The Man with the Iron Fists

Plot synopsis:
In nineteenth century China, Jungle Village is home to several warring clans. The village blacksmith creates deadly weapons for the clans, intending to use his payments to purchase the freedom of his lover Lady Silk, and leave the village. The region's governor tasks the Lion Clan's leader Gold Lion with protecting a large shipment of gold that must pass through the village. Gold is betrayed by his lieutenants Silver Lion and Bronze Lion, who plan to steal the gold. They use the chaos ensuing from a fight with the Hyena Clan to allow their co-conspirator Poison Dagger—the governor's aide—to assassinate Gold, after which Silver becomes the Lions' leader. Gold's son Zen-Yi learns of his father's murder and sets off to the village to seek revenge.
The Emperor's undercover emissary Jack Knife arrives in the village to monitor the gold and takes up residence in the Pink Blossom, a brothel run by Madam Blossom, Lady Silk's madame. Silver sends members of the Rodent clan to kill Zen-Yi before he can reach the village, but Zen-Yi kills them. The mercenary Brass Body arrives in the village and meets with Silver; he is sent to kill Zen-Yi. The blacksmith meets with Silk in the brothel and delivers the final payment needed to free her. After arriving in the village, Zen-Yi and his men are confronted by Brass and find that they cannot physically harm him because his skin turns to metal on impact. Brass beats Zen-Yi and destroys his blade-laden armor. Zen-Yi's last surviving man sacrifices himself to pull a canopy support beam loose, burying Brass under heavy stone. The blacksmith is watching the fight; he rescues Zen-Yi and helps him recover as penance for crafting the weapon that killed Zen-Yi's father.
Meanwhile, the gold shipment arrives in the village, accompanied by two skilled warriors, the Geminis. The Lions soon confront the Geminis and their men, and in the ensuing fight, Poison Dagger assassinates the Geminis and the Lions capture the gold. Jack later arrives to investigate the incident and learns that the Geminis were poisoned with mercury-tipped weapons, leading him to the blacksmith. The Lions' theft prompts the governor to send his Jackal troops to recover the shipment or destroy the village. Zen-Yi asks the blacksmith to craft him a new suit of weaponized armor. The Lions suspect that the blacksmith is helping Zen-Yi and have him tortured for information. The blacksmith refuses to talk, and Brass cuts off his forearms. Jack, who had been following the blacksmith, saves him from bleeding to death. While the blacksmith recovers, he tells Jack of his past as an emancipated American slave who accidentally killed a white man who refused to let him go. He fled America by boat and went to China, where monks trained him to use his body's energy to perform superhuman feats. Jack with the aid of the blacksmith crafts his greatest weapon: a pair of iron forearms that he can animate using this energy.
Zen-Yi recovers and joins Jack and the blacksmith. Meanwhile, Blossom offers to let Silver hide the gold in a secret tomb beneath the brothel in return for payment. The gold is stored in a coffin which is raised up to the rafters. That night, Blossom has her girls serve the Lions, and Silk serves Brass. At Blossom's signal, the girls use weapons hidden in their mouths to poison many of the Lions, and they join with Blossom as the Black Widows. When Silk tries to poison Brass, his skin protects him, and he beats and almost kills her. Zen-Yi, Jack, and the blacksmith arrive and join with the Black Widows to fight the remaining Lions while Blossom and Bronze fight and kill each other. While fighting Jack, Poison Dagger is crushed between large moving gears. Silver and Zen-Yi fight in the tomb; Zen-Yi cuts the coffin free, and it crushes Silver. The blacksmith finds Silk, who dies in his arms. He confronts Brass, and his iron fists prove capable of inflicting damage on Brass' seemingly invincible body. While Brass is in metal form, a powerful punch from the blacksmith shatters him to pieces. Jack runs outside in time to stop the Jackals from decimating the building with a Gatling gun.
Ultimately, Jack leaves the village to accompany the gold, and Zen-Yi tells the blacksmith that he has gained a brother. With the clans destroyed and the village safe, the blacksmith vows to keep it that way and destroys the sign pointing to his weapon shop. During the credits, Zen-Yi's pregnant fiancee is kidnapped by a bird clan, prompting Zen-Yi to seek the blacksmith's aid.

Tags: murder, violence, historical fiction, flashback, psychedelic, action, revenge

Review:
The music cues are embarrassingly overdone...any time the film wants you to feel an emotion, the sappiest orchestral music instantly kicks in, to the beat of a hip hop song.I think it's possible that RZA could make a good film someday, but this certainly isn't it..
