Iron & Silk (1990)

Director:

Shirley Sun

Writers:

Mark Salzman (autobiography)
Mark Salzman (screenplay)
(more)

Release Date:

14 August 1991 (France)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

As a student in America, he searched for ancient wisdom. As a teacher in China, he learned to find it within himself.

Plot:

Mark Salzman always was interested in Kung-Fu and the Chinese culture, claims to have seen every Kung-Fu movie...

Plot Keywords:

Martial Arts | Beautiful Woman | Independent Film

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Hangcheng Dong	...	Teacher Cai
Xihong Jiang	...	Teacher Zhang
Jeanette Lin Tsui	...	Teacher Hei
Qingfu Pan	...	Himself
Mark Salzman	...	Teacher Mark
Xudong Sun	...	Sinbad
Funglin To	...	Old Sheep
Vivian Wu	...	Ming
Yang Xiru	...	Dr. Wang
Xiao Ying	...	April
Hu Yun	...	Fatty Du
Lu Zhiquan	...	Teacher Li
Genyuan Zhuang	...	Teacher Xu

Directed by
Shirley Sun

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Mark Salzman		autobiography
Mark Salzman		screenplay
Shirley Sun

Produced by
Shirley Sun	....	producer

Original Music by
Michael Gibbs

Cinematography by
James Hayman

Film Editing by
James Y. Kwei
Geraldine Peroni

Production Design by
Calvin Tsao

Production Management
Adam Park	....	post-production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jie Cheng	....	first assistant director: China

Sound Department
Alan Abrams	....	sound effects editor
Marko A. Costanzo	....	foley artist
Wendy Hedin	....	supervising sound editor
George A. Lara	....	foley mixer

Camera and Electrical Department
Jim Denny	....	gaffer

Editorial Department
Philip Pucci	....	first assistant editor

Other crew
Robert Nickson	....	production controller

Production Companies

• SUN-Productions
• Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS)

Distributors

• Acteurs Auteurs Associés (AAA) (1991) (France) (theatrical)
• Artisan Entertainment (1993) (USA) (VHS)
• Europa Carat (Brazil) (VHS)
• Lions Gate Films Home Entertainment (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Prestige (1991) (USA)

Other Companies

• Mute Records  soundtrack

Also Known As:

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

USA | Japan

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Canada

Company:

SUN-Productions

Trivia:

Uschu teacher Qingfu Pan and Mark Salzman play themselves.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Mark:[voiceover] I hate to admit it, but when I graduated from college, I thought I was ready for anything. That is, until I stepped off the train in Hangzhou. Here I was in a country of a billion people, and I didn't know a single one. This place was different than what I'd expected. It wasn't at all like what I'd seen in the Kung Fu movies. No one else I knew stayed up all night to watch that stuff, but I was hooked.
[screaming, Kung Fu movie clips with English subtitles]
Mark:The hero was always small like me, but he moved like the wind, triumphed over evil, and brought the bad guys to their knees. And - he always got the girl.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Siskel & Ebert: The Doors/My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys/Iron & Silk/Superstar" (1991)

simple surface, complex currents

Deceptively simple on the surface, Iron and Silk is complex beneath, with clashes and harmonies between East and West, old and new, open and closed, never pitting one against the other but exploring the interlocking elements. The plot isn't much; the joy is in the interplay of currents. This is a beautiful movie.

It's worth pointing out that IMDb's vote weighting hurts Iron and Silk badly. With only 310 votes as I write, apparently IMDb doesn't believe that so many people vote it a ten, or perhaps they discount bimodal vote distributions. IMDb's 6.4 is about what you get if you throw out all the tens! If you're into kinds of averages, the mode is 10, the median is 9, and the mean is 8.1. Those represent the movie better than IMDb's weighted 6.4.