You feel the smell of cheap follow-up and cash in? The stench is definitely present and conspiracy theories warranted. Case in point, this sequel to The Bride With White Hair, the new-wave Wuxia and bona fide masterpiece on every imaginable level debuted in theatres in the Christmas of 1993, a mere 3 months after the first had ended its cinema run! Helmer of that film, Ronny Yu (Fearless) handed over directing duties OFFICIALLY to frequent editing collaborator David Wu (1*) but UNOFFICIALLY, Yu was co-directing alongside Wu. As is sometimes the case though, that cramped directing chair means troubled production but here the dual directors equals a rush to finish the film, neglecting most of what made The Bride With White Hair so special in the first place.

Having read extracts from reviews before doing my take on the subject, I got the sense that David Wu, Ronny Yu and Raymond To had constructed an overly complicated and wild plot akin to the Wuxia storytelling tradition but watching The Bride With White Hair 2 (aka The White-Haired Swordswoman II, which is what's on the print on Tartan's dvd), the plot is very linear and criminally simple even for an 80 minute film. Simple template can mean good things but here Wu and company construct very little around the running time, making it drag at points. The whole production does indeed have the stench of quick and therefore quick writing, casting and filmmaking is employed, starting with the group of youths from the eight clans that take on Brigitte Lin's White Haired Witch. There is an interesting exploration here touched upon but never fully explored as at one point at their lowest, the various young characters start to express doubts about the point of all these power struggles and vengeance plots within their world. Still, that's as interesting as it gets and despite not bogging the narrative with the normally deadly sin in a straight narrative, comedy, David Wu injects little to none interest into the main concerns of the film.

Which leads to the main fault of the film as we get extremely little time spent with Brigtte Lin AND Leslie Cheung's characters from the first film. Connections are made via flashbacks and some short new footage between the two but by pushing this brewing conflict and thoroughly compelling, tragic love story to the side, The Bride With White Hair 2 suddenly has nothing to offer up for it to transform into valid cinema. It really was a focal point of the first film that still ranks as haunting and memorable so the biggest tragedy is to see it exploited/neglected by some of the same people. On the plus side, when focus IS on Lien Ni Chang and Cho Yi Hang, we're reminded of the fact that it wasn't too long ago Ronny Yu brought forth the spellbinding magic between Lin and Cheung. Too little, too late.

Reserved in its scope by going back to the 1.85:1 aspect ratio, it very much looks like sets were re-used and re-dressed for this sequel but as cheap as it may seem and even with cinematographer Peter Pau not available for this round, veteran Joe Chan certainly makes the most of the tools at his disposal. This display of the jiang hu world is again, as per the first film, a dimly lit, dark place, far removed from any stage-like gloss we also encounter within the genre. Especially the scenes at Lien Ni Chang's lair are very hypnotic in their design and various scenarios played out there, especially the re-birth of Joey Meng's Lyre is mesmerizing and strangely erotic. Speaking of that scene, the conversion, you could dedicate a paragraph to analyze the parallels of The Evil Sect and their feminist goals with extreme feminism of today but I'll leave it up to each viewer to find out if it's an undercurrent worth pondering.

Action director Phillip Kwok returns and surprisingly (I.e. in a welcome way) keeps his action very ground based. Unfortunately it also looks like as if he was also under time constraints because other than some creative gore and the usage again of Brigitte Lin's hair as a poisonous weapon, one would be hard pressed to think of any creativity inherited in this part of the production. Also reprised from the first film is the step printing process to the film speed which creates a blurry slow-motion that is rarely welcome in the action. It's been used to fine effect for dramatic purposes, even a few times by director Wu here, but I think we can all agree on wanting to see what's going on, clearly.

Biggest and one of the only pro's of The Bride With White Hair 2 is expectedly Brigitte Lin who does seem to go on autopilot sans Leslie Cheung by her side but the intensity of her plight now fueled by bitterness generates once again her immortal, hypnotic screen presence. Then through flashbacks and her eventual encounter with Cho Yi Hang, she stirs her own and our emotions once again to excellent effect. Even if it's only for like 3% of the film, it's worth taking hits along the way just to get to the Lin goodness. Remaining performers make little imprints in the film but special mention goes to otherwise Category III actress Lily Chung (2*) who chews scenery well in her supporting role as one of the followers of Lien Ni Chang.