Juvenile Kung-Fu. The film had potential with a decent storyline and all-star cast, but fails to pull in the viewer to care about the characters or outcome of the story.The movie far too often goes for cheap,juvenile sexual exploitation.The target audience for the movie seems geared towards males 16-24 and no one else.I've also noticed that the more people see the film the ratings here on IMDb decline.RZA also has very little acting skills and it was a major reason why the movie falls flat.
Produced (not directed or written) by Quentin Tarantino (so you know it's going to be bad) "The Man with the Iron Fists", Wu Tang Clan member RZA's first try behind the camera, doesn't disappoint as far as "bad" movies go.
RZA, starring alongside an obese Russell Crowe and Cung Le (which should tell you all you need to know) in this rather poor grindhouse homage to old Kung Fu movies, narrates the simplistic story of a black blacksmith (RZA) who must protect his village from a deadly band of assassins.
Now, RZA does use some stylized camera techniques that obtain a semblance of that cool-factor he is looking for, but yet again, problems arise when he uses them in excess.RZA is no actor: Maybe the least important aspect of a grindhouse film like this is the acting, although there is something to be said for a self controlled actor who knows how to overact.
In the case of "The Man with the Iron Fists"umwellthe soundtrack is good (although, at times ridiculously misused) but this is to be expected since music is what RZA does (NOT DIRECTING).
"I always take a gun to a knife fight..." I provided this rating based on the fact that I would not see this movie a second time, would not recommend it to a friend, and did not take anything away from it other than the thought that Quentin Tarantino must have been high when he agreed to lend his name out for it.I saw this movie because of my love for martial arts flicks, and I usually give all of them a chance.
I'm not sure if it was because I was blown away by RZA's acting or because I was too busy trying to figure out why Russell Crowe was in the movie at all.The set and costume design were the only things I thought were good about the movie.
Judging from the trailer, you can tell it's going to be a dope kung fu movie but you also see that RZA is playing the main character.
The acting was okay, but I think the best job goes to Lucy Lui and Russell Crowe because they gave the best performances.THE BAD - I don't know about RZA playing the main character.
I named those black actors because it seemed like the Filmmakers were going for an urban feel, but RZA's strong east coast accent was very distracting at times but I don't think that was a huge flaw, it's just a matter of taste and that's what the director wanted so I can respect that.
Some of the dialogue was cheesy and even certain points in the movie, you kind of whisper to yourself "Really?!" But knowing Quentin and RZA they both are Kung Fu lovers so I looked over the cheesy moments because I knew they were just paying homage to all of the Kung Fu movies that they grew up watching.
Lots of blood, decapitation, fun martial arts, subliminal dirty jokes, sarcastic humor, special effects, and a unique, urban take on the classic Kung Fu films we've learn to love over the years.
THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS.I really liked it.The movie was made by Rza, who is a member of the band Wu Tang Clan.
The 5.5 rate on IMDb is baffling, so i have to take some time and make a review.I guess most people who criticize the film have, like, no knowledge of the Wu-Tang Clan, RZA and old school Asian movies and, therefore, were expecting a movie totally different and were shocked.This movie is a tribute to all the old school kung fu flicks that the Wu-Tang watched as they built their albums, especially the 36 chambers.
This movie brings all the possible clichés you could find in those films, all seen under the street culture angle.I give this movie, like, an 8 for being original and true to its colors, a movie based on the passion & respect that RZA has for 1970-1980s kung fu flicks.
The entire film just felt like it lacked a director.The movie begins with an hour long introduction of the plot which has nothing to do with the character it is named after.
it had every cliché in the book not once do you feel for any of the characters...the whole film is just one big ego trip for RZA which fails in every departmentit is not a fun movie like the director deluded himself is...it's not cool either as you haven't got a clue what is going on!..let alone understand half the actors..don't waste your time on this garbage, and god forbid RZA ever gets the chance to do another film....AVOID AT ALL COSTS.
I though Russel Crowe did a pretty good job with what he was given, and RZA did okay as actor and I really like when he narrated.
It's kind of messy, like Punk Rock, or Tarantino film (why else would he attach his name to it?), but the Rza does a BANG-UP job directing this movie.
Before I entered the theater to watch Rza's movie "The Man with the Iron Fists", I had a couple of expectations for it.
Most of the acting was actually pretty good and had some big name actors like Lucy Lu and Russell Crowe.
I had a little problem caring for the main plot but, each characters stories were interesting to say the least.The thing that made this movie even better was the soundtrack.
