The Man with the Iron Fists (2012)

On the hunt for a fabled treasure of gold, a band of warriors, assassins, and a rogue British soldier descend upon a village in feudal China, where a humble blacksmith looks to defend himself and his fellow villagers.

Director:

RZA

Writers:

RZA (screenplay), RZA (story),

Stars:

RZA, Russell Crowe, Lucy Liu

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
RZA	...	Blacksmith
Rick Yune	...	Zen Yi, The X-Blade
Russell Crowe	...	Jack Knife
Lucy Liu	...	Madam Blossom
Dave Bautista	...	Brass Body
Jamie Chung	...	Lady Silk
Cung Le	...	Bronze Lion
Byron Mann	...	Silver Lion
Daniel Wu	...	Poison Dagger
Zhu Zhu	...	Chi Chi
Chia Hui Liu	...	Abbott (as Gordon Liu)
Andrew Ng	...	Senior Monk
Kuan Tai Chen	...	Gold Lion
Yoyao Hsueh	...	Copper Lion (as Xue Jing Yao)
Telly Liu	...	Iron Lion

Storyline

In Jungle Village, the leader of the Lion's clan Gold Lion is summoned by the Governor and assigned to protect his gold that will be transported through the village. However he is betrayed and murdered by the greedy Silver Lion and Bronze Lion. Gold Lion's favorite son Zen Yi, a.k.a. The X-Blade, seeks revenge and heads to Jungle Village, but he is defeated by Brass Body and rescued by the local Blacksmith Thaddeus. Meanwhile the Gemini Female and the Gemini Male protect the Governor's gold, but they are vanquished by the army of Silver and Bronze Lion. The Blacksmith is abducted by the Lions and has his arms severed by Brass Body. However he is saved by the British Jack Knife, who is the emissary of the Emperor, and he manufactures iron arms for Thaddeus. Meanwhile the Governor sends the Jackal army to fight against the Lions and they hide the gold in the brothel of Madam Blossom. However, Madam Blossom and his girls form an army of black widows and together with Jack, Zen Yi and The...

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Plot Keywords:

gold | village | blacksmith | fight | brothel | 

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Taglines:

Seven clans, a fortune in gold. Let the battle begin.

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Genres:

Action

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for bloody violence, strong sexuality, language and brief drug use

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA Hong Kong

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 November 2012 (USA)

Also Known As:

A vasöklű férfi

Filming Locations:

Shanghai, China

Box Office

Budget:

$15,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$7,910,980 (USA) (2 November 2012)

Gross:

$15,608,545 (USA) (14 December 2012)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Arcade Pictures, Iron Fists

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min 107 min (unrated)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital Datasat SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The first cut of the film was four hours long. RZA suggested splitting it into two films, but producer Eli Roth disagreed, and it was ultimately cut down to approximately 90 minutes.

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Goofs

In the beginning of the film at 4:11 a few modern buildings can be seen in the horizon.

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Quotes

[from trailer]
The Blacksmith: When you forge a weapon, you need three things: the right metal, temperatures over fourteen hundred degrees... and someone who wants to kill. Here in this village, we got all three.

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Crazy Credits

There is an extra scene through the second half of the end credits. It's a possible prelude to a sequel.

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Connections

Featured in The Big Review: Fall Trailer Park (2012)

User Reviews

One of the worst films I've seen recently

RZA's film has some amount of imagination,but, simply put, he has no idea how to build, pace, or tell a story. He has made the unfortunate mistake of imitating a genre he loves without understanding what makes it work. The dialogue is half nonsensical exposition, half nauseating one-liners. Lots of clumsy penis and vagina jokes.

The plot is so diffuse...there is not enough time given to any character for them to be read as an actual character. The film fails in tying together any of these frayed threads and also fails to make what happens in any of them significant or sensible. For example there is a "betrayal" plot which happens in the first two minutes of the film, when there is no context to make that betrayal meaningful, make the traitor seem particularly villainous, etc. The acting is very broad and simplistic, which I guess is to be expected given the things RZA expects them to say. He doesn't seem to understand that all of these things, the characters, dialogue, plot points, etc. are pointless without a proper context.

Some people might be inclined to tell me it's the "point" of the movie to not have a story, to be a loose framework on which a series of fight scenes are hung. I'd first suggest that that is not a meaningful effort to make. But even as a visual spectacle or stylistic effort, it doesn't do very well. All of the fights are basically the same knife/sword play... none of the characters really have a specific fighting style, and the CGI gore lopped onto the fights is excessive and silly. The music cues are embarrassingly overdone...any time the film wants you to feel an emotion, the sappiest orchestral music instantly kicks in, to the beat of a hip hop song.

I think it's possible that RZA could make a good film someday, but this certainly isn't it.