Iron Monkey: Entertaining, fanciful kung fu movie directed by Woo Ping Yuen, who also directed Twin Warriors and choreographed the fights for The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The film is about a decade old, but was released just last year in the U.S., thanks to Quentin Tarantino. Mild-mannered Dr. Yang (Rongguang Yu) runs a clinic by day, helping sick refugees free of charge, and fights the corrupt provincial governor by night as the Robin Hood-ish Iron Monkey. He is aided by the lovely Miss Orchid (Jean Wang), who's no slouch at hand-to-hand combat herself. Another doctor and superlative fighter, Wong Kei-Ying (Donnie Yen), comes to town with his son (Sze-Man Tsang), and he's blackmailed into hunting the Iron Monkey, even as he grows to be friends with Dr. Yang (unaware of Yang's secret identity). The fights are terrific -- lots of soaring "wire fu" and a nifty climactic battle where the fighters balance atop scattered poles. Even the kid gets into the act (the IMDB says the actor is a girl, which makes it even cooler). Good fun.
Love Serenade: Another quirky, little Australian movie, about two sisters in a dinky country town who compete for the affections of a languid big-city radio personality who graces their backwater with his presence. Funny and engaging, though you cringe at the older sister's self-delusion. The ending is a problem, radically different in tone from the rest of the story and not handled very deftly.
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