Most of the acting was great and only a few actors were noticeably bad.Now I know what most people are wondering about is the action and violence in the movie.
There is plenty of blood to enjoy and I think they did a great job.I got a lot of joy out this film and that is good for being Rza's first main stream movie.
It had cool characters, badass action scenes, lots of martial arts fighting and a storyline that kept me entertained from start to finish.But, to be fair, the film is not without its flaws.
You see that the movie is practically written, directed, produced (Al-bed Eli Roth) by a rookie film director (and rap/hip-hop legend) RZA.
I can not help but wonder, who the hell let RZA direct, act, or write the script for this movie?!I guess this sums up, what my review...Russel is good, not at his best, but script does not allow him to be great.
The rest of the cast aren't what you would call God awful, they just seem a little wooden at times but that doesn't really hurt the film very much.Overall, THE MAN WITH THE IRON FIST to me was better than I expected and despite its flaws it manages to entertain although I wouldn't recommend it to someone who is a bit of an uptight film critic or perhaps to someone who is a die hard fan of the Shaw brothers style kung fu movies with high standards.
RZA can't act (even Bautista did a better job of his role) can't write a script and can't direct, yet he took on all of these jobs and more.I am disappointed that a movie with a clearly large budget, a desire to recreate, or at least update the genre, came out so appallingly bad.
Everyone went in expecting to see Kill Bill for some reason, because it was produced by Tarantino.At any rate, the film has quite a nice plot, reminiscent of the movies it tries to pay homage to.
Later on, the story starts involving another warrior clan that is protecting the gold (Geminis), a crime syndicate (Wolves), a mercenary army (Jackals), a blacksmith (RZA) that just wants to leave with his beloved woman, a whore house where said woman works (The Blossom House), a mysterious assassin (Poison Dagger), a mysterious cowboy (Jack Knife, played by Russel Crowe) and the son of the murdered Lions clan leader (Zen Yi or X-Blade).The film contains several fight scenes and violent acts and if you are an action fan, you are gonna enjoy this.
I especially enjoyed the obese Russel Crowe in the role of Jack Knife.Overall, it's a good watch if you don't go in expecting to see the masterpiece of the year in Kung Fu movies, or a parody along the lines of Black Dynamite.
it looks so cheap , even though i bet the budget was in tens of millions ,, i mean even the fight scenes were so old ,, and to be fair there were a couple of scenes like in the end for instance were it got a bit of real action/thrill but other than that the script was all over the place ,, i mean the plot was clear but to reach the ending it was torture.The cast was good, A listers ,, but Russell Crowe's scenes at the beginning got a bit weird and so over and unnecessarily ...
hell not even SY-FY TV!If you like martial arts/kung fu movies then I would recommend any of these alternative, way better films.'Reign of Assassins' [2012] 'Shaolin' [2011] 'True Legend' [2010] 'Bodyguards & Assassins' [2009] 'Ip Man' [2008] & of course 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon' [2000] even 'Swordsmen' [2011] is a better film and that sucked.
As much as I like seeing martial arts movies from Asia, it's refreshing to not have to read subtitles.I find it amusing that some of the reviewers are trying to put some intellectual critique on it instead of just enjoying the blood, guts, and action.
Sure, some parts could have been better, but for RZA's first film that he wrote and directed, it is so much fun to watch.Is it wrong that I was the only one laughing when people were getting killed?
If you can watch a film like the "Five Deadly Venoms" and overlook the fact that its never explained why the Poison Clan members became bad guys, or why the last student(who was taught all the styles, but never mastered one) needed to seek the help of one the members of the Poison Clan to beat the others, you can overlook some of the story structure "problems" in The Man With the Iron Fists.
Lucy Liu looks like she wants to murder her agent (or Quentin Tarantino) for making her do this movie.
Anyone who has given this film less than 10/10 needs a Buddha palm to their triple burner.Do yourself a favor, and see this checklist before you buy this film and then come on here wailing about how you've been robbed of your money: WATCH THIS FILM IF YOU: 1) Actually KNOW and LIKE who the RZA is, and enjoy the WU-TANG beats and the content of the lyrics.2) Are a FAN of the OLDSCHOOL kung fu films, and ENJOY the cheesy parts 3) Have an interest in Buddhist philosophies combined with martial arts 4) Enjoy gratuitous violence and fast paced, energetic fight scenes 5) Have an actual sense of HUMOUR.DO NOT WATCH THIS IS YOU: 1) Are a miserable ****hole with no relation to any of the above points..
