The Man with the Iron Fists

★★

(2012)

Wu-Tang's RZA and Eli Roth have written and produced this messy little Kung Fu film which although good fun is a bit of a catastrophe. Rza directs himself as a blacksmith in early century China who ends up stuck between a rock and a hard place when he feels compelled to help the man who lost his father to the blades of his own forged weapons. An act which puts him and his arms in serious jeopardy.

Russell Crowe plays Jack The Knife a violent, sex crazed English soldier who has hazy ties to the Orient, though it's unclear if Rza and Roth even know what those ties are. Lucy Lui plays a joyless version O-Ren Ishii, the role she played in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill as the madam of a brothel which manages to find its own way into the bloodletting. There's Brass Body (Dave Bautista), a man whose skin turns to plated armour when he is stuck and Gordon Liu returns in the exact role from Kill Bill (RZA and Tarantino had plans to cross the film with both Kill Bill and Django Unchained).

What the plot is actually is pretty difficult to say. There's some vengeance, sure, there are clans who are introduced and never seen again, there's the blacksmith and his girl trying to save to escape the violent streets of Jungle Town, there's a large convoy of gold that must be intercepted and there is plenty of head cracking gore. The only thing that will get you through The Man with the Iron fists is the flurries of brilliance in the fight scenes but even they feel very sluggish overall. There's a pretty great little soundtrack which includes RZA and some golden oldies pilfered from other Kung Fu films.

Apparently RZA was "taught" how to direct by Tarantino in a 30 day stint in while he was shooting for Kill Bill, it's a shame then that Roth and QT seem to have backed RZA's script without really reading it. Whether the lines are supposed to come off as forced as they do, or if the blocking in the scenes is supposed to reflect a vintage Eastern way of shooting a martial arts film is beyond conversation. The Man with the Irons fists is a bit of a exploitation-esque laugh but a tiny bit embarrassing for most involved.