History Film / TheManWithTheIronFists

* ArcherArchetype: The mysterious Poison Dagger, rarely seen until the end when cornered and strikes at critical junctions usually crippling enemies right as they start to come back. Though his weapon is essentially a high-powered [[PoisonedWeapons blow gun]] rather than a traditional bow and arrow, so he borders on being a ColdSniper.

* {{Cameo}}:

** There's a brief musical cameo of Sally Yeh's theme for Creator/JohnWoo's ''Film/TheKiller''.

* AmbiguousTimePeriod: It appears to be set in China, but where and when is hard to pin down. The presence of Jack Knife (who dresses like a old west gunman) and his dealings with Opium in China, as well as the Blacksmith's backstory as a slave in Southern American plantations, nominally put this movie somewhere around the 1860s (in turn suggesting the Emperor is either [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daoguang_Emperor Qing Daoguang]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xianfeng_Emperor Qing Xianfeng]], or [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongzhi_Emperor Qing Tongzhi]]) but the technology blends BambooTechnology with Steampunk and meshes the aesthetic of several time periods (with the Pink Blossom in particular practically looking like a modern-day brothel).
* AnimalThemedFightingStyle: Jungle Town's warring clans are each named for an animal which informs their fighting style. This doesn't just cover normal animal themed kung-fu disciplines, but other animals as well, such as:
** Rat Clan, who use camouflage and skulking about to conceal large numbers of fighters for sneak attacks. They're individually fairly weak, but specialize in coordinating their attacks to confuse and incapacitate stronger opponents.

* ArcherArchetype: The mysterious Poison Dagger, rarely seen until the end when cornered and strikes at critical junctions usually crippling enemies right as they start to come back. Though his weapon is essentially a high powered [[PoisonedWeapons blow gun]] rather than a traditional bow and arrow so he borders on being a ColdSniper.

* BackToBackBadasses: The Geminis, naturally. The "Gemini Stance" consists of their doing this while Gemini Female is locked in position inverted on Gemini Male's back.
* BallsOfSteel: Brass body has these...go figure.
* BandOfBrothels: Lucy Liu's charismatic bordello madam keeps ample security ([[spoiler:a trained squad of shadowy kunoichi assassins]]) on hand to deal with unsavory clients.

** Jack Knife saves Thaddeus[[spoiler: and the children at the Pink Blossom]], but he also provokes a man into a fight early on in the movie, basically for being a FatBastard and proceeds to cut said man in half.

*** He knew he was making weapons of murder, but was more interested in buying his girlfriend's freedom. Somewhat justified, given his history and environment.

* TheBlacksmith: The titular character. His real name is [[spoiler: Thaddeus Smith]] and he specializes in unusual weapons. Including [[spoiler: mercury]] blowguns, for some reason.

* ChekhovsGun: The shield on the back of [[spoiler:Zhen Yi's second suit of knives]] prevents him from getting his [[spoiler:spine shattered by a booby trap, leaving him enough strength to kill Silver Lion.]]
* ChekhovsGunman: That white haired official in the early narration ordering the shipment of the gold? Turns out that's [[spoiler: Poison Dagger]].

* ChromeChampion: Brass Body is relatively rare example that is ''not'' a silvery color.

* FauxAffablyEvil: Silver Lion acts fairly normal around those not in his inner circle, but he is conniving and violent. [[spoiler: He doesn't hesitate to agree with Poison Dagger that Madam Blossom should die just after making a deal with her and he enjoys toying with Zen Yi in the HallOfMirrors]].

* GatlingGood: Subverted. During the last act of the movie, a big fuss is made over the fact that the Emperor's troops are approaching the village with a gatling gun to massacre everyone. [[spoiler:Then it's never used.]]

* GrievousHarmWithABody: One-third of the Gemini's fighting style consists of using tandem momentum. The other parts are guns on Gemini Female's body and their matching blades, which also help their routine.
* HealItWithFire: Twice done to [[spoiler: The Blacksmith's arms, once to cauterize the wound and one to prep it for the installation of the titular Iron Fists.]]

** [[spoiler: Two of the last loyal members of the Lion clan that were working against Silver Lion, die saving Zhen Yi from Brass Body's attempted assassination. ]]

* MartialArtsMovie: If you've made it this far then it goes without saying.

* NippleAndDimed: Not a single female nipple shown, rather surprisingly, considering half the film takes place at a brothel, and several gratuitous sex acts are depicted on screen.
* NomDeGuerre: The entire cast seems to go by these, save a few exceptions, see NoNameGiven.
* NoNameGiven: Almost none of the characters' real names were revealed. Exceptions are the X-Blade (Zhen Yi), Jack Knife (Jack C. Wales) and the Blacksmith (Thaddeus Smith).

