Husker (Sammo Kam-Bo Hung) is a lowly restaurant worker that one day stands up for an old man who is being picked on by local Manchurian thugs. Husker gets his butt kicked pretty good and the old man dies. Swearing revenge, Husker joins a local Shaolin Temple, where he learns kung-fu. The time comes when his desire for vengeance overshadows his need to finish his training, and he sneaks out. His old teacher is not ready to fully give up on him yet, so he finds Husker and imparts upon him some final lessons before sending him off with his blessings. Out in the real world again, Husker has no trouble running into the thugs, their network and power grown even larger since he left. They rape a local girl and she kills herself. Her brother, in the midst of his own quest for revenge, attacks a group of the thugs and kills one of them. Husker helps and this only gets him into further trouble. Fight after fight, Husker defeats his enemies, until at the end he faces the final boss in the ultimate contest. Will Husker finally get his vengeance?
Just like any kid of my generation, I went through a time when I was obsessed with watching kung-fu movies, as I called them. Bruce Lee was my gateway drug, but soon I found myself watching all kinds of obscure and weird films from China/Hong Kong, all guided by the Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest. Eventually, I ended up getting into the wilder stuff in the 80s, the wire-work and fantasy films. But I always held a special place in my heart for the old, regular kung-fu flicks. Sammo Hung is an amazing artist and quite a spectacular athlete. Watching his fights are a little bit like watching Jackie Chan—both use humor in their action—but Sammo has a style all his own. He directed this picture and does a bang-up job. The beginning wobbles a little on the goofy side but once Husker leaves the Temple, things start to come into clearer focus. The fight scenes are brilliant, of course, and full of cool stunts and choreographed punching and kicking. But most of all, they’re fun, which is something that all Sammo Hung films are. He doesn’t try to get too self-serious, although there are serious themes in the film. He keeps it light (for the most part) until the end, when things get a wee-bit bloody, but in a good way.
Iron-Fisted Monk isn’t the kind of movie that will blow your socks off with its originality or its stunning stunts, but it will entertain you for a little while, and features some really fantastic fight scenes. There’s also plenty of historical drama and intrigue, although those are more flavoring salts for the story rather than any serious attempt to re-tell Chinese history. Light, breezy, fun, full of flying fists and feet…what more could you ask from a movie?
★★★☆