The Man with the Iron Fists:
This is an interesting one. It's written, produced, and directed by RZA, leader of the rap group The Wu-Tang Clan, who is also the title character. The film chronicles the misadventures of an ex-slave blacksmith in Jungle Village, a ghetto Chinese village ruled by several warrior clans, often at fued: The Wolves, The Hyenas, and the most powerful, The Lions. When Gold Lion, hte noble leader of the Lions, is betrayed and killed by his own lieutenants, his son, an Englishman, and the blacksmith join forces to take the unstoppable and now devious Lion clan down before they steal a shipment of government gold. The cast give over-the-top, one-dimensional, but overall fun performances, which works for the film. RZA plays The Blacksmith. He's very emotionless in his performance, even when needing to be dramatic. But man, that dude's pretty bad-ass. The bad-assery is added by the strange, but cool backstory given to him: an escaped slave given training by a Buddhist monk clan, and becomes a blacksmith who then unleashes his "chi" through his iron fists. Rick Yune plays Zen-Yi (The "X-Blade"), a master of kung-fu, and Gold Lion's son, who builds an armored suit with various knives and spikes attached to it which aids him in battle. He seeks to avenge his father's death so he and his girlfriend may be at peace in their home in the mountains. Russell Crowe plays Mr. Jack Knife, an English military man, with a cool gun-knife thing that saws people in half. He, for some reason, is also a master of kung fu, and most of his early scenes are just him having kinky (not graphic) sex at the local whorehouse. Lucy Liu is Madame Blossom, the local whorehouse operator, who is a master of kung-fu, and whose whores make up the Black Widow clan, killing ill-willed customers in the night with poisoned darts. David Bautista plays Brass Body, a hulking muscle man whose skin can turn to brass to avoid injury, and immeadietly deflects bullets, blades, or projectiles. Jamie Chung plays Lady Silk, the Blacksmith's love interest whom he is paying off to set her free of the whorehouse life. Cung Le plays Bronze Lion, a beefy and evil lieutenant of Gold Lion, and a traitor. Finally, Byron Mann gives an over-the-top, cheesy, and tonge-in-cheek performance as Silver Lion, the main villain. He takes so much pleasure in being evil, it's often played for comedy. He is obviously the best part of the film. The film even has a cameo by exploitation star Pam Grier. The music is mostly rap and stock kung-fu music. The fight scenes are very unrealistic and stylized, but are a ball, and you can tell the filmmakers really had a fun time making the scenes. But, although the characters are hilarious and are fun to be with, the fact that they barely have personalities begins to bug you. But, all in all, that was the point. The film was a throwback to the tongue-in-cheek, cheap, badly acted, hilarious kung-fu movies from the 70's. As always for any Tarantino production, there's a good deal of film references or allusions, and I like how the opening credits are in Chinese characters and have subtitles, like an old Shaw Bros. movie. The Man with the Iron Fists is a "leave your brain at the door" experience. A roller-coaster ride with little character development, but some amazing fights, spectacular special effects, beautiful sets, cool kung-fu, interesting imaginary weapons, and all the sex, gore, and insane violence you come to expect from Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth. Great for any kung-fu fan. 3.5/5 stars.
(Image: Wikipedia.com)
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