Divine monkey business

>> Iron Monkey is a masterful display of high-flying Kung Fu action

by MARK SLUTSKY

Choreographer Yuen Wo Ping is best known in North America for his amazing wire work on The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. But he's an accomplished director as well, and with the release here of his popular Iron Monkey, Western audiences can now, happily, check out more of his beautiful work.

Like Crouching Tiger and scores of other Hong Kong action flicks, Iron Monkey is set in the past--not the distant past, mind you, but the late 19th century, just before producer Tsui Hark's Once Upon a Time in China pictures. Actually, Once Upon a Time hero Wong Fei-Hong appears in Iron Monkey as a young boy. It's kind of a "secret origins" movie, though it focuses more on the title character than the young Wong (played, interestingly enough, by a girl, Tsang Sze-Man).

The Iron Monkey himself (Yu Ruang-Guang) is a Robin-Hood-style bandit: kindly physician Dr. Yang by day, masked avenger and benefactor to the poor by night. As these things tend to go, the corrupt governor (James Wong) has been shutting up all of the region's food in his warehouse, leaving the impoverished farmer types to starve. When Wong and his father, Wong Kei-ying (Donnie Yen), also a famous do-gooder, pass through town, Wong père is enlisted against his will to capture the Monkey. Much acrobatics then ensue.

If you've ever seen any of Yuen's work before, it should come as no surprise that the fighting scenes are spectacular: swooping, flying, all-over-the-place ballet. It's hard to do justice to this level of mind-blowing physicality. Iron Monkey has quite a few remarkable set pieces, most notably a final courtyard blow-out that takes place on top of dozens of flaming wooden poles. And the actors--Yu, Tsang, Yen and Jean Wong, the Monkey's buddy Miss Orchid--are more than just well-trained stunt people; they're charismatic actors who happen to be Kung Fu experts as well. Now that's talent!

In a nice touch, Iron Monkey is being released in its original version with well-translated subtitles, eliminating the snicker factor. It looks great, and all of the original music is intact (as opposed to the dubbed version, which apparently messed up the sound a bit). What a delight this movie is--good-natured, pleasantly exhilarating and crazy fun to watch. :

Iron Monkey opens Friday, Oct. 12