** So very many. An obvious one being the final fight between [[spoiler: Zhen Yi and Silver Lion]], in a HallOfMirrors a la ''Film/EnterTheDragon''. In this version, however, it's actually shown how it all works.

* UnskilledButStrong: Subverted. Brass body has [[NighInvulnerability a body that turns into metal]] and massive brute strength that allows him to tank any opponent without effort. However, once the Blacksmith proves he's able to hurt him despite his defense Brass Body proves he's quite capable of fighting with skill instead of just strength.

* RatedMForManly: Oh yeah!

* AmbiguousTimePeriod: It appears to be set in China, but where and when is hard to pin down. The presence of Jack Knife (who dresses like a old west gunman) and his dealings with Opium in China, also the Blacksmith's backstory as a slave in Southern American plantations, nominally put this movie somewhere around the 1860s but the technology blends BambooTechnology with Steampunk and meshes the aesthetic of several time periods (with the Pink Blossom in particular practically looking like a modern-day brothel).

RZA's first directorial film, co-written with Creator/EliRoth, ''The Man with the Iron Fists'' was in part a tribute to the 70's [[MartialArtsMovie martial arts]] films that inspired his old hip-hop conglomerate Music/WuTangClan. It was released in Fall of 2012, although reportedly this is only about half of what was actually filmed, with RZA having originally intended to release it all as two movies before being overruled. An unrelated DirectToVideo sequel was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on April 14, 2015.

RZA's first directorial film, co-written with Creator/EliRoth, ''The Man with the Iron Fists'' was in part a tribute to the 70's [[MartialArtsMovie martial arts]] films that inspired his old hip-hop conglomerate Music/WuTangClan. It was released in Fall of 2012, and a DirectToVideo sequel was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on April 14, 2015.

* WrestlerInAllOfUs: Brass Body kills a guy with a powerbomb. Wrestling/{{Batista}} actually used a variant as his finishing move during his wrestling career.

* KnifeNut: A heroic example in Zhen Yi, they don't call him [[HiddenWeapons X-Blade for nothing]].

* ActionGirl: Madam Blossom is the DragonLady variety.

* AmbiguousTimePeriod / AnachronismStew: It appears to be set in China, but where and when is hard to pin down. The presence of Jack Knife (who dresses like a old west gunman) and his dealings with Opium in China, also the Blacksmith's backstory as a slave in Southern American plantations, nominally put this movie somewhere around the 1860s but the technology blends BambooTechnology with Steampunk and meshes the aesthetic of several time periods (with the Pink Blossom in particular practically looking like a modern-day brothel).
* AnimalThemedFightingStyle: Jungle Town runs on this, with each of the warring clans being named for an animal, which informs their fighting style. This doesn't just cover normal animal themed kung-fu disciplines, but other animals as well, such as:

* BadAssBeard: Jack Knife sports one of these instead of an obvious CarpetOfVirility.

Not related with ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}''[[note]]Japanese for "Iron Fist"[[/note]], or to Marvel's ''[[Comicbook/ImmortalIronFist Iron Fist]]'' properties.

* CounterpartCombatCoordination: In the final battles, [[spoiler: The Blacksmith faces Brass Body, iron fists vs ...brass body. Jack Knife faces Poison Dagger, an old acquaintance of his, and they talk about how they are NotSoDifferent. Zhen Yi (the X-Blade) fights against his sworn brother, Silver Lion]].

* RealityEnsues: Minor version -- as incredible as the martial artists are, they are (except for one memorable example) not ImmuneToBullets. As a result, the moment when the heroes find out that the Emperor has sent his top soldiers to CleanUpTheTown and ''they'' are armed with guns is the moment when the plot escalates into a RaceAgainstTheClock.

* UnskilledButStrong: Subverted. Brass body has [[NighInvunrability a body that turns into metal]] and massive brute strength that allows him to tank any opponent without effort. However, once the Blacksmith proves he's able to hurt him despite his defense Brass Body proves he's quite capable of fighting with skill instead of just strength.

* RealityEnsues: Minor version -- as incredible as the martial artists are, they are (except for one memorable example) not ImmuneToBullets. As a result, the moment when the heroes find out that the Emperor has sent his top soldiers to CleanUpTheTown and ''they'' are armed with guns is the moment when the plot escalates into a RaceAgainstTime.

* {{Cameo}}: Pam Grier as RZA's mother.
** Gordon Liu as the Abbot