As one of the most famous and successful genres in the Chinese film and television industry, martial arts films have a long history.
If american audiences grow up in the company of superheroes such as Superman, Spider-Man, and Batman, then domestic audiences are slowly growing up in the company of martial arts figures such as Huang Feihong, Guo Jing, and Ling Huchong.
Therefore, in the theme of martial arts films, no matter how powerful Hollywood's industrial technology is, it is always inferior to Chinese films.
However, martial arts and kung fu, as the earliest film genre exported to Europe and the United States, also have many fans in Hollywood.
For example, director Quentin Tarandino, an iron fan of Hong Kong Shaw films, has made two films "Kill Bill" to pay tribute to Shaw's martial arts films, which are still one of the most influential foreign kung fu films.
In addition to Quentin, there are not a few foreigners who are fascinated by Shaw's martial arts films.
In 2002, a foreign comedian, Steve Oddcock, remade and re-edited a 1976 kung fu film, Tiger Crane Twin, and spoofed it into a nonsensical comedy film, "Kunbao Punches Out".
This film is a comedy action film with great spoofing ability, and the clip of the film was once very popular on the Internet in Chinese more than a decade ago, in which the classic cow becomes a martial arts master, and the plot of the groundhog can become a double stick comes from here, and the brain hole is simply ridiculously large.
In addition to "Kunbao Punch", what also impressed The Fan Yingjun was a foreign martial arts kung fu film "Iron Fist".
Produced by Quentin Tarandino and starring RZA, the lead singer of the famous black rapper Wu-Tang Clan (Wudang Faction), the film wrote and directed itself, bringing together Hollywood stars Russell Crowe, Dave Batista, Liu Yuling and Wu Yanzu to join.
The director of the film, RZA, with a fascination with Shaw's kung fu films, integrates elements of martial arts, revenge, gunfights, intrigue, strange abilities, human body transformation and other elements in the story, while also trying to pay tribute to Zhang Che's masculine violent aesthetics, and finally turning the film into an alternative cult martial arts film that combines earth and ocean, Chinese and Western.
In this issue of the "Cult Movie Awards", let's introduce the strange works in this kung fu film -
"Iron Fist"
The Man with the Iron Fists
The film was released in 2012, also known as Tekken Invincible.
If you know RZA and the Wudang faction he leads, you know that he is an avid Shaw kung fu fan.
Not to mention the name of the Wudang school, a group full of oriental martial arts style, and the songs of RZA are full of many elements related to kung fu and orientalism.
As a fan of Shaw's kung fu films, RZA planned to shoot a kung fu film set in the East as early as 2002. In 2003, Quentin came to the mainland to shoot "Kill Bill", and RZA also came to the mainland as the soundtrack of the film, followed Quentin to learn shooting experience, and completed the script of "Iron Fist" during the period.
Later, RZA met like-minded director Eli Rose, who became famous for shooting horror thrillers such as "Bones Are Gone" and "Human Skin Inn", and was also a fanatical fan of B-grade films who focused on cult films for twenty years, so he hit it off with RZA.
As a result, Quentin served as executive producer, Eli Ross as a producer, and RZA, who had a dream of martial arts kung fu, also served as a star, director and screenwriter, in addition to inviting Hollywood stars such as Russell Crowe, Dave Batista, Liu Yuling, etc., he also brought in Chinese actors such as Wu Yanzu and Lu Jingshan, in addition to Shaw martial arts stars such as Liu Jiahui and Chen Guantai.
The film was filmed in the mainland, the original version of the film was 4 hours long, the director RZA originally wanted to divide the film into two films, the upper and lower films, but finally the producers strongly opposed and gave up, the release version is only 96 minutes, while the unrated version has 107 minutes, which is classified as R-
Although the story of this film is full of a foreign director's imagination of the East, and many elements and plots will make domestic audiences accustomed to watching Hong Kong and Taiwan martial arts films feel contrary, the framework of the whole story is basically a reference and imitation of Shaw's martial arts films.
The story takes place in an alternate chaotic era, the fictional last years of the Qing Dynasty in the 19th century.
At this time, the imperial court was corrupt, and in the north, there were jianghu gangs represented by the Jackal Gang and the Fierce Lion Hall, occupying the mountain as the king, and being the evil side.
The imperial court was very jealous of the most powerful fierce lion hall, and the governor in charge of guarding the north proposed a strategy to recruit security.
The eldest golden lion (Chen Guantai) of the Fierce Lion Hall agreed to the court's offer, so he brought his two brothers, the second silver lion and the old third bronze lion (Li Liegong), to the Governor's Mansion to see him, expressing his willingness to defect to the imperial court.
The Admiral gave the Lion Hall a task to escort a shipment of official silver, fifty thousand taels of gold, to the capital.
