| DVD Released by : 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment/Fortune Star | ||
| Player reviewed with : Malata 520 | ||
| Receiver reviewed with : Sony 925 | ||
| Features: | ||
| Cantonese and English Soundtracks | ||
| English and Chinese Subtitles | ||
| Enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs | ||
| Running Time : 92 mins. | ||
| Region 1 | ||
IRON-FISTED MONK features Sammo Hung, who trains at a Shaolin Temple after Manchus ruthlessly kill his uncle and beat him up. While training, he repeatedly tests his teacher so he could improve his own skills. When Sammo feels he is ready, he leaves the temple. He enters town and finds a Manchu heckling some children. Sammo steps in and humiliates the Manchu and his cohorts. While he is doing this, a man appears that kills one of the Manchus with a knife out of revenge for his sister, who was raped. Sammo runs so he isn't blamed for the murder as does the other fellow. When Sammo goes back to the temple, his friend, Tak, tells him that he should use his skills to help others. He befriends the man who killed the Manchu. The Manchus look for Sammo and cause many problems for the locals. When the Manchus go to far, Sammo and Tak take revenge.
IRON-FISTED MONK is Sammo's first venture into directing. There are some brutal moments featuring rape, which is a little surprising. The bad guy is REALLY BAD in this movie. This makes the ending all the more cathartic when Sammo and Tak take revenge. The action scenes are really great and the ending alone makes this movie a must see. This movie is a must for Sammo Hung fans.
If you have been happy with the previous Fox/Fortune Star releases, prepare to be even happier. IRON-FISTED MONK also provides the mono soundtrack. It's really great to see that Fox has been listening to the fan's comments. While extras are a little sparse, the movie and the price make this a great buy.
The image quality is very good. There is some grain but not excessive like some of the other Fortune Star releases. The detail is great and the colors are vibrant. This is one of the better transfers of the older Hong Kong movies. There is a flicker once or twice but I didn't find it distracting.There is no damage to the film at all and very few specks. The very opening scene is shows much more grain than the rest of the film. I am very happy with the transfer and I really enjoyed watching this on the 47 inch screen.
This time around there are several choices for the soundtrack. In addition to the Dolby 5.1 and DTS tracks, there is also a original mono mix! The mono mix sounds good and is evenly mixed. There are a few times when the sound goes slightly out of sync. This is not drastic and doesn't take you out of the movie. The 5.1 and DTS tracks will please this who prefer them to the mono. The remixes are tastefully done so everybody should really be happy with the sound on this DVD.
The subtitles are easy to read and are free of misspellings and grammatical errors. The subtitles are well timed with what is being said. These subtitles do not match the English dub.
The extras consist of trailer for this wave of Fox's martial arts releases.
IRON-FISTED MONK, while the story is a very simple revenge plot, the action more than makes up for it. This is a must have for fans of Sammo Hung. It's also fun to pick out all the stars in this movie. Some have very little screen time but if you look hard enough you will find, Mars, Dean Shek, Eric Tsang, Wu Ma, and many others. As mentioned before, this is definitely not a movie to watch with the kids because of the nudity and rape scenes.
Fox has done another great job with this release. If you liked their previous releases, you will love this one.
Reviewed 08/28/2004
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