Iron Protector Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.0

Iron Protector Blu-ray Movie Review

Hint: It's not Tony Stark.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 4, 2017

Fans of the martial arts genre may be familiar with the term Bruceploitation, the often kind of sad but simultaneously funny efforts by film producers to rebrand certain performers as “the new (and/or next) Bruce Lee” after that performer’s tragic early death. There are a fair number of examples in both Kung Fu Trailers of Fury and Return of Kung Fu Trailers of Fury, but for those not previously up to speed with this probably desperate “genre” of marketing, among the actors who came along in the wake of Bruce Lee who were supposedly his “second coming” were Bruce Li, Bruce Le, Bruce Lai, Bruce Lei, Bruce Ly and (just for good measure) Lee Bruce, among many others. The fact that only certain aficionados of martial arts films will have heard of any of these guys is perhaps just one indication of how ultimately successful they were in assuming Bruce Lee’s mantle. Well, there’s a new kid on the block, so to speak, once again trumpeting his arrival as the “next (and/or new) Bruce Lee” (as evidenced by this film’s trailer itself), though in this case Yue Song had the decency not to try to morph Bruce Lee’s name into something similar. Song previously served in a triple threat capacity as the star, writer and director of the frankly kind of middling The King of the Streets, and some of his narrative deficiencies are still on display in Iron Protector, the second film for which he’s a so-called multi-hyphenate with the above mentioned trio of job duties. That said, Iron Protector has a bit more of a visceral storyline than The King of the Streets did, and Song has certainly upped the presentational ante, albeit with a number of visual tricks and other bells and whistles that may add a bit to mood, but don’t offer much in the way of actual substance. While the story is rote (if not quite as rote as in The King of the Streets), Song acquits himself pretty spectacularly in the action sequences, which (if the trailer is to be believed) were achieved without any “tricks” or stunt doubles. That stunt double issue may in fact be true, since even with patented quick cutting editing techniques it’s more than obvious that Song is performing his own stunts, but the “trick” part is at least arguable, depending on how you define “trick”, since it’s obvious (as well as overtly shown in some of the brief making of featurettes included on this Blu-ray as supplements) that copious wire work was involved in several of the fight scenes.

Iron Protector evidently began life under the working title The Bodyguard, at least as evidenced by some passing comments in those brief making of featurettes as well as some online data (somewhat hilariously, someone has linked my The Bodyguard Blu-ray review on the IMDb page for this film), and while there is in fact a bodyguard element that ultimately crops up, Song reveals some of the same inability to clearly present context and even general plot points that he showed with regard to King of the Streets. That includes a somewhat baffling opening sequence that sees Wu Lin (Yue Song) in a rather “difficult” meditating pose (see screenshot 5), acting somewhat like the “mannequin” performers you’ll see on urban streets from time to time, while a little boy with an ice cream cone basically taunts him from the sidelines. It’s all kind of weirdly surreal, especially given the odd angles Song chooses to frame events (something he does throughout the film, not always helpfully), ultimately erupting for no apparent reason into the film’s opening melee. Kind of interestingly, given my comments in my The King of the Streets Blu-ray review about the assailants in that film figuring out that ganging up on the hero is more effective than trying to get him one at a time, the opening skirmish in Iron Protector does in fact have combatants more or less lining up in single file to attack Wu Lin, with the expected devastating results (for the bad guys, that is). A quick cutaway to the potential victim of the villains, who has been saved by Wu-Lin and is now offering him a stack of money which Wu Lin refuses to accept, seems to sum up Wu Lin’s heroic attributes quite well.

That potential victim turns out to be an entrepreneur named Li who none too surprisingly figures into the story, though initially Iron Protector just plops down another character named Jiang (Xing Yu, AKA Shi Yanneng) who it turns out has a long history with Wu Lin, having received his martial arts training from the same (now deceased) master. The fact that the master chose Wu-Lin to learn several high classified moves, as well as to wear iron boots that make Wu Lin’s kicks pretty lethal, might suggest that Jiang has some deep seated resentments concerning his friend, and so the film’s initial depiction of Jiang as an honorable person are almost automatically suspect (there’s also the fact that Jiang is almost always seen with a giant stogie in his mouth or hands, something that seems to imply “super villain”).

About as unsurprising as the fact that Jiang and Wu Lin ultimately end up as nemeses is the fact that, prior to relations breaking down, Jiang offers Wu Lin a bodyguard gig taking care of Fei Fei (Li Yufei), who just so happens to be the drop dead gorgeous daughter of Li, the guy Wu Lin rescued in the first scene. It’s all pat and resolutely predictable, though it’s notable that Song has developed as both a filmmaker and a performer in his second “at bat”. This film is larger in scale than The King of the Streets, with a much more active camera and some completely over the top action set pieces. The story ultimately doesn’t make one whit of sense, but for adrenalin junkies the fight scenes may be enough to distract them from that unfortunate aspect.

Iron Protector Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Iron Protector is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Technical data (heck, even complete cast listings) are negligible online (at least that I could find), but this appears to be digitally captured and for the most part is really rather spectacularly well detailed, especially given the fact that this was probably not a high budget affair. Song loves extreme close-ups, as can be seen in several of the screenshots accompanying the review, and with a refreshing lack of aggressive grading, the palette looks natural and detail and fine detail levels pop quite impressively a lot of the time. As mentioned above in the main body of the review, Song has "tarted" up the proceedings with a number of visual tweaks, including some scenes with pushed contrast and brightness and interstitial elements featuring drawings that morph into the "real" versions of what's being depicted (see screenshot 6). Some of the CGI looks a little on the "cartoonish" side, with prevalent softness and not much in the way of even general detail levels, but overall this is a very appealing transfer that, aside from some brief flirtations with banding, is problem free.

Iron Protector Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Iron Protector features a rambunctious DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track in the original Mandarin that offers regular surround activity in the many over the top action set pieces, where elements like panning footsteps or the discretely channeled crunch of bones snapping make the listening experience quite immersive. Dialogue and score are rendered very cleanly, without any problems. Fidelity is great throughout the presentation, and dynamic range is also very wide.

Iron Protector Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Chase (1080p; 1:43) has some good behind the scenes footage of the staging and shooting of one of the film's set pieces.


• The Final Battle (1080p; 3:11) features much of the same, with a bit more of the planning stage, with regard to the film's big showdown.


• Training, Stunts and Fighting Highlights (1080i; 3:26) seem to put the lie to that "no tricks" promise in the film's trailer, at least if you consider wire work a trick.


• Trailer (1080p; 1:04)

Note: As tends to be the case with Well Go USA releases, the supplements have been authored to follow one another automatically. After the last one plays, the disc moves on automatically to trailers for other Well Go USA releases.

Iron Protector Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This may be a backhanded compliment, but Yue Song has grown immeasurably since The King of the Streets. That said, some (maybe even many) would still argue he has bit of growth left to accomplish, mostly in the basic tenets of clear, concise screenplay writing. Song's camera in this film is a study in ADHD, with bizarre framings and nonstop movement, and those proclivities are matched by Song's fun stagings of several completely over the top action scenes. Those action elements may be enough to provide allure for martial arts fans, and for them, technical merits are very strong.