Iron Monkey II

OK, I'm a huge fan of all kung-fu films, iron monkey, hero, crouching tiger hidden dragon etc but this is terrible. the dubbing is terrible the fights are slow and stiff, there is no creative side of it or any conclusion. The main character is called Detective Cool Head !!! Although i do like the swords featured on the cover, that are also seen in crouching tiger, this movie is impossible to understand and follow, word to the wise don't watch it. I recommend, Hero , House of the flying daggers , Iron Monkey (90's),Once upon a time in china , kill bill ( vol 1 & 2 ),and most of Bruce lee's films. The Camera Work is terrible in this film and there is no story.

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.

ej's capsule review for kung-fu films of the chop-socky old-school - 1. basic plot type - historical; weapons used; political intrigue; determined policeman with mystery to solve; budding romance; revenge 2. plot construction - viewer will solve mystery long before the inspector, but otherwise the plot is pretty strong 3. dramatic - in parts 4. funny - in parts 5. dialog - not bad 6. cast performance - chen kuan tai and chia ling in top form 7. crew performance - decent 8. amount of fighting - lots 9. quality of fighting - good 10. special any cast or crew notes - despite u.s. video title, not related to any other 'iron monkey' film; a 'moon-lighting' film for chen kuan tai, as he was still under contract with shaw bros. at the time, and this doesn't look shaw bros. to me 11. big positive - most films of this era in 'fu films ended with the last blow of the last fight; this one actually an amusing post-script added on 12. big negative - chen kuan tai's character is too smart to have missed the solution of the crime for as long as he does bottom-line - who should see this movie - entertaining martial-arts film for any interested in the genre

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.

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.