They should feel shame for basically bringing in a dark cloud over a genuine Hong Kong cinema Wuxia classic but David Wu and Ronny Yu apparently never thought twice about it. Trying to re-capture the magic through performers not in the league of Leslie Cheung and Brigitte Lin, the creators close their eyes and hope for the best. The best appears very late and for a very short amount of time. Before that, viewers will have a hard time connecting emotionally and soon also, not wanting to anyway. A shame but at least the package looks good, especially Brigitte Lin. But boy oh boy is she too good for this standard of filmmaking. Even Ronny Yu at this point kind of is but no one brought that up at the meeting.

(1) An editor, composer and actor otherwise, assorted credits across those various gigs includes Once A Black Sheep, Coolie Killer, A Chinese Ghost Story, The Killer, Fatal Termination, Peking Opera Blues, Shogun And Little Kitchen and Hard Boiled.

(2) Lily was very much a poster girl for the golden years of Category III rated cinema, giving us largely excellent performances in Daughter Of Darkness, Brother Of Darkness but more importantly in Billy Tang's unforgettable Red To Kill. A performance worthy of an acting award but the genre was often considered a bit out there. Especially so when you're acting and appearing nude in the same film. Shame... not about the acting and nudity.

Following the events in the first movie, we find that Lien Ni-Chang (Lin) has become an enraged monster, a white haired witch of great and evil power, because Cho Yi-Hang (Leslie Chung) doubted her after swearing to her that he would never do so. With her anger searing out of control her mission is to completely eliminate all eight of the clans in the area, with a particular emphasis put on eliminating the Wu Tang Clan, as that is the clan that Cho Yi-Hang belongs to. Cho himself has taken off, seeking refuge in a remote mountain area where a mystical flower is said to bloom only once every two decades. He hopes to catch this flower when it does bloom as it has the power to clean Lien's soul from the hatred that burns within her.

Fast forward ten years and Lien has killed off every last member of the Wu Tang clan save for Cho and his nephew Kit (Sunny Chan). As luck would have it, Kit is all set to marry a lovely lady named Lyre (Joey Mann) which means that the clan could be rebuilt if they were to have children. This causes Lien to swing back into action and kidnap Lyre, taking her back to her castle and brainwashing her to become a man hating witch like herself. The clans all team up and send in their finest warriors to help Kit get Lyre back from Lien but Lien proves to be a formidable opponent and soon Kit realizes that the only way to get Lien to relent is to bring his reclusive uncle and Lien former lover, Cho Yi-Hang, back into the picture.

The most obvious difference between this film and its predecessor is that this second time around the emphasis is definitely placed more on the action than on the love story. That's not to say that the romantic aspect that made the first movie so interesting isn't there, it just plays second fiddle to the martial arts. This gives the movie a different feel all together even though the movie works with many of the same characters and ideas that worked so well in the first film.

The politics of the film are stronger than the first movie as well, as pretty much all of the men in the movie are portrayed as either cowards or sleaze balls and with Lien basically creating and lording over a communal group of women who she takes under her wing and develops as her own disciples in a sense, teaching them to kill every man that they see. Whether or not it's a feminist statement or some sort of simply just an interesting plot device is debatable but Lin does a really good job of taking the role and running with it. Yu makes sure that when she enters combat and uses her hair as her weapon, that the camera captures all of the action and from an art direction stand point she's almost put up on a pedestal, portrayed as godlike at times.

Leslie Cheung isn't given as much to do this time around as he was in the first film but he still plays an obviously important part in the story, particularly in its conclusion. He's pretty suave in the part, and it's a shame that he'd commit suicide in 2003 as in this film and in the first film, as well as his work with Wong Kar Wai, he really does prove himself as an actor.

When it's all said and done the movie doesn't work quite as well as the first film does as it is a little more formulaic and less the hybrid that the original was but as an action/martial arts film with some interesting romantic over tones, it works. It's well paced, beautifully shot, and well acted and even if it doesn't hit quite as many notes as its predecessor it is still an interesting and entertaining movie in its own right.

This sequel to the mega-popular The Bride with White Hair fails to capture the magic of the original. Most of this comes from the fact that the two leads -- whose romance is the plot impetus for both movies -- only share one scene together. Plotwise, it also doesn't really stand too well on its own. American director James Cameron (Aliens, Terminator 2) once said "I don't believe a sequel should depend on the original," and I think that applies here. Those who haven't seen part 1 will either be bored or confused as pertaining to the plot, and Yu's direction leaves much to be desired in the action department. While there is a great amount of action, Yu uses slow motion way too much -- almost every shot later in the film uses it! And keep in mind that I am a huge John Woo fan, so I am quite used to slow motion being used in action sequences.

A nice piece of eye candy but little else.