Crouching Tiger can go eat my shorts because this is the template for modern martial arts films. Whereas Crouching Tiger had the distraction of sequences that looked like they were using bunjee cords to bounce around with, Iron Monkey had no such failings to break the mood. The actors actually look like they're performing the more extraordinary moves that the brain may tell you must have involved wires. The illusion remains unbroken.

That said, Iron Monkey is a perfect representation of the Kung Fu film genre, with action and plenty of fights. It is a movie that is no more then what it pretends to be nor less then what we hope for (even the scene with the killer sleaves harks back to similar bits from the films of the 70s and 80s). A classic enough plot with a hero fighting corruption and decay in the form of a bad-guy governor and deadly traitor. Throw in a female interest, rogue monks, a sympathizer from the other side, a child innocent, the fact that everyone in this film knows Kung Fu, and any given excuse for a fight, and you have an actioner well worth the price of admission. Yes it's subtitled, but at least that keeps you more alert.

Great matinee fare that would rate a Limbuger on my Chesey Scale if it wasn't too good for that scale.

By the way: The correct pronunciation is Gung Fu, with a gutteral "G".