Quentin Tarantino’s support helped bring the 1993 Hong Kong martial-arts film Iron Monkey to US cinemas in 2001, making it unusually successful for a foreign-language release. However, the article argues that this exposure came at a cost: Miramax substantially re-edited the film, leaving American audiences with a version considered inferior to Yuen Woo-ping’s original.

Iron Monkey stars Donnie Yen as Wong Kei-ying and Yu Rongguang as Yang Tianchun, a doctor who secretly acts as the masked vigilante Iron Monkey. Written and produced by Tsui Hark, it combines Robin Hood-style social justice with elaborate, gravity-defying fight choreography; Tarantino’s “Quentin Tarantino Presents” branding helped position it alongside other Asian films introduced to US audiences.