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Iron Monkey

Play trailer Poster for Iron Monkey PG-13 2001 1h 25m Action Play Trailer Watchlist
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91% Tomatometer 95 Reviews 86% Popcornmeter 10,000+ Ratings
In a desperate and unjust land, where government corruption rules the day, only one man has the courage to challenge the system and fight back. They call him "Iron Monkey." Under the shadow of night, in the silence before dawn, he fights to give hope to the poor and the oppressed. Although no one knows his name and no one knows where he comes from, his heroism has made him a living legend to the people and a wanted man to the powers that be.
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Iron Monkey

Iron Monkey

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Critics Consensus

Iron Monkey may not have the poetic lyricism of Crouching Tiger, it makes up for it in fun and energy.

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Critics Reviews

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Steven D. Greydanus Decent Films 05/08/2002
B+
The joy of watching this kind of stuff lies in the choreographical invention and creativity [and] the speed and dexterity of the combatants. Go to Full Review Rita Kempley Washington Post 01/06/2002
3.5/5
A crackling Cantonese action caper in the tradition of Robin Hood, Zorro, Batman et al. Go to Full Review Lisa Schwarzbaum Entertainment Weekly 10/18/2001
B+
Yuen tosses off nimble, elegantly witty solutions to life's most vexing problems regarding rooms full of bad guys who won't take thwak for an answer. Go to Full Review Mike Massie Gone With The Twins 09/30/2020
7/10
As a perfect complement to the adventure, a generous portion of comedy is blended in - sometimes just with witty bits of dialogue and frequently with physical slapstick. Go to Full Review Panos Kotzathanasis Asian Movie Pulse 10/27/2019
"Iron Monkey" is a masterpiece of the genre (to say the least) and a film all fans of wuxia and martial arts in general should have in their collection. Go to Full Review Rob Aldam Backseat Mafia 10/31/2018
Some of the fighting is on par with, or better than, anything you're likely to see in a Hong Kong action film. Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Robert M @Texflex Dec 21 If you are a fan of the 70s/ 80s genre.... you'll LOVE this. Fun action movie. See more Fernando D @Maqroll Dec 16 Excellent cast need to watch it See more Dani G Jan 21 Pretends to be comedy, pretends to be drama... The only thing it is? A means to start kung fu fights anytime, with FX very vintage, to say it nicely See more Flixster F 07/03/2024 A typical action film from the 90s. Not outstanding but passes the time. See more Leaburn O 06/13/2023 This is just playful king fu. Not a serious plot at all but so much creativity in the fight scenes. I'm not a huge fan of martial arts films but the short run time made this one just about palatable. See more Taylor L 01/09/2023 You like RRR? Want to see the martial arts version? Two martial arts masters with day jobs come to know one another as friends - one a folk hero by night, the other a wanderer who finds himself tasked with hunting the vigilante down (not knowing his new friend is his target). Nominally it's a loose adaptation of the Robin Hood mythos integrated with an origin story of Chinese folk hero Wong Fei-hung (who appears as a child in this film), but it's hard all these years later to not see shades of the S.S. Rajamouli film (RRR) despite the fact that this predates it by almost three decades. While Ang Lee was giving martial arts movies more of a serious flair in the '90s and '00s, Yuen Woo-ping preserves much of Hong Kong's balance between really solid action choreography and pervasive humor in Iron Monkey. It's light as a film, with antagonists that never really feel terribly threatening, but really shines with some top-notch fight design that straddles the line between impressive and mythic. And by mythic, I mean suspended by wires. Seriously, the action is impressive enough that I'd bump the score over what is otherwise a well-made but pretty unsurprising folk tale brought to the screen, Donnie Yen is in top form. Weird that this took almost eight years to go from completion to a wide US release. (3.5/5) See more Read all reviews
Iron Monkey

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Cast & Crew

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Woo-Ping Yuen

Director

Yu Rong-Guang

Iron Monkey

Donnie Yen

Wong Kei-Ying

Sze-Man Tsang

Young Wong Fei-Hung

Jean Wang

Miss Orchid

Fai Lee

Witch

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Iron Monkey

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Movie Info

Synopsis In a desperate and unjust land, where government corruption rules the day, only one man has the courage to challenge the system and fight back. They call him "Iron Monkey." Under the shadow of night, in the silence before dawn, he fights to give hope to the poor and the oppressed. Although no one knows his name and no one knows where he comes from, his heroism has made him a living legend to the people and a wanted man to the powers that be.
Director
Woo-Ping Yuen
Producer
Hark Tsui
Screenwriter
Hark Tsui, Elsa Tang, Lau Tai Mok
Distributor
Miramax Films
Production Co
Golden Harvest, Film Workshop Ltd.
Rating
PG-13 (Martial Arts Action/Violence)
Genre
Action
Original Language
Chinese
Release Date (Theaters)
Oct 12, 2001, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Apr 16, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA)
$14.7M
Runtime
1h 25m
Sound Mix
Dolby SR, DTS, Dolby Stereo, SDDS, Dolby A, Dolby Digital
Aspect Ratio
Flat (1.85:1)
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