The screenwriter and producer was Tsui Hark, who was at the peak of his creative power at that time, so this Wong Fei-hung biography is still the main theme of the heroic routine of saving the country and loving the people. Iron Monkey is a very charming Chinese version of Robin Hood. During the day, he goes by the name of a doctor, hanging a pot to help the world, and at night, he robs the rich and helps the poor in black. After revisiting "Iron Monkey", I realized that in the old film after more than 10 years, many memories are broken or even wrong, and rediscovering the details in the old film is also a very interesting harvest.
For example, in order to create the unbridled lust of the county master, in the title sequence, he not only has three wives and four concubines, but also has servants working hard to fan the air.
The story is simple, right and wrong are clear, and there are not many twists and turns in the plot, but the actions designed by the eighth master are really exciting.
The martial arts style of this film is quite ninja style, one move, one movement, one static and one move, the fighting is clean and neat, it is simply pleasing to the eye. Iron Monkey's light work, leaves do not stick to the body, no dripping water; Huang Qiying's shadowless feet are fierce and fast, which brings great satisfaction to the audience visually. In the 1990s, the language of Hong Kong martial arts films had a familiar set of routines. The shooting angle was mostly an elevation angle to highlight the stalwart figure of the martial arts characters; in the later editing, the change of speed was fully utilized to create a dazzling sensation of fists and feet; It shows the characters' smooth and complete high-difficulty movements; when the characters start fighting, they often shout the name of the martial arts moves like "Saint Seiya". impression.
The film's climax action scene "Burning the Plum Blossom Pile" is simply a circus acrobatic performance. The cooperation between Iron Monkey and Huang Qiying is like an acrobat's vaudeville performance, of course, with the help of that invisible wire. Ren Shiguan and Donnie Yen, who played Monk Yankong, were both classic villains in the "Once Upon a Time" series, and this time they finally had the opportunity to have a dialogue with their fists. Yankong's Liu Yunfeixiu is an exaggerated and cheap visual spectacle, which slightly makes up for the imagination of this film's extraordinary feats.
The image of Huang Qiying played by Donnie Yen already has the style of a master in "Ip Man" in the future, but Yu Rongguang, whom Tsui Hark tried to support, failed to join the first-line action camp after all. Of course, it's ten years since Donnie Yen became Cosmic Dan, and he started his action movie era.
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