Iron Monkey

Yang Tianchun, mostly called Dr. Yang, but most commonly known as the Iron Monkey is the titular protagonist of the 1993 martial arts movie of the same name. He is a medicine physician of traditional Chinese medicine with knowledge of martial arts who takes up a masked alter-ego in order to steal from the corrupt officials and help the poor and needy people of his town.
He is also friends with the legendary Wong Kei-Ying and his equally legendary son, Wong Fei-Hung, becoming his teacher.
He was portrayed by Yu Rongguang
==Appearance==
He is an adult Chinese man with a partly bald head and a long pigtail standard of the time. As Dr. Yang, he wears white robes. As the Iron Monkey, he wears black robes with a mask covering half his face with only the top part exposed.
==Biography==
===Background===
After the Zhejiang province was struck by a flood, corrupt officials took advantage of the situation to oppress the citizens and gain riches. Dr. Yang Tianchun, a medicine physician was disgusted with seeing the oppression happening in his town and decided to become a masked vigilante known as the Iron Monkey where he decides to steal from the greedy governor, Governor Cheng, and stop any injustice and oppression happening in the town. During the day, he works his job with his partner, Miss Orchid, a woman he saved from a brothel after her child died at birth who also helps him as the Iron Monkey. He acts as his usual kind and gentle self who barely raises his voice and is friends with Master Fox, the head of security (Since he's an adversary to the Iron Monkey). 
===Meeting Wong Kei-Ying===
One day, Governor Cheng orders his guards to arrest anyone who they suspect could be the Iron Monkey, and they arrested Wong Kei-Ying and his son, Wong Fei-Hung who were passing through the town that day for doing martial arts. Iron Monkey comes in to stop the governor from punishing innocent people and battles the guards, but then engages in a fight with Wong Kei-Ying, which caused Wong's reputation to be ruined with the people of the town and his son being held hostage until he can capture the Iron Monkey. Miss Orchid takes Wong Kei-Ying in after none of the townspeople would accept him, and he and Dr. Yang/Iron Monkey get properly introduced. Dr. Yang is happy to hear that a Northerner and Southerner will sit and eat together and then they both cook together, and Dr. Yang reveals his hopes for a peaceful town free of disasters.
Later that night, Dr. Yang, Miss Orchid, and Wong Kei-Ying all sit together for dinner and some wine, but Wong is still visibly worried for his son who is still being held hostage by the Governor. Wong says that he wants to kill the Iron Monkey, but only because he's worried for his son's safety, not pure spite, which gains pity from Miss Orchid and Dr. Yang. Wong then excuses himself saying he needs to go capture the Iron Monkey so that he can quickly reunite with his son, and Miss Orchid gives him some food for the night. Dr. Yang has decided to go free Fei-Hung since he knows the officers won't look after him well, and they leave for the prison. They enter the prison guided by Master Fox, and find that Fei-Hung has grown sick during his time in the cell, and Master Fox allows Yang to take Fei-Hung with him to cure him. Back at the clinic, Orchid gives Fei-Hung a bath and Yang puts some bamboo cups on his back. As they put Fei-Hung to bed, he suddenly says to Yang that he knows who he is, which causes Yang to look back at the boy in surprise before Fei-Hung shuts his eyes and goes to sleep.
The next morning, Yang and Orchid barge into the Governor's House disguised as the royal investigator Governor Cheng was expecting to meet today, and used the power everyone thought he had to punish Cheng for the bad things he's done by telling Master Fox to give him thirty lashes, and also ordering Cheng to surrender all his riches to him. In order to get rid of Cheng, Yang allows him to move to any province he wants and tells him to open stores and donate food to the people in order to give himself a good image. With that, Yang and Orchid leave, thinking that they have helped the people properly and finally gotten rid of Cheng.
===Hin Hung's Arrival===
Unfortunately, later on that very same day, the real royal investigator, a monk named Hin Hung, who is far more dangerous and competent, comes into town and kicks out Cheng and replaces him as the new governor. Back at the clinic, Yang is training Fei-Hung to fight with a rod, unaware of Hin Hung's arrival, but happy he got an apprentice. Wong Kei-Ying then comes in and thanks Dr. Yang for saving his son, and they all have lunch together. Later that night, Yang as Iron Monkey discovers a grieving widow near the body of her recently deceased husband who says that she has to sell herself in order to bury her husband and make sure her family won't suffer the same way she did. Iron Monkey, as usual, takes pity on the woman and gives a small bag of gold so that she won't have to sell herself, which she thanks him for. Suddenly, it's revealed that the widow and the deceased husband were actually the Witch and the Old Man, Hin Hung's closest henchmen, who have set up a trap for Iron Monkey in order to kill him. Iron Monkey then easily defeats both the Witch and the Old Man, even mocking the during the fight, but before he could leave, Hin Hung bursts out from a nearby wooden bridge and strikes Iron Monkey with his signature Shaolin King Kong Palm, causing poison to enter Iron Monkey's body. Iron Monkey was too wounded to fight and was forced to run away but Hin Hung chased after him, luckily this got the attention of Wong Kei-Ying who was still looking for the Iron Monkey and thought that Hin Hung was the one he was looking for and fought with him, giving Iron Monkey a chance to escape.
