The costumes and sets in the film are excellent, better than any other kungfu film I have seen. The cinematography is also very good, adding to the excellence of the film. The film is full of excellent kungfu; no comedy, magic, or corny tricks, only straight martial arts. I have not seen Chen Kuan Tai in any other films before this, but he is certainly one of the best actors and martial artists in the genre, equalling the famed Shaw Bros. stars such as Gordon Liu and Lo Lieh. The film is not only has good martial arts, but is is good as a movie. The VHS version is widescreen and dubbed in English, and the picture quality is good.
The story is simple; the hero's family is killed by the Manchus because they are accociated with rebels, but the hero escapes. He seeks refuge in the Shaolin Temple, and learns the Monkey Boxing technique. He then joins the Manchu government in order to get revenge for his family.
The Problem: The company who made this DVD desurves to be beaten just like many of the bad guys in Iron Monkey. This is by far, the worst quality DVD I have ever watched. You can tell they just made it from an old VHS tape! To make matters worse, the quality of the tape is just downright sad. The movie is watchable, but thats it. Now I am not sure what the story behind this movie is. Was the original print lost or what? There is a part in the film where the English just stops, and Chinese starts. Then it goes back to english again. I am confused.
In final. Not a bad movie, but it feels like you are watching a bootleg. Don't waste your money.
