"Success requires sacrifice"
Yue Song wrote, directed, and starred in Super Bodyguard aka Iron Protector. The clichés and migraine inducing editing were saved in the last act with some mind-boggling fights. If the outtakes at the end of the movie were any indication, plenty of real blood flowed as well.Wu Lin and Jiang Li were trained as children by their sifu until Jiang Li dabbled in crime and was kicked out before he learned the secret 108 Iron Kicks. Jiang Li joined a crime syndicate while Wu Lin faithfully trained, even wearing 50 kg/110 lbs worth of iron boots for ten years. After their sifu died, Wu Lin went to work for Jiang Li serving as a bodyguard to a spoiled, rich, young woman. When kidnappers came calling Wu Lin would stop at nothing to rescue Fei Fei, even if it meant confronting his friend and his painful past.
Yue Song was hard to take seriously with his terrible mullet and big stomping shoes. Becky Li had the thankless role of the annoying Fei Fei. How many times have we seen this overused rich girl stereotype? And that’s what was really the problem with this film. Nothing was new and I have seen it done better in other movies. The clichés were served up one after the other. Even the big twist at the end was no surprise. The shaky quick editing showing closeups of body parts, tigers, bad guys, good guys, etc. was dizzying. Yue also used comic book coloring and editing for certain scenes. Perhaps Yue was trying to be artistic with the back and forth editing combined with flash backs or maybe he was trying to make a mundane story interesting.
The fights made copious use of wire work as Wu Lin flew through car windows and people were thrown about as though weightless until they doubled their mass when they crashed through whatever wall or unlucky prop or stuntman lay beneath them. The final fight, while unbelievable, was highly entertaining when Wu Lin finally got his mojo going after he cut his mullet. Coincidence? I think not.
Campy, with a wildly ridiculous plot, and highly questionable editing choices, Iron Bodyguard still had entertaining moments and Yue Song made for a likeable hero with his stomping iron boots and iron fists. He was as impervious to injury and death as a Kdrama serial killer. I always enjoy seeing Xing Yu strut his kung fu stuff, even when his character couldn’t figure out what his motivation was. Between Yue’s mullet, the overused story elements, '80s kung fu movie bad guy Michael Chan as the villain, not to mention Yue's T.J. Hooker style of clinging to a racing vehicle, this movie would have felt at home in the late 1980’s. I probably would have rated it higher had it been filmed in the 80’s on my old kung fu movie curve. No points for nostalgia.
30 May 2024
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