Review of Iron Fisted Monk

Introduction

Sammo Hung is probably best known to many of you from the distinctly average TV series Martial Law. But he`s been directing, choreographing and starring in films for over 25 years. Iron Fisted Monk was his first time in the director`s chair.

The story at first appears a rather simple mixture of revenge and good vs. evil, with the good guys from the Shaolin Temple fighting the bad guys of Manchu who have been going round doing bad things. But by showing the viewer some of these things, the film takes a darker turn, with several scenes that have been cut by the BBFC due to their graphic depiction of rape. I`m normally against censorship of any kind, but from watching the film I don`t think that any extra footage was necessary to convey what was happening in those scenes.

Video

This film is now 24 years old, and like most films from the era, the prints have never been very well looked after. We get a 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer, which is good overall but does suffer from various ailments along the way. There is quite a bit of film grain evident, some shots are slightly out of focus and there are some odd smoke type effects which don`t appear to be intentional.

It`s all still perfectly watchable though, and I doubt you`ll ever see it looking better unless someone travels back in time to rescue the original prints.

Audio

A pair of DD5.1 soundtracks - Cantonese or English. As ever I went for Cantonese with subtitles turned on.

The DD5.1 remix is quite a subtle one, as there`s not that much for all of your speakers to do. I don`t remember any directional sounds, and most of the action is coming at you from the centre speaker. Look out for some Benny Hill style sound effects too...

Some of the fight sound effects are a bit out of step with the on-screen action but on the whole this is a perfectly acceptable soundtrack.

Features

As ever, we get a feature packed disc.

We start off with yet another excellent commentary from Bey Logan (how many times have I said that now!) As ever he knows everything about every scene, and has lots to tell you about the cast, the locations and plenty of historical information too. Another exemplary commentary.

There`s a 10 minute interview with Sammo Hung where he talks extensively about the film, interspersed with some clips .

There`s an unwelcome return to the old scrolling text biography, accompanied by that annoying voiceover man who will be familiar to anyone with several Hong Kong Legends DVDs in their collection.

There`s also a reasonable photo gallery, and as ever there are trailers for the film and for other DVDs from the studio.

To wrap up we have what`s touted as a "Restoration Featurette", which you might think would contain an in-depth look at how these films are restored and made to look and sound so good. Well, there`s a few minutes of that, but the whole thing rather comes across as something that Hong Kong Legends might send to potential investors.

The bits that are actually about restoration are interesting but it`s all a bit too self-congratulatory. Maybe next time they`ll cut the PR fluff and show more of the technical side of restoration.

Conclusion

Another great Hong Kong film on another great Hong Kong Legends disc. The story is made just that little bit different by the darker turns that it takes every so often, but there are still some comedic moments and some great fight scenes. These all mix together to create a very good film.

The picture, while not as good as some other Hong Kong Legends discs is still good, and the sound is perfectly acceptable. Add to that the usual selection of quality extras and you have another great disc!