However, after receiving the task, the Golden Lion was betrayed by his two brothers, the Silver Lion and the Bronze Lion, and was brutally killed.
The Silver Lion and the Bronze Lion soon took control of all the forces of the Fierce Lion Hall and issued a underworld hunting order to Zheng Yi, the son of the Golden Lion.
However, Zheng Yi, as the young master of the Fierce Lion Hall, is not easy to mess with, he is good at using dark weapons, the weapon is a piece of armor that can fire various dark weapons, after learning that his father was killed, he is determined to avenge his father.
After Zheng Yi inquired, he learned that the Silver Lion had already taken the disciples of the Fierce Lion Hall with him and bloodied the Jackal Gang, another major force in the jianghu.
Now he is leading a group of people to a remote town: Jungle Village.
As the name suggests, this is a killing place like a primeval jungle, and the law of survival of the weak is the survival of the town.
Therefore, Zheng Yi immediately set off for the jungle village.
On the way, the Silver Lion sent a group of killers to hunt down and kill Zheng Yi, but was killed by Zheng Yi, who was highly skilled in martial arts.
Zheng Yi thus learned that the ultimate goal of the silver lion and the bronze lion was to go to the jungle village to rob the gold escorted by the imperial court.
There are two sides to the conversation.
At this time in the town, there lives a low-key and mysterious black blacksmith (RZA).
The blacksmith, who had a great skill, came to the town many years ago to live in seclusion, because of his exquisite blacksmithing skills, often creating weapons for people passing by, and gradually became famous in the neighborhood.
The blacksmith often visits the town's Qinglou because he falls in love with a top silk (Jamie Zhong) girl in the Qinglou, thinking that he has saved enough money to redeem herself and go away together.
Soon, the news that the gold escorted by the imperial court was about to come to this place broke the tranquility of the town.
All kinds of martial artists came to the town, except for the people and horses of the Fierce Lion Hall,
There's also Jack (Russell Crow), a mysterious Western master nicknamed knifeman.
Some subtitle groups translate this character as "Dao Lang", which is too outrageous!
Zheng Yi also came to the town, planning to seek revenge on his father's enemy, but he did not expect that the silver lion had found a foreign aid.
The master of the Silver Lion is the killer of the jianghu, a bronze man (Dave Batista) with a golden bell hood.
The Bronze Man has a sword and gun insane Divine Gong Protective Body, and every time he performs his gong, he will transform into a copper-skinned iron bone, which is the most suitable for dealing with Zheng Yi's dark weapon.
Sure enough, when Zheng Yiyi encountered the copper man's horizontal kung fu, he was suddenly helpless.
The two fought in an alley, and Zheng Yi's hidden weapon could not hurt the copper man in the slightest, and he was severely injured by hanging.
Seeing that he was about to die, a mysterious person suddenly intervened, disrupted the position of the copper man, and took the opportunity to save Zheng Yi.
At the same time, the imperial court escorted the team of gold to the town, led by the Gemini Killer, who was good at combined attacks.
However, as soon as the officers and soldiers escorting the gold arrived at the inn, they were attacked by the silver lion and the bronze lion.
Although the Gemini Star Killer's fusion skills are very powerful, he can't stop the other party from sneaking attack with a dark weapon, and eventually poisoned and died tragically.
When the news of the gold's robbery reached the capital, the imperial court was furious and ordered the admiral to send a firearms battalion to the town to pursue the Lion Hall.
What is outrageous is that the firearms battalion of the imperial court at this time actually carried heavy weapons such as Gatling.
At the same time that the imperial army rushed to the town, Jack the knifeman learned of the tragic death of the Gemini killer and began to investigate the gold case.
On the other hand, Zheng Yi woke up from his coma and found that the person who saved him was actually a blacksmith who hit iron on the side of the road.
The blacksmith tells Zheng Yi about his own life experience, he was originally a black slave who was trafficked from overseas, but as a result of a shipwreck at sea, he drifted alone to the southeast coast, and was eventually taken in by the abbot of the nearby Wuji Temple (Liu Jiahui) and learned martial arts in the temple.
The host once told him that he had a powerful qi in his body and was a martial arts wizard who was unique in all.
But like many superheroes before they became famous, they still lacked the opportunity to awaken their abilities.
Later, he left Wuji Temple, passed through the town and fell in love with the Qinglou girl Sisi, and since then he has made a living playing iron.
The blacksmith saw that the road was uneven, promised to help Zheng Yi, temporarily took him in to heal his wounds, and offered to help him build weapons to take revenge.
However, the jianghu is sinister, and the blacksmith's rescue of Zheng Yi is exposed, so he is also involved in the jianghu vendetta.
The blacksmith who went out to buy medicine was caught by the people of the Fierce Lion Hall, and the silver lion asked people to cut off the hands of the blacksmith in order to force Zheng Yi's whereabouts.
