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SoTrumpBelieve Must See Movie...

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

vinsond21 I viewed this movie 25 years ago, when it was screened at the Singapore International Film Festival. Director Shirley Sun was on hand to introduce her film, a beautifully-rendered autobiographical work made more meaningful by having the author Mark Salzman play himself. It's an engaging tale of a young American and a fan of kung fu movies, who goes to China to teach English and learns Wushu (martial arts in Chinese) in the process. The entire cast is charming, and so is the city of Hangzhou where the movie was shot. This movie would be perfect as a double feature with Ang Lee's Pushing Hands, also about Wushu and cultural differences.

Edward Reid Deceptively simple on the surface, Iron and Silk is complex beneath, with clashes and harmonies between East and West, old and new, open and closed, never pitting one against the other but exploring the interlocking elements. The plot isn't much; the joy is in the interplay of currents. This is a beautiful movie.It's worth pointing out that IMDb's vote weighting hurts Iron and Silk badly. With only 310 votes as I write, apparently IMDb doesn't believe that so many people vote it a ten, or perhaps they discount bimodal vote distributions. IMDb's 6.4 is about what you get if you throw out all the tens! If you're into kinds of averages, the mode is 10, the median is 9, and the mean is 8.1. Those represent the movie better than IMDb's weighted 6.4.

Peter (fineanimal) I saw this film on VHS in the early 1990's, and it made a big impression on me in three ways: appreciation of cultural differences between East and West, appreciation of martial arts, and the lingering sadness that political stupidity could prevent two average people who loved each other from being together. Although I only saw the film once back then, I regarded it as one of the best films I'd ever seen because it made such a lasting impression. It even taught me to say "How are you?" and "Thank you" in Chinese, which remain the only Chinese language I know to this day! So I waited with patience of a martial arts master for it to become available on DVD. Finally, in 2005, I was rewarded with the DVD release, and it was every bit as good as I'd remembered.As others have mentioned, it is not a flashy Hollywood-type film. Almost the entire movie seems to be filmed through a thin fog that emphasizes this was filmed on location in China (and that's a good thing). Only a full-screen version seemed to be available, yet I don't feel like anything was lost. Even the spectacular martial arts training scenes fit well withing the frame. Watching those Chinese children perform with the skill of seasoned veterans is awe-inspiring, and humbling.This is one of my favorite movies of all time, and I couldn't be happier to own it on DVD. It's a shame there are no special features to tell more about how the film was made, what was real and what was fiction, etc. Even so, I can't recommend this film strongly enough. 10/10.

Chris Moran (tsnake) One of my best friends introduced this book to me around 1988 or so. I read it and loved it... 1990 came and I was in NY going to college when this premiered in NYC. I couldn't make it to the city to see it and I was sorely saddened.Eventually I did get a chance to see it in a more "artsy" theater and was happy to go. It's NOT a flashy high production value movie, but still the filming was as good as I'd expect, or even demand for this film.My original interest in the topic had more to do with the kung fu aspect of it, and for that you won't be let down, unless you NEED flash. There aren't fight scenes beyond the typical training and sparring, all of which are impressive and real. Seeing the young boy in the training hall execute such awe inspiring techniques and Master Pan being a hard-ass was excellent.The love interest theme was a draw too. My memory of the book (sitting on my shelf at home unread for a loooong time) is thin, so I don't recall how deep it went.It was short, but I like long movies.I also bought the VHS of this movie.