Warriors Two

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.

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.

Aug 21

I havent got anything new to offer here, i can just agree with the other reviews that this is an excellent film.

Sammo Hung, Casanova Wong, Leung Kar Yan, Fung Hark On and Dean Shek star among others.

Dean Shek steals the show here doing some form of martial arts, its typical of the time from Sammo Hung, so we get good humour with the excellent martial arts.

9.5 out of 10.

No pun intended - and I know it should be fight the power - but in this case it is about getting ahead and taking a position for the bad guys in this. And Sammo Hung does not only have a major role in this, but did direct it too. And he is able to inject a lot of humor in a quite serious movie.

Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers went head to head for quite some while. I think it helped them make better movies competing against each other - talking of competing, the stunts here are quite something to behold. Really well done and some contact for sure - but also using stuff they learned at Peking Opera (it I am not mistaken entirely) ... so many things and forms to see here.

The movie is a gem for action lovers for sure ... suspend your disbelief and have fun with it - also there is more where that came from!