Like others I was really looking forward to it - an action film called "The Man With the Iron Fists", with Tarantino's name attached (however tenuously) and Russell Crowe starring - how could it fail?
Maybe in foreigners' eyes, every Chinese looks like same, but in our eyes, only some people can act KongFu movie.Actors' hair style are worse than actors。I want to know what's the name of Mc Jin's hair cut,a huge d i c k?
I think he did what he set out to do.There aren't many martial arts films like this that get cinematic airtime anymore and it was good to go to a theater and see this type of movie.
I don't know if RZA is suppose to be the main character in this, cause he doesn't have much action scenes and he is hardly in the movie.
Rick Yune best remembered from The Fast and The Furious(2001) and Die Another Day(2002), has some pretty good action scenes as well.Now did I like this movie, I was entertained, but was it great, no but I don't think it was meant to be a great film, but an entertaining one.
i don't even or like Eli Roth he is not that good director or screenplay well this movie was screenplay buy Eli Roth director that i Wish he could never been involved in movie i don't trust Eli Roth and his terrible as movies.Rza was Director and cast himself in movie i thought it was brilliant film he made with good characters making new age 70's 80's Bruce lee mixed with Quentin Tarantino film with Warriors,Ninjas,Assassins i like that idea for movie what people saying it's bad movie what do they expect this movie to be ?
movie had well shot, well Gore silly staff in it, Perfect CGI the fights were very good but i don't get it these modern day movies they jump very high that's what i find very bad it looks dumb when these fighters or ninjas jumping high i know people Had trouble and pain to watch this movie for me i had no problem i knew who is RZA was he's hip hop music and some of his movies were great, showdown between Dave and Rza was awesome great idea, rick yune kicked a lot of asses cutting ninjas up Russell crowe had funny and awesome character who made Me laugh with his jokes i had no problem Lucy lu did some of kung flu i have watched this movie in theater like 3 years ago it amazed me a lot 10.10 non stop action,gore fast placed that's how i like it but there's thing i really hate Eli Roth was worst director of all time i wish rza never got him in involved in this flick.
everyone check out this movie if you like gore,Rza music,Kung flu,fast placed with mixed of Kill bill,Enter the dragon style, Revenge of ninja.
This is by far one of the worst movies of all time, It actually pushed me to go to IMDb, make an account so that I could just rate it and review it.Too much blood, very bad acting and even worse directing.The story line was like it was made by a 90 years old Chinese man high on tequila after watching fight club or a re-run of mortal combat annihilation.but the what amazes me the most is how some big name stars agreed to be seen in such a lousy picture?
terrible goes for: the plot, the script, the acting, the music in connection to the film, absolutely the directing.I can't say anything good about this movie.
(Which is most likely the reason Tarantino backed the movie) I didn't even know who RZA was before this.
sure, martial arts and memories about so many films and Rusell Crow and Lucy Liu ( and the mind to the scenes from Kill Bill ) and influences of western and a mythology in balance between Chinese fairy tales and stories about modern heroes.
I tried to watch this horrible amateur film only because Russell Crowe was mentioned and Tarantino but it was so bad i walked out of it after 30 minutes and got a refund for another movie.I actually love Martial Arts movies, Chinese films and action, and I don't mind RZA but the story and acting was like a really really bad porn/b rated low budget film.
It was just laughable until you realize the entire movie is just like watching a beginner film student wasting good time with a stupid script, childish language, and horrible acting.
RZA was competing with Tom Hardy for the award for most inscrutable dialogue in a motion pictureThe music was pretty good, but seemed really out of place.It felt like RZA sincerely wanted this to be decent action movie, but then Tarantino decided to punk him and edited it into a B-grade flick post-production.I can only assume Russell clobbered someone with a phone again and was blackmailed into starring in this.Lucy Liu desperately tries to recapture the time when she was the go-to Asian-American actress.Rick Yune is as bad as he's ever been.
It's like he and John Choi are the the best Hollywood has to offer.Then there were the few HK/Chinese actors who think this will help them break into Hollywood.I seriously wouldn't have mind everything wrong with the film (which is basically everything) if they at least bothered to hire a decent action choreographer.I fully expect Tarantino to pretend he was going for a deliberately cheesy movie to hide how bad it was..
This whole thing is so pathetic that it seems like RZA must have had a hand in it because the movie is about as bad as his rapping.
Sometimes it is good to watch a movie like this and just have a laugh or two during the Dramatic scenes.
Head on Kung Fu. The Man with the Iron Fists is a martial arts homage co-written and directed by RZA.