The Iron Fisted Monk (1977)
'Here we are, supposedly in Shaolin Temple and this was actually shot on location in Korea and the first person we see fighting
Sammo Hung in
the film is actually a Korean martial artist, a Taekwondo expert, his
name is Ka Sa Fa or Casanova Wong. Those of you who are a longtime fan
of Kung Fu Cinema will remember him as one of the amazing martial arts
discoveries of Sammo Hung. He's probably brought more great martial
artists to the screen than anybody else. And Casanova was one of the
people he discovered in Korea and Casanova's best known film is Warriors Two. I'd say if I was praising his ability as a screen
fighter, he was somebody who really enhanced a movie rather than
somebody who'd carry a film by himself, he was never really a movie
star as such, but Sammo put him to great use. There was a fight
sequence that he shot between Casanova and all those Bruce Lee doubles
for the 1978 version of "Game of Death" and that was included in the
international print of the film that was released as Tower of Death. 
'Here is the legendary director Wong Fung playing the Abbot of the Temple... Wong Fung shot the very first Golden Harvest film The Angry River and hired the very young Sammo Hung to be his action director and Sammo himself describes Wong Fung as being like his adopted father and so they worked together a whole series of films until Sammo was ready to direct in his own right, whereupon he and Wong Fung worked together on the script of Iron Fisted Monk.'
'The character Sammo plays in the movie is called Jun Bai Lo and is actually based on a legendary character in the history of Southern martial arts. Jun Bai Lo was actually one of the Ten Tigers of Canton and his family name is Jun and Bai Lo is somebody who works as a rice husker or a rice pounder. According to legend this person began working as a rice husker at the age of 15, he was very powerfully built, very strong. It's obvious to me when I look at Sammo's filmcareer that he was always looking for characters who were slightly to the left of history. I mean he looked at himself and his build and his strong points and he realized people would not necessarily accept him as a very serious martial arts master. So he didn't play Wong Fei Hong, he'd play Lam Sai Wing, the pork butcher, the comedic student of Wong Fei Hong in the film The Magnificent Butcher. And like in Warriors Two he doesn't play Lam Yan who is like the founding father or one of the old time masters of Wing Chun, instead he plays Fei Chun , who is like again a roly-poly comedic sidekick student of Lam Yan. Here again in this movie he doesn't play a serious martial arts master, instead he plays somebody who - he looked for a character in the history of Kung Fu that was suitable for him and it's said of Jun Bai Lo that he was very powerfully built, very strong, he carried heavy loads of rice on his shoulders.'
'... and now a chance for Sammo to show off his weapons prowessand also to show how ahead of his time he is. This film was shot in 1977 and
he
is using techniques and exploring different ideas in film fight
choreography that were really a way ahead of the rest of the industry.
He really has been a groundbreaker in every area, in terms of the
different styles he used, in terms of techniques, in terms of
cameramovements, camera angles and you see there the use of the power
powder. This is a light sprinkling of white powder on the clothing and
he's gone a little bit over the top with it here, because they just
really experimenting with its use, but it would be a staple of his
action style, when people actually hit each other you get this cloud of
dust come up, which enhances the technique. The other thing is that he
would do this long sequences of weapons. I'm very impressed. Look at
this cameramovement here, that's really nice. Because in the old black
and white Wong Fei Hong films it used to be a stationary camera and
people used to fight in front of it... Even though I know there's a
huge market for older Show Brothers films, they seem very stiff and
stagey compared to the more fluid cinematography of the films of Sammo
Hung and Yuen Woo Ping and the other great choreographers who learnt
they trade in the late 70s and on into the 80s. And Jackie Chan of
course, was another great innovator of Kung Fu Cinema. When you look at
the development of these artists you realize that their Kung Fu is not
restricted to Chinese martial arts but their Kung Fu is actually
embraced the use of camerawork and the use of filmmaking techniques,
and that was the element of their Kung Fu as well. This was probably
something that was overlooked in the West where people really focus on
martial arts ability. But you really have to have the same kind of
devotion, dedication to training behind the camera as you do in a
training hall, or where you're preparing to actually film the fighting
