| When a young bank teller, Chen Hua (Casanova Wong), uncovers a plot by the bank's owner, Boss Mo (Fung Hak On), to murder the town chief; he soon learns that the would-be evildoers will stop at nothing to get what they want. After learning that he knows exactly what they're up to, Boss Mo's gang kills his mother, in an attempt to flush him out of hiding and eliminate him.
His friend, Fei Chun (Sammo Hung), urges him not to act rashly, not to fall into Boss Mo's trap. Fei Chun suggests that he instead train with his master to learn the Yung Chun (Wing Chun) martial art form. He maintains that this is the only way Chen Hua would be able to stand up to his foes and emerge victorious.
What follows is a surprisingly terse series of training sequences in the vein of "Shaolin Master Killer", but much more compressed. It is unclear how long the training period is supposed to last, but it seems to last a day or two at best. In any case, Chen Hua eventually emerges from training as Gordon Liu has so many times from various Shaolin monasteries: as the ultimate bad-ass. Teaming up with Fei Chun and his sister, the head out to confront the tainted bankers in one of the great fights committed to film.
Warriors Two, while consistently enjoyable, does feel a bit "off" at times. As mentioned earlier, the timeline is never established clearly, and so detracts from the scope of what our main character is undertaking. And there are several scenes that seem to mix comedy in where it is completely inappropriate (for example, Fei Chun and Chen Hua joking around as Fei Chun's sister lays dead beside them). Also, the fight scenes with Iron Body (Lau Kar Wing) are surprisingly amateurish and at times a bit embarrassing to watch, especially the uncomfortable wide shots where you can really see his lack of balance and fluidity.
Luckily, the bad fight scenes are few, and are all but overshadowed by the many excellent ones featuring Casanova or Sammo. Even during the few times when the martial arts performances leave something to be desired, Sammo's choreography saves the day--in fact, the film's first 3-1/2 minutes alone should win you over! In particular, there are several scenes where Sammo is fighting four others, and it's so nice to see all four attackers actually attack him at the same time! Sammo is fully capable of fending them all off in creative ways. Another plus is Casanova Wong's entire performance, which is impressive to say the least. It is unclear at times whether under-cranking is used to speed up the film--sometimes it done obviously for comedic effect--but regardless, Casanova Wong seems to move with lightning speed and pinpoint precision--a thrill to watch.
In conclusion, this film has some great oddball Chinese humor, plenty of impressive and memorable fights, and a coherent story. We are more than willing to overlook its shortcomings and recommend it to anyone who's looking for a great martial arts piece. We especially recommend this film to fans of Sammo Hung, who should be delighted at his screen time, his vibrancy, his choreography, and his fighting. As many films as he's made, there really aren't too many that feature him in this many good fights; so if you're still skeptical and wondering what all the fuss is about this "Sammo" guy, this film should hopefully show you the light. |