The Iron Mask Review

4 stars of lavish fantasy extravaganza.

The Iron Mask: Mystery of the Dragon Seal is a Russian/Chinese co-production. It is the sequel to the Russian film Viy and was originally titled Viy 2: Journey to China. It is directed by Oleg Stepchenko (Forbidden Kingdom, Velvet Revolution).

“Go back and exercise gentlemen. Perfect your bodies. Remember, a healthy body houses a healthy mind.”

Set in the 17th Century, in China, there lives a dragon with extremely long eyelashes, which grow up through the ground and create beautiful plants with healing properties. The people of the village call the leaves of this plant tea and become healthy and prosperous through its use and sale.

The dragon is guarded by white wizards, to whom he gives a dragon seal. However, the black wizards, led by the two-faced witch (Ma Li – Never Say Die, Goodbye Mr Loser) become greedy and take control. They allow the dragon’s eyelashes to grow, causing him to fall into a slumber and send the Master (Jackie Chan – Police Story, City Hunter) and the princess Cheng Lan (Yao Xingtong – Chinese Zodiac) to prisons on the opposite side of the world.

Jonathan Green (Jason Flemyng – Sunshine on Leith, Welcome to the Punch) is a cartographer who has been commissioned by Peter the Great to map his lands. Upon arrival in Moscow, he has a nasty shock, the Tsar never returned from England and he is thrown in jail. He sends out a carrier pigeon with a coded message for his sweetheart Miss Dudley (Anna Churina – Mantikora).

As luck would have it, the pigeon first makes its way to the tower of London, run by the imposing figure of James Hook (Arnold Schwarzenegger – Red heat, Terminator 2: Judgement Day). It ends up in a cell shared by none other than Peter the Great (Yuri Kolokolnikov – Game of Thrones, 6 Underground) and the Master white wizard (Chan).

They add their own note and send the pigeon on its way to Lord Dudley (Charles Dance – Pride & Prejudice and Zombies), who immediately arranges for the release of Jonathan, who takes Cheng Lan as his assistant, while Miss Dudley investigates the tower. All roads now lead to China, as the race is on to free the dragon and save the village from the witch.

The Iron Mask is a highly entertaining film to watch. It is colourful, action packed and fun and evokes fond childhood memories of epic fantasy films such as Sinbad the Sailor and Jason and the Argonauts. The animation is excellent, with sweeping vistas and fantastical creatures and these worlds are inhabited by larger than life characters, the result of a collision between science and magic.

There is something for everyone in this film, Russian pirates lead by a ginger dwarf, a super cute furry flying dragon, and Samurai warriors, to name but a few. It is a simple but well told story and thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish, with plenty of martial arts and fight sequences, lots of comedy and true escapism. A must own, well worth adding to your collection.

“At least he died happy. As far as I know, he hasn’t seen a woman in thirty years.”

The Iron Mask is out now on Digital HD and is available from Sky Store, iTunes, Amazon, Virgin, BT, Google, Xbox, TalkTalk and Rakuten. It will be released on DVD and Blu-ray from 8th June 2020.