The opening 15 minutes or so consist of a continuously escalating series of encounters between the main villain, Xio Tianzum, and a number of his hapless victims. The filmmakers pull no punches in showing how miserable the antagonists are or in highlighting the protagonist’s resolute mindset and merciless combat skills, with and without armaments. Rather than wax poetic for several lines in an attempt to describe The Iron Buddha’s tone, it can be summarized succinctly as badass, a film with a nasty bite that never shies away from thrusting the viewer into some surprisingly violent, even mildly misogynistic territory. The Iron Buddha is, impressively, the benefactor of some serious attitude problems
While the master’s other pupils prove to be no match for Xio, one prideful student, Luo Han (Ling Yun), whose name also means ‘Iron Buddha,’ is a far more accomplished, powerful combatant than either Xio or the other villains who try to halt his quest of redemption envision, including Geng Xian (Chen Hung-Lieh), a corrupt official from an escort company who aligns himself with Xio.
Flash forward 3 years later and Xio exacts his terrible vengeance on the same three people, killing the teacher in gruesome fashion and raping the daughters. Just before he can have his way with one of the young women, the father arrives to the rescue, scarring Xio on his chest with his mighty sword. In the film’s opening sequence, he adeptly slithers into the home of an elder kung fu master and his two attractive daughters. Xio Tianzum (Wong Chung-Shun) is a wretched scum whose reputation will soon precede him.
With the slightest tinkering in one direction or another, it would be a completely different film. Director Yan Jun’s The Iron Buddha is a movie that lives or dies by its terrifically visceral, hard-edged attitude. Be that as it may, like in love, when the mood feels right, a movie can fly to soaring heights. Not everyone will recognize or respond to a picture’s mood in the same way. In film, mood can be a fickle characteristic. For these movies, it is the attitude they exude that carries them over the hump. In some special cases, films win a viewer over for a reason that cannot be singularly attributed to just the direction, the acting, the screenwriting, the look, or the sounds.
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