit funny in this film, as some effects seem updated and mixed in later into some fights, possibly due to an effect of a re-master?
To sum things up, the film is incredibly charming mostly because of the presence of David Chiang, and the overall quirkiness of many of the other main characters. But the niche really comes in because DUEL OF THE IRON FIST is very likely to have the MOST AMOUNT OF FIGHTING AND BODY COUNT I'VE EVER SEEN in a Shaw Bros. film. I would actually go so far to say it could be a bit out of control to some viewers, not making this one very marketable.
Definitely an underground piece, so watch if you dare. But fans of David Chiang will rejoice. Exceptionally Charming, but Quite Niche
