The Man with the Iron Fists (2012)
The Man with the Iron Fists is a 2012 American martial arts film directed by RZA and written by RZA and Eli Roth. The film stars RZA, Russell Crowe, Cung Le, Lucy Liu, Byron Mann, Rick Yune, Dave Bautista, and Jamie Chung. Set in 19th century China, the story follows a series of lone warriors who are forced to unite to defeat a common foe and save their home of Jungle Village. The film was released in North America on November 2, 2012. Critics were divided over the film’s homage to martial arts films, considering it well-choreographed and representative of the genre, but offering nothing original, and the direction was criticized for a lack of refinement. The performances of Crowe and Mann were well received. The film earned $20.5 million at the box office.
Plot:
In 19th-century China, Jungle Village is home to several warring clans. The village blacksmith creates deadly weapons for the clans, intending to use his payments to purchase the freedom of his lover Lady Silk, and leave the village. The region’s governor tasks the Lion Clan’s leader, Gold Lion, with protecting a large shipment of gold that must pass through the village. Gold is betrayed by his lieutenants Silver Lion and Bronze Lion, who plan to steal the gold. They use the chaos ensuing from a fight with the Hyena Clan to allow their co-conspirator Poison Dagger—the governor’s aide—to assassinate Gold, after which Silver becomes the Lions’ leader. Gold’s son Zen-Yi learns of his father’s murder and sets off to the village to seek revenge. The Qing Emperor’s undercover emissary Jack Knife arrives in the village to monitor the gold and takes up residence in the Pink Blossom, a brothel run by Madam Blossom, Lady Silk’s madame.
Silver sends members of the Rodent clan to kill Zen-Yi before he can reach the village, but Zen-Yi kills them. The mercenary Brass Body arrives in the village and meets with Silver; he is sent to kill Zen-Yi. The blacksmith meets with Silk in the brothel and delivers the final payment needed to free her. After arriving in the village, Zen-Yi and his men are confronted by Brass and find that they cannot physically harm him because his skin turns to metal on impact. Brass beats Zen-Yi and destroys his blade-laden armor. Zen-Yi’s last surviving man sacrifices himself to pull a canopy support beam loose, burying Brass under heavy stone. The blacksmith is watching the fight; he rescues Zen-Yi and helps him recover as penance for crafting the weapon that killed Zen-Yi’s father.
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Filming:
Principal photography took place over approximately 10 weeks on a $20 million budget. Filming began in China in December 2010 in locations including the city of Shanghai and Hengdian World Studios, and continued until March 2011. Corey Yuen was the film’s action choreographer. To compensate for time lost to filming issues, some scenes were filmed in a single take. Approximately 6 weeks into filming, RZA began pushing the crew to work faster to remain on schedule. His assistant director eventually informed RZA that because of the push, some stunt workers were injured and being sent to hospital. After this, RZA abandoned some of his intended shots and replaced them with Computer Generated Images (CGI). Roth also directed some shots for RZA. Crowe and Le were originally scripted to fight each other, but because of Crowe’s limited shooting schedule, he did not have the time to rehearse the fight, and instead Le was scripted to fight Liu.