Iron-Fisted Monk
           
Director: Sammo Hung
Year:  1977
Rating: 7.0
By the time of Sammo Hung's directorial debut with this film, he had already been in the business for nearly a decade, not including his appearances as a child. He can be spotted in many action films in the early 1970's as an extra, a thug, a bandit, a punching bag - very small parts in which he often was killed. As the decade moved along he got bigger parts but still usually died. But more important that his acting gigs was his work as an action director. He did this for some classic films - a few for Angela Mao (The Angry River, Lady Whirlwind, Hapkido, When Taekwondo Strikes, Himalayan), a couple for King Hu (The Valiant Ones, The Fate of Lee Khan) and many others including Stoner and The Man from Hong Kong.




So by 1977 he felt he was ready not only to direct but also to take on the major acting role. Over the next few years he was to direct some of the best kung fu films there are with his brand of mixing humor and extraordinary martial arts - Warriors Two, Knockabout, The Victim, Prodigal Son. For me only Tsui Hark was more influential than Sammo during the 1980s. He was instrumental as a director or producer in creating supernatural films, the hopping vampire films, his work with Jackie and Yuen Biao, Girls with Guns and just blow out action films like Millionaire's Express and Eastern Condors. But his influence spread beyond himself - he was a Big Brother to many other actors and stuntmen giving them opportunities or work throughout the 80's. You can see the basis of that in this film as it is filled with faces and talent that would work with Sammo for years - Fung Hak-on (as the rapist). Wu Man as the customer in the brothel, Dean Shek as the sleezy advisor and Eric Tsang, Lam Ching-ying, Chung  Fat, Mars, Mang Hoi, Billy Chan, Peter Chan, Brandy Yuen all in small parts.



He wasn't quite there with this film but it is a good start. His direction wanders at time, the pacing is a bit scattershot and he inserts a couple distasteful scenes that felt incongruous to the rest of the film. But we see here the beginnings of a character type that Sammo was to utilize many times - a little comical, nonchalant, easy going but imbibed with great martial arts skills when needed - in the years to come. And obviously after years of choreographing action, that it very good here - with Sammo it is always crisp, beautiful timing and intricately done. He keeps the action and training fairly basic and generally comical for much of the film until the finale when the gloves come off and it is a remarkable fifteen minutes of a complex and brilliant action set piece which is deadly serious.




The Manchus are once again the villains of the piece - strutting around town, beating up whoever they want, taking money, smacking children and on two occasions raping women - one of which was much too graphic for the film with nudity. They kill an elderly shopkeeper (veteran actor Ho Li-jen) and his helper Sammo gets beaten up when he tries to intervene. He is saved by the monk Shan Te (Chan Sing) and told to go train at the Shaolin Monastery. Sammo does that and is trained by an instructor (James Tin Cheun) and when Sammo feels he is ready he leaves looking for revenge. He finds it. A pretty basic plot that weaves around  bit like a scene in a brothel but after a number of friends are killed by the Manchu's (led by Wang Hsieh) he teams up with The Iron Fisted Monk (Chan Sing) and goes to meet all the bad guys in that finale I was talking about. So much goes on in this finale from various weapons used to acrobatics to pure kung fu - but in one side fight of many Sammo takes on two opponents at the same time - one with a spear, the other with a sword. It is poetry as Sammo fights them - every move wonderfully worked out and timed perfectly. It sent chills down my leg.