sequence. And as I mentioned earlier, this was actually Sammo's
directorial debut and a very accomplished work for his first film. It
was actually released on 25th August 1977, and another claim to fame Iron Fisted Monk, it was actually the first of Golden Harvest
Cantonese language martial arts pictures, which might not sound like a
crutial difference to non-Chinese speakers but there's been a kind of
see-saw back and forward in HK between the popularity of Mandarin
dialect films and Cantonese dialect films. Iron Fisted Monk was one
of the new-wave of Cantonese dialect films.''I like the way the light is diffused in this scene. Again, in Kung Fu movies normally the other elements of th
e film are flat, all that's
focused on is the exchange of techniques and here you can see Sammo,
even at this early stage looking different ways to enhance a martial
arts picture... What I like about Sammo,
apart from the fluidity and the energy of his action scenes, is the way
that he even this stage early in his career he really gives time for
character and drama and pacing, and he would become more skilled pacing
a film, more able to convey emotion on film as he progressed as a
director and as an actor. But you can see in this early stage, he
really makes something interesting out of this parting between the
younger and elder brothers of Shaolin.''I don't really know what to say about this sequence (rape) other than to say as a kind of excuse that Sammo in this early stage of his career was experimenting in different ways to convey emotion... Something that's a reoccurring theme in Sammo's works is the abuse of women and I asked him about it once and he said that he is actually a very much an equal opportunities director, that everybody in his films get lot of abus
e, men and women together, he doesn't play favourites.
And so for this reason he should be regarded as a feminist. I don't
know whether the feminists would embrace him as one of their own for
this reason, but in his defence you have to say that he has made many
female martial arts stars look as good as they ever going to in films.
I mean he's worked with people like Cynthia Khan... years and years
earlier with Angela Miao. The same year as this film was made he mae Broken Oath which I still think is Angela Miao's best movie and also
one of the great unsung Kung Fu classics along with Hapkido. Another
film they did called "The Tournament", there's a whole bunch of movies
in this era where Sammo and Wong Fung worked with Angela Miao and all
the Golden Harvest actors at this time and did films that really never
been given their due because never been released properly since the
70s. I think people who'd see them again would be surprised. It's very
interesting there to see like the early stages of Sammo's directorial
skill, and the development to the style today as hot as anything.'
'And there's Sammo now going into action with this beautifully
intricate choreography, there he's actually using the ponytail as a
part of the fight. Which is another example of Sammo's imagination
going into a sequence'. 'Again you see this choreography where you get 2 people or 3 people working in frame at the same time. Sammo doesn't just have one guy running around in the background but actually has 3 people at the same time, which if you've ever tried to choreograph a film, action for video or for fun, it's actually tricky because if one person gets out of scene then the whole thing's gone, you have to start over. Whereas if it's one person moving or 2 people moving, obviously it gets more complicated. Sammo has on fight sequences up to 8 people moving in frame any given time, so that really requires enormous skill, like an ability to think in 3 dimensions on his part. And the physical ability of his stuntmen or his martial arts players, they can actually perform the choreography.'
'Here's Sammo with his spear, one of his weapons of choice. I
definitely know, I don't think I know anybody in the history of martial
arts weapons on films who can match Sammo. I think Odd Couple was
another movie he can show off his extraordinary skill.''People always asking me what's the requisite for somebody to be a good martial arts fighter on screen, and I always think, the obvious thing OK, someone says a martial arts champion or a master of a specific style, but I think that's not neccesarily a good attribute to have, and I think that what Sammo has is both as an actor and as an action director is the fact that he doesn't actually have one specific style that he studied, but he has basic physical skills, the basic requisite physical skills and then he acts as a mirror to take on both in his own fighting and in the choreography of the film, he mirrors the different arts that he wants to include and in this regard he's been like a great inventorist or a great person to demonstrate the different Chinese martial arts fighting styles in his films.'