The Iron Monkey was stolen by a group of masked thieves as a masked thief in order to give to the poor. In those moments, a military doctor tries to hunt him down while there is a huge threat that makes everyone unite together while a monk takes over the task of controlling the authorities.
Woo-ping is as unembarrassed by the hokiness of his narrative as he is by that of his unending combat enactments, which you can accept as intentional stylistic exaggerations.