{"id":27302,"date":"2023-10-27T01:34:28","date_gmt":"2023-10-27T08:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=27302"},"modified":"2023-10-27T01:34:28","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T08:34:28","slug":"blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-the-iron-fisted-monk-1977","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=27302","title":{"rendered":"Blasts from the Past! Blu-ray Review: THE IRON-FISTED MONK (1977)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This “Limited Edition” Blu-ray release from Arrow Video is now available for purchase from retailers.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As mentioned in many previous reviews of martial arts pictures from Hong Kong, actor\/director Sammo Hung is a legendary figure. Arrow Video has recently secured the rights to many of his titles, including Knockabout<\/a><\/em> (1979) <\/a>and Millionaires\u2019 Express<\/a><\/em> (1986)<\/a>. This week, the distributor is putting out Hung\u2019s directorial debut, The Iron-Fisted Monk<\/em> aka Iron Fisted Monk<\/em> (this early effort also featured the filmmaker as co-lead). The story is familiar, but the action scenes show great skill and the movie clearly asserts its filmmaker\u2019s desire to deliver bigger and better fight scenes for audiences to enjoy. As with all of the other Blu-ray releases, the 2K picture restoration delivers a vastly improved widescreen image so that audiences can see all of the precise choreography with greater clarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this period effort, a group of thugs called the Manchu\nBannermen are terrorizing the residents of a town. Rice Miller Luk (Sammo Hung)\nbecomes one victim of their villainy when they target and murder his uncle.\nWhen he witnesses a Shaolin monk named San De (Chen Sing) stop them easily, the\nlead asks the figure to train him. The two come to an agreement, but Luk soon\ntires of training and runs off to face the killers. Unfortunately, in the time\nthat has passed the Manchu Bannerman has become even more powerful with the\nhelp of a corrupt official (Fung Hark-On). In fact, Luk crosses paths with\nanother man (Lo Hoi-Pang) out for revenge after his sister is raped. Luk again\nfinds himself in over his head, eventually seeking the assistance of San De in\ntaking down the organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although this title was a success and led to more features\nfrom Hung, it is notable for having issues with its rating. It received a\nCategory III rating in Hong Kong, meaning that only adults would be permitted\nto see it. The reason likely has more to do with some of the acts committed by\nthe antagonists. They are shown to be absolutely horrific people and the movie\ncontains more than one rape scene (featuring nudity) that likely led to the\nclassification. As expected, the uncensored version is the one present on this\nrelease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So, how is the movie itself? Well, the story isn\u2019t anything\nremarkable. The bad guys couldn\u2019t be worse in any respect and the mix of humor\nwith melodrama and violent attacks on females doesn\u2019t blend together well.\nHowever, most viewers will be watching this picture for the fight scenes, and\nthey are all impressively staged and captured with long takes using unusual\nangles. We see the camera down low shooting between legs as they move around in\nbattle, as well as other tricks that were completely unique at the time. The\naction is impressive, particularly during the final battle when Luk and San De\ndecide to take on all of the central villains themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Clearly, Hung would go on to even more elaborate and fun\nkung-fu films with a more consistent and effective tone, but this early title\nshows a lot of skill and promise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As mentioned, the image quality is excellent. The film has\nnever looked this good before and appears clean and sharp. There are multiple\nEnglish language dubs, as well as the original Cantonese and Mandarin audio\nwith English subtitles (which really is the best way to watch the film). The\nbest bonus feature is an informative commentary from martial arts cinema expert\nFrank Djeng, who has an impressive resume working in the industry. He delivers\na great deal of interesting information about his own experiences with Hung and\nbackground information on the production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Djeng explains how Hung, who had been working primarily as a fight scene director, managed to convince a director he worked with previously to help him embark on his own directing career. Huang Feng (The Shaolin Plot<\/em>) assisted in co-writing the film with Hung. Apparently, Feng asked Hung what type of stories he enjoyed watching. After being told that classic tales involving classic characters like San De and Miller Luk were personal favorites, the co-conspirator fashioned a screenplay that would inspire Hung and assert his storytelling skills. These and other tidbits are fun to hear. The critic does go on to critique some aspects of the final product (including the rape scene) but clearly points out the unique and revolutionary techniques used in fight scenes that helped establish Hung as an important filmmaker and how this film influenced all of the titles that followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There are also two archival interviews with Hung present on\nthe disc. They are fine, although Hung doesn\u2019t go into much detail about the\nfilm, stating that he was simply going on instinct when shooting the picture.\nAdditionally, the disc contains an archival interview with co-star Casanova\nWong aka Ho Wang, who plays a Shaolin disciple in the film. He offers insight\nand an overview of his career in cinema.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naturally, the disc also comes with publicity materials like a lengthy trailer, as well as an illustrated collector\u2019s booklet with writing on the movie and stills. The “Limited Edition” also includes a reversible sleeve and a double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned art for the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re a fan of Sammo Hung, enjoy Hong Kong cinema or\nmartial arts pictures, then Arrow Video\u2019s Blu-ray of The Iron-Fisted Monk will\nmake a great addition to your collection. It is the movie that first drew\nattention to the legendary performer and filmmaker and this Blu-ray delivers\nthe best presentation of the title that has ever been released.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This “Limited Edition” Blu-ray release from Arrow Video is now available for purchase from retailers. As mentioned in many previous reviews of martial arts pictures from Hong Kong, actor\/director Sammo Hung is a legendary figure. Arrow Video has recently secured the rights to many of his titles, including Knockabout (1979) and Millionaires\u2019 Express (1986). This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":27304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[108,697,1836,2923,2948,3067,9288,9933,9940,11936,13303,17585,21152,21153],"class_list":["post-27302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-108","tag-action","tag-arrow-video","tag-blasts-from-the-past","tag-blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-the-iron-fisted-monk","tag-blu-ray","tag-hong-kong","tag-iron-fisted-monk","tag-iron-fisted-monk-blu-ray-review","tag-kung-fu","tag-martial-arts","tag-sammo-hung","tag-the-iron-fisted-monk","tag-the-iron-fisted-monk-blu-ray-review"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27302\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}