Bloody Monkey Master

The movie starts with animal cruelty mixed with two guys sparring. Kam Kong wants all the rebels killed. Chen Kuan-Tai's family is arrested while he is gambling and they are all killed. He is reduced to stealing the offerings at Shaolin. The monks offer him a place. It seems he has already learned most of their kung fu just by watching. He leaves the temple with the strategy "keep your friends close and your enemies closer". He becomes part of the corrupt officials that killed his family in order to get close enough to the general to kill the man at the top. Revenge is certainly the most common plot of martial arts movies and it might be the most common plot of all movies. I find it hard to understand why revenge is such a favorite plot in Chinese culture while at the same time the dominant Chinese philosophy is Buddhism and Buddhism has no place for revenge. "At what price revenge?" typically becomes a moral issue in the revenge plot. I would say never in the history of any martial arts revenge movie did revenge come at a higher price than in this movie. Fans of Chen Kuan-Tai must ask what was his best movie? "The Flying Guillotine" is certainly more well known but I consider this movie his best because he had more to do with it, he both acted and directed "The Iron Monkey" so I rate this as a ten of ten for Chen Kuan-Tai perfection.

In my opinion this has to be one of the best movies ever made...considering the year is 1978, and the action holds up to this day as credible.The iron monkey is a tormented character and is played to full potential by the actor. The story is good to...very true to chinese history.And any movie that involves a bitter monk from shaolin is a-plus in my book.10 out of 10! I recommend this highly to anyone remotely interested in true chinese storytelling and action!!!

Ma (Chen Kuan Tai) is too busy gambling and womanizing to be of much help when his family is rounded up by a local general. By the time he realizes what's going on and tries to intervene to save them, his relatives refuse to openly acknowledge that he's a member of the family. He's beaten senseless by a benevolent benefactor who claims that Ma is HIS insane son. Thus is he saved. To stop a younger son from revealing the truth to their jailers, Ma's father strangles the boy with a chain. The entire family is subsequently murdered. The next time we see Ma, he's a sneak thief known simply as "Monkey." He's allowed to join a Shaolin Temple he's been stealing food from and an elderly monk observes: "In your life, someone has planted much evil. You'll repay him in kind." Monkey, it's decided, will learn Monkey Fist from The Bitter Monk. Once he's learned what he needs to know, Iron Monkey bids farewell to the Shaolin Temple. "You're still full of hatred," the elderly monk tells him: "And, this time, I smell blood." In order to work his way up the ranks of the Ching army to get to the man he wants, Iron Monkey kills a lot of innocent people- including some "Shaolin rebels." Chen Kuan Tai doesn't monkey around in IRON MONKEY: he's a surprisingly capable director, and his Monkey Fist kung fu is far superior to the usual over-the-top antics we usually see from Monkey stylists. His fluid transitions from one stance to another are a joy to watch and he conveys a sense of power often lacking in Monkey style fight scenes.

Fans of Sonny Chiba and Bruce Lee may not find this movie to be their pride and joy, but will probably find it enjoyable nevertheless. Iron Monkey is set in Manchuria, and is made by Eastern Heroes Video Company. This fact alone would turn me off from the movie, because of the extremely conservative fight scenes (no decapitation). There is no gore, unlike the Street Fighter, and there is not that certain charm that Bruce Lee gives to his films. But somehow this film was able to please me through many well done fight sequences and a strong ending.

THE IRON MONKEY is a vehicle for Shaw Brothers star Chen Kuan Tai, the actor well known for his villainous performances in the likes of CRIPPLED AVENGERS and his later appearances in Triad movies. In it, he plays an exile who witnesses the execution of his family before fleeing into the woods and becoming something of a beggar. Later, he turns up at a Shaolin temple and pleads sanctuary, finding himself training in the mystic arts of monkey-style kung fu before going on a rampage of revenge.

This film was made while Kuan Tai was still under contract to the Shaw Brothers studio so he must have filmed it on the side in Taiwan. It looks a little cheap in places but generally provides solid entertainment, and it's a big help that the fight scenes are well-shot and relatively exciting. The opening sequence in which a monkey battles an eagle is quite memorable although the famed monkey style doesn't really come into it until the climax. Kuan Tai's version of the form isn't as showy as that of some other actors but it's definitely hard-hitting.

I've always liked Kuan Tai as an actor, even in his bad guy roles, so it was a pleasure to see him as the imposing hero here. The film is the usual mix of fight footage and training, with the villains getting away with everything until the final half an hour. The last 30 minutes provides an odyssey of fight action, building to a violent end fight in which the monkey style comes to the fore. It's solid stuff. Ka-Yan Leung (aka 'Beardy') stars in support as one of the bad guys and gets to battle our hero in one frenetic scene.