Warriors Two

Warrior's Two is not a sequel to Walter Hill's urban action classic The Warriors. In fact, I think it's just the title, or literal translation of the title. Way before Donnie Yen made IP Man a household name, Warrior's Two is another excellent movie about the fighting style known as Wing Chun. This is a groundbreaking film for Sammo Hung that put his mix of kung fu and comedy and got his fight choreography some series respect The fights are jaw droppingly awesome and really complex, but tightly put together. In the restored version I have, everything looks crystal clear and sometimes I forget that I am watching a movie from the 70's. If you like martial arts movies, this is one you should see as everything done here was done really well.

Directed by and staring Sammo Hung (whose character, as usual, is referred to as Fatty!), this kung fu flick was definitely one of the good ones. The first half was mostly standard fare but things picked up nicely at around the midpoint. After the cool training sequence, Fatty and friends each pick one of the different-styled baddies and seek them out to set things right. The last 20 minutes or so just kick butt, cumulating with the top bad guy whipping out a creepy praying-mantis style on our heroes that must be seen to be believed. As a Hung production, it does feature some of his cheesy but harmless brand of comedy but he also makes sure to splatter some blood in deserving scenes. Also, for such a movie, there were a number of shots that looked like they were lifted right out of a Chinese horror movie! When I finished the film, I watched the original trailer on the DVD, in which Chinese descriptions appeared over the scenes, translated underneath. Here are a few lines that occurred during some fight scenes: It's authentic! It's clearly shown! It's greatly entertaining! And it was. I just thought that was amusing…"clearly shown" isn't part of the modern fight choreographer's vocabulary.

Warriors Two is another excellent kung fu film from the genius that is Sammo Hung. The choreography and training sequences are excellent.

The acting is good with Leung Kar Yan and Casanova Wong getting time to shine.

One of the greatest kung fu movies ever produced, see it whenever you get a chance.

Sammo Hung's classic 'Warriors Two' features Korean super-kicker Casanova Wong in his biggest role as Cashier Hua (the 'Zhao Qian Hua' of the title), who works in the bank run by Banker Mo (Fung Hark-On). One evening, just as he was about to pack up for the day, he inadvertently hears a discussion between Mo and some of his other employees where he plots to take over the whole town and become the new Village Head by disposing of the current one.

Hua tries to warn the Village Head, but instead falls into a trap where some of Mo's henchmen beat him up quite badly. But Hua escapes, albeit seriously injured, and bumps into Fei Chun (Sammo Hung), who hides Hua in the home of his master, Mr Leung Tsang (the 'Zan Xian Sheng' of the title, played by Leung Kar-Yan), a Wing Chun master and healer.

Mo and his cronies go about trying to lure Hua out of hiding by murdering his last remaining family member (in Chinese customs of the period it was traditional to avenge the deaths of murdered friends or family -- something exploited in a lot of the period kung-fu movies of this era), but Fei Chun eventually makes Hua see sense, that he doesn't stand a chance of avenging death as his fighting skills aren't good enough. That's where Mr Tsang comes in -- but Hua's quest for revenge makes Tsang reticent about teaching Wing Chun to him, as kung-fu (like all martial arts) is not supposed to be used aggressively. Will Fei Chun be able to make Tsang capitulate and become his Sifu?

This movie was where Sammo's early promise as director and action choreographer shown in his directorial debut 'Iron-Fisted Monk' comes to the fore, as he steps up the quality of the fight choreography and overall structure of the film, and came up with a true masterpiece. Sammo's ability to choreograph the performers in such a way that they come across as powerful as they would ever look on-screen is something that fans of his work are used to (even his former Peking Opera classmate Jackie Chan has benefited from Sammo's excellent choreographic genius), and 'Warriors Two' is no exception, with some superbly crisp fights that contain shots where fighters perform well over ten carefully-timed moves before a cut occurs! But what's most amazing is that Sammo has actually managed to transfer Wing Chun to the screen successfully (some arts don't translate that well to the screen without some minor changes due to the limitations of film -- something that Hong Kong film-makers, especially those of Sammo's ability, have acknowledged over the years and allowed for accordingly), and has actually depicted Wing Chun very accurately in a way that you would appreciate even if you're not a dedicated martial artist.

Casanova Wong's acting ability is a bit limited, but in my mind is not enough to completely hamper the film as a whole, and his kicking, combined with the hand techniques his character would learn throughout the movie, is superb. The bit most people talk about is his amazing jump-spinning back kick over a table (in one shot!) which even I rewind and watch again and again!

As Banker Mo, Fung Hark-On gives what I believe to be his best bad-guy role outside of Jackie Chan's 'Police Story' (1985), with a menace he never really matched again. His character even provides a bit of a twist at the end!

'Warriors Two' features an all-star cast including Eric Tsang (who would appear as Roundhead in the 'Lucky Stars' series), Lau Kar-Wing (Liu Chia-Yong; he's the real-life brother of Liu Chia-Liang), Fung Hark-On, the late Lam Ching-Ying, Yuen Biao (who would later co-choreograph the action in 'Shanghai Noon'), Mang Hoi (a.k.a. Randy Mang!), Dean Shek... Oh, and let's not forget Lee Hoi-San as seemingly-invincible Iron Bell fighter Ya Chao!

Being a Sammo film, there are also some moments of broad comedy (some of it dark), but it works within the film, and was still fairly unfamiliar in Hong Kong movies in 1978.

Mark my words: 'Warriors Two' is a cast-iron classic. It doesn't QUITE have the polish of Sammo's other Wing Chun movie, 'The Prodigal Son' (1983), but it's still an enjoyable film in its own right, and is different enough from the other kung-fu movies out there to help it stand out, and it still looks wonderful all these years later.

I can think of few other movies, Kung Fu or not, that stand up to repeated viewing in the way Warriors Two does. If you're a Kung Fu fan and haven't seen this, I can only say it's what you've been waiting for. I must warn you, a lot of other Kung Fu movies will seem mediocre afterwards. Apart from Sammo's genius, there is the mighty Leung Kar Yan ("Beardy") as the grey haired doctor - he cannot fail to amaze! I can think of a few movies that come close (Prodigal Son, The Victim..) but this is the cream.