Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Boy, wait’ll you see the NEW pop-up ad they’re designing for this film. It actually involves real life ninjas coming to your office and kicking the shit out of your boss every time you open the page. Bet that stops your complaining...
In the meantime, here’s one of our semi-regular contributors with a glimpse at just what Miramax has done to this one in their efforts to get it on American screens. I’ll be seeing it tomorrow night, and I’ll report back then.
Hey it's Kampbell-Kid,
Since your site has come under heavy Iron Monkey mania lately I figured I'd share ya with my review of the upcoming re-release. My theater is having a promo screening of the film, so I eagerly stayed up late after work building it up to watch it. The last review you had for this back in august wasn't the final much delayed print of the film. It wasn't focused much on the details of what was initially done with this version of the film either. I collect HK films like no other and lately after seeing the amazing Shaolin Soccer DVD I figured watching Iron Monkey would be old news and less entertaining to drop back to.
Boy was I wrong!!!
<< SPOILER WARNING >>
I own the original dvd release of this film and it looked like the average HK import. (ie bad voice sync'ing, noticable dirt and scratches in the negative, bad subtitling, etc) In this new version I do have to give kudo's to the restoration done to this film... it's a wonderfully clean, unscrached, no dirt blotches, awesome digital sound rehaul for a almost decade old foreign HK film. It does have some of that Star Trek cheezy haze look in some parts but still... the film look near new.
The first thing I noticed about this film was it's intro... normal HK films begin with the usual editing talent... NONE! So if you remember the original version of Iron Monkey you were bombarded with HK distributor logo after another which felt like for 5 mins. Imagine watching a film begin with the WB, Fox, Paramount, Dreamworks, New Line, etc logo intros one after another you'd go nuts. Well in this new version your graced with one basic screen now saying "Miramax Films, Media Asia Group, Golden Harvest, and Quentin Tarentino presents... A Yuen Woo-Ping Film"
WHAT?!
Quentin Tarentino?! Awesome!!! I wonder what other Hong Kong suprises he has up his sleeve?!
Anyway.. the film opens into a cool new backstory intro. Showing chinese painted murals with subtitles on the bottom explaining the history of 18th century China and how corrupt officals ruled society... which then fades to black and then fades into the original film version town opening except with subtitles front and center saying to the sort of "..but only one hero will stand up to them all." And thus the film begins.
Besides the clean picture quality you'll really notice the digital sound effects even more. Being Hong Kong films that from what I noticed pre-date The Storm Riders, the original language track still looks dubbed. Granted it's the original voice track from the original film version but I guess they haven't perfected voice sync'ing yet until the more current films lately I've seen which have an American filmed feel to them (Storm Riders & Shaolin Soccer, etc). The rest of the films sound effects are a fine mixture of american punch/kick effects that just make the fight scenes stand out even more powerful. From Donnie Yen's windy shadow kicks and punches that crack like boards... to the evil Monks low bass effect Wonder Palm attack. I was in digital sound heaven!!! The score to the film suprised me as well having a generic Tan-Dun Crouching Tiger feel to it. A finer example would say the score sounded like the american release of Jet Li's Fist Of Legend a little. The story itself is cliche at most but entertaining if you find Chinese humor funny. This film tho alone would rock just on the amazing fight scenes and it's new sound effects.
Changes?! Yea some of the fight scenes were trimmed up a little but nothing majorly noticable except at the end when they are fighting the Evil Monk on the poles. In the original Iron Monkey slams this pole onto the face of the monk followed by this graphic shot of the monks head dislocating futher back than the normal human head could go is actually removed from this version. It just shows Iron Monkey getting thrusted with the pole and then Donnie Yen goes to kick him off... kinda Star Wars Greeto'ish if you ask me? If they removed that scene becuase the monks head injury looked fake I'd say the whole pole balancing scene was just as much realistic. :)
Some scenes I actually noticed some digital enhanced stuff like the wires that you could see in the original version where Iron Monkey/Donnie Yen first fight are actually removed... YAY!!! Also some added cgi objects flying about or shards sticking into the wall in the backgrounds have been added too. The film ends cooler too! Usually Hong Kong films end on that cheezy freeze frame followed by credits which this one originally did. Instead, this version fades to black and a paragraph appears telling you the futures of Dr. Yang and his nurse... and fades then again into a really cool paragraph about the future of the boy's character, (who's really actually played by a girl in the film) Wong-Fei Hung, and how he becomes the legendary hero of China and eventually overthrows the Ching Dynasty which kinda is a lead into Jet Li's older Wong-Fei Hung character in the Once Upon A Time In China films which the producer and director of this film as you know later on took part in.
Overall I enjoyed this version of the film alot... I invited all the co-workers to watch it with me and they really ate it up loving it. Most of them have never seen it before and were impressed that a film that old was so good and finally getting it's spotlight. I did reassure them that they of course haven't seen anything yet until they see Shaolin Soccer, but until that comes out here in the US, if it does?! If your a fan of this film you won't be disapointed by this new version, if your looking for a great epic story then go watch Crouching Tiger. This film is pure classic kung-fu wirework eye candy of the highest degree and by the master of martial art films himself, Yuen Woo-Ping.
HEY QUENTIN TARENTINO!!! I'd love to see another Yuen Woo-Ping film get the same treatment... Jet Li & Michelle Yeoh in The Taichi Master!
Ciao,
Kampbell-Kid
Very cool. I’m in a kung-fu mood recently for all sorts of reasons, and this should be great fun to soak up tomorrow night...
"Moriarty" out.
