OxfordPress.com

Grade: B+

Verdict: It's one funky monkey.

Details: Starring Ru Rong Guang, Jean Wang and Donnie Yen. Directed by Yuen Wo Ping. Rated PG-13 for martial arts violence/action and brief sexuality. In Chinese with subtitles. One hour, 25 minutes.

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Review: “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” became a critical and financial hit because it was part art film, part martial arts action flick. While it kicked and punched with fury, at its heart it was a moving, even quiet, love story.

“Iron Monkey” takes the more singular road. It's martial arts to the max. A whirl of fancy, flying footwork, it probably won't beat “Crouching Tiger” at the box office. But action fans who like their kung fu in period costume and with little blood will likely think they've struck the motherlode.

“Iron Monkey,” made seven years before “Crouching Tiger” and directed by fight master Yuen Wo Ping (“Crouching Tiger,” “The Matrix”), is so thoroughly entertaining and, sometimes, so visually stunning it's easy to see why Miramax Films bought it, spruced up its soundtrack and subtitles, and is releasing it in U.S. theaters for the first time.

Starring Ru Rong Guang, Jean Wang and Donnie Yen (all virtually unknown here but household names in Asia), it's a simplistic Robin Hood tale, a Zorro-ish good-vs.-evil swashbuckler set in 19th-century China and wrapped in Hong Kong's blistering style of kung fu filmmaking.

Basically, the Iron Monkey (Guang) is by day an herbalist doctor and by night a masked hero who steals from corrupt political figures to give to the poor. He's aided by an assistant, Miss Orchid (Jean Wang) and, eventually, by a traveling father and herbalist (Donnie Yen) and his young son (Tsang Sze-Man).

The flick is packed with corny humor, camp visuals, impossible-looking stunts and outrageously evil baddies. If that sounds a lot like “The Mummy Returns,” you're right. It's just that the “Mummy” flicks are computerized shams. Using hand-operated wires for fighters to accomplish flight, speeded-up film and obviously talented martial artists, “Iron Monkey” is the real deal in creating mind-boggling adventure.

At its best, “Iron Monkey” digs deeper into Chinese philosophy and martial arts fighting styles than “Crouching Tiger.” Characters often state or chant their moves (the “Shaolin Fist,” the “Super Eagle's Claw,” the “Shadow Kick”).

Kids, especially, will get a kick out of watching Sze-Man. This young Jackie Chan uses an umbrella and even bamboo rods to take on a horde of street ruffians and renegade monks.

There is also a three-man, to-the-death finale in which fighters balance on tippy-toes atop wooden poles as a fire from below licks at their shoes.

It's outrageous, improbable spectacle. And a heck of a lot of fun to watch.

— Bob Longino, (none)