Iron Monkey successfully returned to the clinic but the poison was already starting to take affect, so he told Miss Orchid to take out the poisoned blood and told her the ingredients for a poison to combat the one in his body, but he passed out before he could finish. Luckily, an injured Wong Kei-Ying came in and discovered that the Iron Monkey was actually Dr. Yang the whole time, and gave the rest of the ingredients to Fei-Hung and Orchid before passing out as well. Fortunately, both Yang and Wong managed to be cured, and Yang explained how his father was once an officer but when their superior disposed, his colleagues got greedy and got his father killed. Master Fox then stopped by the clinic telling Miss Orchid that Hin Hung has ordered his soldiers to search all over town for Iron Monkey, so he told them to run away. Yang and Wong unfortunately had to leave Fei-Hung and Orchid behind to make sure they're not caught, and Wong tells his son that if he doesn't come back, he should go home without him. With that, Dr. Yang and Wong Kei-Ying leave.
===Defeating Hin Hung===
Dr. Yang and Wong Kei-Ying were resting among the peasants on the streets, where the peasants were discussing about Iron Monkey and gold. A peasant women then offered two rice bowls for each of them to eat, but when they realised that there were only two bowls, the peasants were offering their only full meals for the both of them. They tried to share the rice among the peasants, but they all refused and insisted on them eating it. Suddenly, Miss Orchid appeared and is injured and on the brink of passing out, and she told the that Hin Hung's henchmen have taken Wong Fei-Hung.
Later on, Wong Kei-Ying and Iron Monkey arrive at the Governor's House just in time to save Wong Fei-Hung and Master Fox who were being tortured and beaten up mercilessly, and Iron Monkey throws some spikes at Hin Hung's soldiers, severely injuring them and leaving them incapable to fight. He then threw a spike at the chain holding Fei-Hung up so that Wong can catch him, but Hin Hung grabs Fei-Hung with his "Flying Sleeves" before Wong could grab him. Hin Hung then orders the Witch and the Old Man to kill Iron Monkey and Wong Kei-Ying, leaving Miss Orchid, who came in last to save Fei-Hung before Hin Hung could kill him. As Wong takes out the Old Man, Iron Monkey faces the Witch, kicks her around and momentarily knocks her out. Iron Monkey tells Wong and Miss Orchid to run away with Fei-Hung while he faces Hin Hung, Hin Hung then tries to attack him with his Flying Sleeves, but he manages to dodge it and pin it to the ground with his chain whip, then mocks Hin Hung for being a disgrace to his profession as royal investigator.
Hin Hung continues attacking Iron Monkey with his Flying Sleeves, but Iron Monkey manages to escape with Wong, Orchid, Fei-Hung, and Master Fox through a hole in the wall caused from taking out the Witch and the Old Man. They run through a street behind the Governor's House, but Hin Hung bursts through a brick wall and blocks their path. Hin Hung accuses Wong of bringing shame to their Shaolin school, but Iron Monkey says that of it weren't for people like Hin Hung, there wouldn't be a need for people like the Iron Monkey. Hin Hung launches his Flying Sleeves at Iron Monkey again, but he manages to grab it mid-air with his chain-whip, and they both pull against each other. Wong Kei-Ying then jumps on top of the sleeves with his wooden rod making his way to Hin Hung, causing him to pull harder on his sleeves which then cause his sleeves to get ripped apart and shreded and Iron Monkey's chain-whip to snap and break into pieces as well. Iron Monkey and Wong Kei-Ying then try fighting Hin Hung but ended up getting thrown into an area filled with tall wooden poles, and in the middle of the fight where Hin Hung was overpowering them, they accidentally dropped a lamp and smashed a giant pot of oil which ended up setting the ground on fire and forcing the three of them to fight atop the wooden poles.
Iron Monkey and Wong Kei-Ying try to knock Hin Hung off the poles and into the fire, but he keeps getting back up and overpowering them every time, he and Iron Monkey even ended up breaking off two of the burning poles to use as weapons. After a while, only a couple of poles are still standing while the rest have been burnt from the fire, and Iron Monkey and Wong Kei-Ying are forced to balance themselves on a horizontal piece of a broken off pole. Iron Monkey thought of a plan to trick Hin Hung, so he told Wong Kei-Ying to step on his side of the pole in order to launch Iron Monkey high into the air, which is exactly what he did. As he gets Hin Hung's attention, Hin Hung hits him in the stomach with his burning pole, but Iron Monkey reveals to Hin Hung that he and Wong have tricked him, and Iron Monkey drops his burning pole onto Hin Hung's head, causing him to bleed and scream in pain. This also gives Wong Kei-Ying the opportunity to kick Hin Hung off his pole and down to the fire, ending the monk's life. Wong lands on Hin Hung's pole, and Iron Monkey lands on Wong's shoulders, then Miss Orchid, who was watching the battle alongside Fei-Hung and Master Fox, throws the both of them two bamboo poles that they use to get across the fire. They both reunite with their loved ones (except for Master Fox who they ignored), watch Hin Hung's body burning in the flames, and run away.
The next day, Dr. Yang, Miss Orchid, and Master Fox accompany Wong Kei-Ying and Fei-Hung to the gates of the town as they have to catch the train back to Foshan. They see a parade and a palanquin indicating that a new governor is arriving to replace the previous one, and all they can do is happily hope that the new one will be good. Dr. Yang says his goodbyes to Wong and his son, and the three of them watch the father and son leave for home.
==Quotes==
==Gallery==
==Trivia==
*Iron Monkey is heavily based off Robin Hood, Zorro, and Wong Fei-Hung himself.
**He steals from the rich to give to the poor like Robin Hood.
**He leaves his marks and is masked like Zorro.
**He runs a clinic and is a medicine physician like Wong Fei-Hung.
*Despite being the focus character, Donnie Yen, who portrays Wong Kei-Ying, and Wong Fei-Hung are the characters used to advertise the movie a lot more.
Category:Action Heroes
Category:Live Action Heroes
Category:Martial Artists
Category:Fighters
Category:Male
Category:Vigilantes
Category:Doctors and Scientists
Category:Medieval Heroes
Category:Titular