At this time, the knifeman who passed by to investigate the Fierce Lion Hall intervened and saved the dying blacksmith.
After the blacksmith recovered, he decided to go to war with the Lion Hall.
In order to deal with the Copper Man's horizontal kung fu, he was determined to create a pair of iron fists for his severed hands.
Miraculously, when the iron fist was placed at the blacksmith's broken wrist, the qi in the blacksmith's body was instantly activated, opening up his second vein.
The blacksmith who has achieved great feats, plus the knifeman and Zheng Yi, who has healed from his wounds, the three of them converge and agree to join forces to destroy the Fierce Lion Hall.
However, what was not expected was that the Fierce Lion Hall was also subjected to civil unrest at this time.
In the small town of Qinglou, the silver lion, who thinks that he has completed his work, meets a mysterious person under the hospitality of the old bustard Lady (Liu Yuling) of the Qinglou, and he is the mastermind behind the robbery of the gold of the imperial court by the fierce lion hall, and the eunuch of the imperial court poison dagger (Wu Yanzu).
The two believed that success was in sight, and planned to hide the gold first, evade the pursuit of the imperial army, and then take it away.
But I didn't expect that the old bustard lady of the Qinglou was not simple, and she also stared at this gold.
It turned out that Madame Hua was also a martial arts master, and she had been secretly training her Qinglou girls to become top assassins. Madame Hua used the girls under her hands as bait to make the disciples of the Fierce Lion Hall let down their guard.
Then, with an order, the female assassins spat out poisonous needles from their mouths and slaughtered the disciples of the Fierce Lion Hall.
Unfortunately, the blacksmith's beloved silk encountered the copper man with copper skin and iron bones.
Silk's poisonous needle could not hurt the other party at all, but instead died tragically at the hands of the copper man.
Lady Flower's plot is revealed, and the Lion Hall and the Poison Dagger engage in a scuffle with Lady Flower and her female Assassins.
At this time, the blacksmith joined the battle with the knifeman and Zheng Yi, and a great melee of good and evil began.
In the end, Lady Hua and Bronze Lion both died together, and Zheng Yi killed the Silver Lion to avenge his father.
The knifeman dueled the poisonous dagger, and he used the waterwheel mechanism in the building to hang the poisonous dagger;
As the male protagonist, the blacksmith fights the ultimate villain, the Bronze Man.
Although the iron fist created by the blacksmith himself is indestructible, the golden bell cover of the bronze man is also comparable to Marvel's steel force.
The blacksmith was caught in a bitter battle, and at a critical moment, he remembered the point kung fu that the abbot of Wuji Temple had taught him:
All horizontal kung fu practices will have a cover door and a death hole.
The blacksmith found the cover door of the copper man, a pair of iron fists specialized in acupuncture points, and the last move, Lushan Shenglongba, blasted the copper man into slag.
At the end of the melee, the villain is eliminated, and at this time, the imperial army also sets up Gatlin and prepares to wash the town in blood.
At this time, the knifeman took the initiative to reveal his identity, it turned out that he was a secret agent sent by the imperial court, and said that the gold had been recovered.
At the end of the story, a storm ends, and the knifeman and Zheng Yi leave.
The blacksmith smashed the blacksmith shop's signboard and stopped crafting weapons for people.
Instead, he is the guardian of the jungle town, maintaining the tranquility and peace of the town...
Many people commented: "Iron Fist" is a martial arts film made by foreigners YY.
Just like Hollywood's "Mulan" and other films for Eastern audiences in recent years, the film collects too many Western stereotypes and imaginary imaginations of the East. Leaving aside this chaotic era background setting, the film, as a martial arts film, is actually more like a foreign director who does not understand the East, and a pot of smorgasbord according to his imagination.
The film has a common storyline of martial arts films: gang infighting, revenge for the father, learning from the teacher, robbing darts, jianghu conspiracy, etc., but as a foreign film, the creators of the film obviously focus on the chaotic and disorderly ancient jianghu and the survival rules of the weak and the strong, overemphasizing the aesthetics of violence, and at the same time, the costumes, weapons, and kung fu characteristics of all the characters are far from the dashing, handsome, and poetic jianghu in our memory.
The movie is not so much a martial arts kung fu movie as it is a cult movie.
All the characters' non-mainstream styling, hip-hop music with martial arts scenes, all kinds of bad taste plots and violent scenes are not shy, and the final scene of the iron fist dueling copper man has simply become a special function of the big fight, giving people a feeling of pomp and weirdness.
In general, this film is probably the director RZA's personal dream work, not much artistic value, as a cult film can be seen.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that the film later launched a sequel, but unfortunately the director was replaced, coupled with lower production costs, the suspense left by the Easter eggs in the previous work was not explained at all, and it was completely a dog-tailed sequel.