7.6 | / 10 |
Users | 4.8 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
In a desperate and unjust land, where government corruption rules the day, only one man has the courage to challenge the system and fight back. They call him Iron Monkey. Under the shadow of night, in the silence before dawn, he fights to give hope to the poor and the oppressed. Although no one knows his name and no one knows where he comes from, his heroism has made him a living legend to the people and a wanted man to the powers that be. Unable to capture this elusive Robin Hood through normal avenues, the ruthless government devises a plan: force a nationally renowned master fighter into service by taking his beloved and only son hostage. The mandate is simple, track down the Iron Monkey if he ever wants to see his boy again. But when the Iron Monkey's identity and true intentions are revealed to him, the tables turn, and these two great men, one known and one masked, join forces to take down the evil empire and reclaim the rights of the common people.
Starring: Donnie Yen, Rongguang Yu, Jean Wang, Sze-Man Tsang, Shun-Yee YuenForeign | 100% |
Martial arts | 78% |
Action | 26% |
Crime | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Cantonese: LPCM Mono
Cantonese: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Mandarin: LPCM 2.0
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: LPCM Mono
English, English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region B (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Produced by Tsui Hark and directed by Yuen Woo-ping, "Iron Monkey" (1993) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Eureka Entertainment. The supplemental features on the disc include a vintage trailer for the film as well as numerous archival interviews with cast and crew members. In Cantonese, Mandarin or English, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".
Dangerous
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Yuen Woo-ping's Iron Monkey arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka Entertainment.
The release is sourced from a new 2K remaster that should make fans of the film who have been patiently waiting for a quality presentation to emerge on Blu-ray very happy. Indeed, the entire film now has a very strong and consistent organic appearance that makes it drastically easier to appreciate the artistic vision of its creators. So if you have seen the previous release Kam & Ronson Enterprises produced, which until now was the best option for English speakers that wanted to own the film on Blu-ray, expect to see serious improvements in terms of delineation, clarity, and of course depth. Also, this remaster introduces the type of proper grain structure that previous releases simply did not have, so if you view your films on a large screen, or even better project, you will see an entirely different type of proper fluidity. The remaster boasts a very nicely balanced color scheme as well -- the primaries are solid and wonderfully saturated and come with equally healthy nuances that support the film's native dynamic range. Image stability is excellent. All in all, this really is a lovely upgrade that will earn plenty of well-deserved complements. My score is 4.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).
There are five standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: Cantonese: LPCM Mono, Cantonese: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Mandarin: LPCM 2.0, English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, and English: LPCM Mono. Optional English and English SDH subtitles are provided for main feature.
In addition to the Cantonese mono track this film had an original Cantonese remix, and in the United States Disney of course produced the English dub. On the old release that Kam & Ronson Enterprises produced there was only a Cantonese: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 track which served the film quite well but also had some balance abnormalities. So I viewed the entire film with the mono track and I am happy to report that it is very nice. There are still some segments where it is pretty obvious that some overdubbing was done which coupled with the additional audio effects creates dynamic unevenness, but at least on the mono track these sound like typical Hong Kong martial arts limitations. So, my guess is that people that like Iron Monkey will find this lossless track very attractive. There are no audio dropouts, pops, or digital distortions to report. The English translation is very good.
I think that the new 2K remaster for Iron Monkey is wonderful and will earn a lot of praise from fans of the film who have been patiently waiting for a quality presentation to emerge on Blu-ray. This upcoming release also gathers the vintage supplemental features that were produced for the film and made available on older foreign releases, so as far as I am concerned Eureka Entertainment have a total winner. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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