The Man With the Iron Fists: Film Review

The Bottom Line

A homage/throwback to the martial arts of RZA's boyhood reveries.

Opens

Friday, Nov. 2 (Universal)

Cast

Russell Crowe, Cung Le, Lucy Liu,Byron Mann, RZA, Rick Yune, David Bautista, Jamie Chung, Daniel Wu, Zhu Zhu, Pam Grier, Gordon Liu

Director

RZA

RZA's directorial debut starring Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu feels like both a lavish vanity project and an earnest attempt to deliver a compendium of cool hand-to-hand combat set pieces.

A boiling pot of wild martial arts moves culled from dozens (maybe hundreds) of violent Asian action extravaganzas as sifted through a Tarantino-esque fanboy prism, The Man With the Iron Fists feels like both a lavish vanity project and an earnest attempt to deliver a compendium of cool hand-to-hand combat set pieces. The vogue for kung fu, elaborate wire work and fancy blade flashing seems rather past its due-date at this point, making director RZA's realization of his childhood enthusiasms feel a bit quaint, but you certainly can't say it's dull or uneventful. Still, in the U.S., at least, it's hard to see this Universal release breaking out beyond hardcore action fans.


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Hip-hop megastar RZA of Wu-Tang Clan grew up as Robert Fitzgerald Diggs watching Asian martial arts films at New York neighborhood theaters in the late '70s and '80s, and his first big-time outing as a director-writer-star feels like the result of notes he might have scribbled about the wildest, most outrageous action scenes he saw in movies like Fists of Double K, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Godfathers of Hong Kong and anything else he could track down from the Shaw Brothers. Tarantino, on board as presenter, entered the mix when RZA handled the score for Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and spent a month in China watching him shoot, which led to the connection with Eli Roth, a co-writer and co-producer here.
A cocktail blending aspects of the Chinese wuxia martial arts genre and the Japanese jidaigeki itinerant samurai/craftsman/peasant format, the Shanghai-shot Iron Fists features more lavish production values than most of its precursors as well as an odd but appealing stew of international actors including Russell Crowe as a British mercenary, Lucy Liu as an all-knowing brothel madame, World Wrestling Entertainment star David Bautista as an invincible warrior and RZA as Blacksmith, a former slave who crafts exotic weapons for one and all.
 The aptly named Jungle Village is like a Chinese Deadwood, the baddest town on the frontier where anything goes and outlaws roam free. The simple setup has a clan chief betrayed and killed for his horde of gold by his sadistic militia leader Silver Lion (streaked-hair rock star-type Byron Mann). Rampaging and killing as they please, Silver Lion and his animalistic top fighter Bronze Lion (Cung Le) threaten to bring Jungle Village to its knees, but handsome rightful heir Zen Yi, The X-Blade (Rick Yune), Crowe's hedonistic Jack Knife and Blacksmith form a Leone-esque ad hoc band of loners each whom has his own reasons for getting back at Silver Lion.

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Fun does come from the wildly imaginative weapons designs, Liu's crafty manipulations of everyone who sets foot in her house of pleasure, Crowe's sporting holiday in a role that would have been relished by his late Gladiator co-star Oliver Reed, the cramming of so many Asian martial arts hallmarks/cliches into one scenario and the weird conjunction of Chinese setting and mostly hip-hop-style soundtrack. Production values are certainly better than those on most of the films RZA idolized in his youth, while his visual handling is more industrious than stylish.
Opens: Friday, Nov. 2 (Universal)
Production: Strike Entertainment, Arcade Pictures
Cast: Russell Crowe, Cung Le, Lucy Liu, Byron Mann, RZA, Rick Yune, David Bautista, Jamie Chung, Daniel Wu, Zhu Zhu, Pam Grier, Gordon Liu
Director: RZA
Screenwriters: The RZA, Eli Roth; based on a story by RZA
Producers: Marc Abraham, Eric Newman, Eli Roth
Executive producers: Tom Karnowski, Thomas A. Bliss, Kristel Laiblin, Doris Tse
Director of photography: Chan Chi Yang
Production designer: Drew Boughton
Costume designer: Thomas Chong
Editor: Joe D'Augustine
Music: RZA, Howard Drossin
Special makeup FX: Greg Nicotero, Howard Berger
R rating, 95 minutes