"The Man With the Iron Fists" Theatrical Poster
You won’t see The Man with the Iron Fists on any London, Manchester or Edinburgh cinema listings now, but it’s worth catching on DVD for martial arts fans. That said; it’s not without its problems.
Development of this movie first began way back in 2005 and after close to two years of development RZA and Eli Roth managed to get financial backing in May 2010.
Filming of the movie was finally able to begin in in December of that year with a $20m budget. It was finished in March the following year.
The story centres around a 19th century village in the Chinese Jungle, where rival clans are fighting one another. When one of the leaders of a clan called the Lion Clan agrees to watch over a shipment of imperial gold, he falls victim to the betrayal of two of his underlings; the so-called Silver and Bronze Lions – played by Byron Mann and Cung Le respectively.
The Lion clan then attacks its rival Hyena clan whilst making a deal with Madam Blossom, the local brothel owner and whilst all this is happening, the leader’s son Zen-Yi is hurrying back into town. And if all that wasn’t confusing enough, there’s Thaddeus the blacksmith, played by RZA, who supplies everyone with weapons as he saves up to elope with his girlfriend.
There are so many things about this movie that are great – the plot is interesting and the action is set against a backdrop of rap music which always works well. On the other hand, most of us go to martial arts movies for the fight scenes. But with The Man with the Iron Fists, the fight scenes are decidedly average. It all depends on how much realism and plot you’re after versus unbelievable fight scenes we’ve become increasingly used to in the latest movies in the genre.
Perhaps The Man with the Iron Fists is indicative of the way things are heading – perhaps not. If you’re a real martial arts aficionado, you probably won’t like it. But if you like a great story and aren’t overly bothered about the fight scenes – be sure to watch it.
What’s your score for it?
I was not impressed by it, and I thought it was a horrible wannabe Shaw Bros movie that displays poor acting, weak story, wasted actors, and poor choreography. I wanted to have hopes in it and believe it was a comeback of true martial arts cinema, but I was far from it. If anything, it is just a fantasy movie in an asian setting that failed to deliver the feeling of a true martial film like from the 70s,80s, or even 90s. I don’t find Rza a charismatic actor, and I don’t know why he thought he could just make a martial arts movie, and all of sudden think people are going to flock to his movie like he thinks he’s Bruce Lee or Jet Li without proving himself to be impressive first. The movie should of starred a worth martial arts star, someone with true skills. I think they need to take a look back at the old martial arts films and learn from them instead of trying to cover everything up with cartoony CGI these days.
I really didn’t like this movie. RZA’s character was my main compliant, and the movie is titled after this character! I’m sorry, but he doesn’t belong in this type of movie. I’m not trying to sound racist, but there’s a difference between appreciating a culture, and acting like its your own. Look at Tarantino. He made a two part martial flick and didn’t make himself a focal point ever! That’s how its done. The movie is directed well and has some decent fights, but when you make your whole movie about you, RZA, naming the movie after you, making your uninteresting character the main focus, having crappy fight scenes with you, and so many other things, yeah, take yourself out and recast. RZA appearing in the new G.I. Joe Retaliation again shows RZA wishes he was Asian. That and the amount of laughter there was in my theater during that movie. Just stop putting yourself in the movies RZA.