June 21, 2002 -- "Iron Man" is a Chinese martial arts film with some great action and interesting camera work, but it has the usual bad dubbing, lame soundtrack, clunky Foley sounds, bad editing and incomprehensible plot which plague many Chinese films of this ilk. This film is part of the Wu Tang Collection II put out by Xenon Entertainment Group, Hong Kong Connection and Arena Home Video. The Shaw Brothers may also be involved in this. I bought the video in part because I was intrigued that I could not find a review of it on the Internet. By now, it should be obvious this has nothing to do with the Marvel Comics character soon to become a major movie star.

One of the reasons there are few, if any reviews of this film in existence is that it is difficult to tell just what the name of the film is and who made it. According to the Internet Movie Data Base, the Chinese name of the film is Chou lian hu an. Alternate U.S. titles are "Man of Iron" and "Warrior of Steel." However, the IMDB lists the director of this film as Cheh Chang and has Yu Wang as one of its stars. According to the VHS tape box (which has the same picture on the front as is seen on the IMDB page for the film of the same title), the film is directed by Paul Woo and stars Barry Tze, Chan Wing Bo and Kwok Leung. Rolling the film's credits we see a completely different story. The credits list the director as Ye Hoi Fung and the stars are Shih Po Hwa, Chen Wing Ha, Li Che Chou, Chang Hung Mei, Lam Chum and Chu I. The IMDB's information doesn't agree with the film credits or the information printed on VHS box. The box credits don't agree with the film's (translated) credits, either. The jacket also seems to show a photo of a scene which did not appear in the film, something about fighting on "plum blossom posts."

The comically-translated synopsis on the VHS box says, "Young Fong Sai Yuk, his mentors wounded by a Wu Tang priest, is taught Iron Armor by his mother, herself a master of Plum Blossum kung fu. When Fong comes of age, he must face the Lo Han Formation and the Five Element Array before he can face his sworn enemy on the Plum Blossum posts." This synopsis bears almost no resemblence to the story as depicted in the movie. The information on the box and in the credits do have something in common, however, the name of the film in both cases is "Iron Man," and it is apparently part of the Wu Tang Collection. The credits, the box and the label on the VHS tape itself all bear the insignias of by Xenon Entertainment Group, Hong Kong Connection and Arena Home Video. Wu Tang-style fighting is mentioned in the story, but it doesn't seem to play a major role in it. I saw no mention of any iron armor or plum blossum stuff at all in the film. Instead there was something about a "spinning palm" attack which involved some sort of anti-gravity kung-fu. There was also a mention of one woman combatant using a tai chi fighting style. One hopes this all made some sense in the original Cantonese language on the original soundtrack.

I suspect part of the reason for this confusion has to do with inconsistent translation of Chinese to English. For one thing, in China, the surname comes first, in the U.S., it comes last. Surnames tend to get twisted around backwards when they are listed in translated credits. There may also be some translation trouble involved in deciding who directed the film. An incomplete print of the film may have been transferred to tape. There could be confusion as to which credits go with which film in the IMDB. Who knows? These sorts of problems often crop up when one tries to review Chinese films. There are often a number of different Chinese films that share the same U.S. title, or alternate title. That is why I try to use the Chinese film name whenever I can. It makes it easier to identify the film. In this case, however, I have no idea if the Chinese name listed by the IMDB is the correct one for this film, since none of the other IMDB information for this film adds up.

The film (which may have been produced in either Hong Kong or on the mainland of China) was released in either in 1972 or 1970, depending on which Internet source you believe. The jacket lists a 1998 copyright by Hong Kong Connection, but that probably is for the videotape itself, not the film. The story has to do with a young man who trains in a Shaolin Temple in order to gain the fighting skill to avenge his father's death at the hands of the evil Dragon Head. Vengeance is a principle theme in the film. It turns out that most of the main characters in the film had an immediate family member, or worse, kung-fu master, killed by some other character in the film and they all want their vengeance. As a result a bunch more fathers and brothers are killed. The monks all say, in unison, "may Buddha bless you" after someone is killed and before they start kicking people around. There are also some evil politicians skittering out in the background, trying to get various factions in the film to fight each other (although the factions seemed to need no encouragement, or reason, to fight each other, other than a provocation such as, for instance, the drop of a hat).

As I said, the plot makes little sense, and the choppy editing and lack of continuity between shots doesn't help, either. Kung-fu movies are like dance movies. The main thing is the choreography, and in this, the movie does well. The fight scenes are well choreographed and they flow well. Some of the actors show good acrobatic skills. The credits did not mention who the camera man was, but whoever he or she was, there were a lot of interesting looking camera shots and effects. In several fight scenes, some kind of kaleidoscope lens was used to multiply the image of some of the fighters. Then there is a kind of stop-motion effect used to make it look as if the actor is moving very fast, trailing multiple images of himself. In another scene several camera effects are combined, and another is added to make it appear as if a man's skull is being deformed by a severe blow. It is a pretty cheap effect.

You have to admire the audacity of the filmmakers to try some of these nifty camera tricks. They do make the movie more interesting to watch. There is a long fight sequence that takes place in some kind of park that looks like Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Colorado, only the rocks are of a different type and color. Very spectacular scenery. An overhead shot is used to set up and punctuate the fight sequence. It involves a bunch of kung-fu heros against a small army of guys with shields. They look like a drum and bugle corps armed with cymbals. The overhead shot shows the bugle corps guys marching around in smart-looking formations which serve no real purpose, except to look cool. It is the martial arts equivalent of the June Taylor dancers. The motion on the shots are speeded up, resulting in a truly fascinating display. The head Shaolin priest guy sees the bugle corps formations and counsels caution. He wants to study the formations to look for weakness. He watches thoughtfully for a while and they says, "Let's go!" The kung-fu guys attack the bugle corps horde and end up being immediately surrounded. Some plan.

Like many other martial arts film there are some fantasy sequences involving anti-gravity stuff. In one scene, a guy runs across a pond without sinking. In another scene, a Shaolin priest causes a flat rock (or piece of masonry) to hover in the air simply by spinning it. He called it "weight control." Nifty tricks, but physically impossible. The scenes are reminiscent of the fantasy flying sequences in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

Click here for links to places to buy this movie in video and/or DVD format, the soundtrack, books, even used videos, games and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.