Shaolin Iron Fist Collection: The Fighting of Shaolin Monk tells the story of Tamo, the Buddhist Monk who founded the Shaolin style of Martial Arts teaching. Tamo is a wanderer who stumbles upon a caravan of horse carts carrying water to be sold to a drought stricken region. Lynn, a fierce female fighter is arguing with the whip wielding caravan driver on behalf of local peasants and farmers who are too poor to pay the outrageous prices they're asking for the water. Tamo and Lynn make short work of the driver and give the water to the people at no charge. Tamo tells Lynn he is looking for Dr. Yeung. Lynn, not trusting this strange wandering monk gives him false information and sends him on a wild goose chase, when Dr. Yeung turns out to be her fiancé.

We meet Dr. Yeung at his practice as he's giving a rather explicit "chest" acupuncture to a shapely female patient. Lynn arrives with water for him and his patients and explains that Tamo is looking for him and what she did to confound him. Due to the drought, the town Elders hired a corrupt Priest to come and pray for rain to save their farms. Lynn confronts him only to be sidelined by one of the Priest's bodyguards. Yeung comes to her aid only to have the Priest call off the attacker and set up his operation within the heavily fortified temple. That night, before a skeptical crowd, the Priest performs his ceremony and a torrential downpour begins.

Tamo eventually meets up with Dr. Yeung, who he wants to take on as a student. Yeanug wants no part of this strange monk's teachings. Tamo then makes the acquaintance of the Priest, trying to show him the error of his ways. When the Priest has his bodyguard attack him, Tamo does nothing in retaliation. Upon the third offense, Tamo uses two fingers to incapacitate the assailant. The Priest follows him to a bridge where the two holy men fight to a draw. The Priest's power in the town continues to grow, until he eventually has the people rise up against Dr. Yeung's practice, destroying it. Finding the wrecked house, Yeung's father, also a Dr., kills himself. The Priest doesn't stop there, having his small army of minions seek out and kidnap all the most attractive women of the town to be kept as his personal concubines. Yeung vows revenge on the Priest upon learning of his Father's fate.

The Priest reveals himself to be Chen, who was driven from the own many years ago for his evil deeds. He has been hidden in training by an Evil Kung Fu Master in order to come back and take his revenge. After Tamo schools Yeung in the way of the Shaolin is he able to go and take on Chen in his temple fortress. Lynn joins him, but is no match for Chen's evil and is killed. Tamo confronts Chen's Evil Master in the forest, only to discover his secret technique… Burning Hand Kung Fu. Burning Hand or not, Tamo is able to defeat the Evil Master while they battle high in the tree tops. Upon landing the Evil Master's Burning Hand is wedged in a tree. Tamo, taking advantage of the situation removes the Evil Master of his arm. Yeung, in a fit of rage over Lynn's death defeats Chen, restoring order to the town.

The DVD:

Picture: The movie is presented in a widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio. This transfer is awful, mainly from being taken from a poor Source Print. The Print was badly scratched in places, had lots of wear throughout and even some debris visible.

Audio: The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono track was of the Dubbed English and was very, very low and even distorted in some portions of the film.

Extras: Included as Extras on this DVD are a Stills Gallery and a Fight Index where you can skip to a particular fight in the film.

Conclusion: Shaolin Iron Fist Collection: The Fighting of Shaolin Monk is definitely rough around the edges, with the video and audio problems almost being too much to bear. However, once you get past these shortcomings, Shaolin Iron Fist Collection: The Fighting of Shaolin Monk has a lot of cool fights and interesting characters (Tamo and Lynn especially). While not the best of the lot, Shaolin Iron Fist Collection: The Fighting of Shaolin Monk isn't the worst of the Shaolin Iron Fist Collection.