The Iron Man (1973)

The Action Mutant…
has a few prosthetics...that he doesn't care to mention.


The Iron Man (1973)


review by Joe Burrows


The Plot, as it was:
Jimmy Wang Yu (Master of the Flying Guillotine) is Chin, a man out for revenge (cue ominous music). When he was little, a treacherous Japanese crime lord named Fang Woo (Lung Fei) murdered his parents and sliced off his hand with a sword. Armed with a wooden hand, Chin the "Iron Man" goes on to kill all of Feng's associates while trying to stop Feng and an arranged marriage set up by a drunken former landowner who needs to pay off his gambling debts.

Don’t shoot me…I’m only the reviewer!:
Though set in modern times (well, the 70s at that time), The Iron Man (or Tough Guy, as I viewed it as) is a variation on the same revenge tome put forth by Asian film companies around this time. Nothing new is really put forth from this one, even down to Wang Yu's handicap as he made a name for himself with The One Armed Swordsman films. It also doesn't help that the dubbing is worse than usual, with the sound being a second or two off from the action. This leads to the usual unintentional hilarity that comes about with these pics but nothing more that is interesting. The fights are passable and get better as the film goes along but that (and a bit more nudity than usual) may not be enough to recommend a viewing here, as it seems long even at 87 minutes. As you can tell, there was barely enough to get a review here so that should tell you something.

Body Count/Violence: 15. For a guy with lots of revenging to do, the Iron Man kicks and chops people around mostly. The occasional death blow (punch to heart, twitch, die, repeat) is administered, along with shooting, stabbing, slicing and poison dart blowing.

Sexuality/Nudity: A few topless posters decorate a mobster's office. A few sexual scenes with some bare breasts flashed and underwear clad beauties are in there as well.

Language/Dialogue: Would it be a Kung Fu film without the word "bastard" in it?

How bad was it?:
Here's the damn thing about it: there are none! Notta one I could find. Guess you either take my word for it or waste 87 minutes like I did.

Did it make the studio’s day?:
Produced by Ronghua Film Company and Lee Ming Film Company and released in Hong Kong on 5/23/73, there are no money figures for The Iron Man. You can catch it on freemoviescinema.com here:
http://www.freemoviescine.com/movies/62-administrator/video/456-Tough+Guy+%281974%29.html

Film: *1/2/*****
Entertainment value: **1/2/*****

Copyright 2012 The Action Mutant.