Search - Warriors Two on DVD

The Awesome Wing Chun Style

Adam C. Scarbrough | San Luis Obispo, CA USA | 01/27/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Sammo Hung has done it again! Warriors Two is one of the best kung fu movies ever made(although nothing too original). Sammo directs, choreographs, and stars in along with Leung Kar Yan and Casanova Wong. These three are absolutely phenomenal. They all perform the wing chun style flawlessly with incredible speed and power. The action is non-stop throughout the film, full of one on one matchups, group fights, weapons, and training. All of the fight scenes are great, but the final fight has one of the most amazing kicks ever on film. Trust me, you'll know when you see it. The story is the basic revenge theme but it is still good. If you thought "The Prodigal Son"(also directed and choreographed by Sammo) was the best wing chun movie, you should see this. This is Sammo's second best film under "The Magnificent Butcher", in my opinion.

The DVD is done by Fox/Fortune Star, it should be the best you can get. All of Fox/Fortune Star's new DVD's are digitally remastered and anamorphic widescreen with great clarity and sound. I don't see why this one would be different.

This movie is AWESOME and should not be missed.

Other Fox/Fortune Star releases for April 5 were Sammo Hung's "Spooky Encounters", "Winners and Sinners", "Hand Of Death", and Brandon Lee's "Legacy of Rage"."

Sammo raises the bar, then lowers the boom

Mantis Lake | Detroit, MI USA | 12/15/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Sammo Hung really broke new ground in martial arts choreography with this film. There are moments of breathtaking kung fu and weaponry, but... there are also fights that flow like molasses topped off with some rather painful "comedy". Nonetheless I would still have to recommend it. The assets far outweigh the liabilites.

Cassanova Wong is a banker who discovers a plot to kill the mayor. The only person he tells is in on the conspiracy and sets him up. Though he escapes he is badly injured and hides out with Sammo and his Wing Chun instructor. After recovery they train for revenge and so on.

Story is not why we watch these. We watch for fights. If a good plot should happen to come along and link them together, so much the better. It helps that Cassanova Wong does some pretty sweet kicks, and wait 'til you see the Ground Mantis. Picture quality doesn't hurt either and here it is excellent. Even the nighttime shots. This would easily be a 4 or maybe even a 5-star film if the fights were more consistent and the comedy less excruciating. Those are the film's only faults, but they are rather epic in the flow and continuity of good cinema. Luckily, kung fu is partially exempt from those parameters.

1978
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Ode to Wing Chun

Shawn McKenna | Modesto, CA USA | 08/06/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Already an established actor and action director, Sammo Hung Kam-Bo's plethora of talents would be in full display when he helmed the director's chair for his third directorial film (after Iron Fisted Monk and Enter the Fat Dragon) during the golden age of Golden Harvest. Warriors Two is the first of two excellent Sammo Hung films, with Prodigal Son being the second, involving Leung Jan, a herbalist, doctor and teacher/practitioner of the martial art Wing Chun (a true renaissance man) in Foshan. This cinematic treatise on Wing Chun is a pleasure to watch because of the reverence that Sammo has for this discipline.

Warriors Two starts with Leung Kar-Yan (forever known as Beardy) in one of his greatest stoic performances as Leung Jan and his best known pupil Chan Wah Shan aka Cashier Wah, who would go on to teach Yip Man (sifu of Bruce Lee), fighting each other in the outdoors to introduce the movie. Korean martial artist Casanova Wong plays the student in a rare robust role that showcases his athletic ability (though not always in the Wing Chun mode, but making up for with an awesome kicking ability). It is amazing that Leung Kar-Yan with no martial art background before he started acting can adapt so well in these precise roles. I have read that is why Sammo has worked with him many times because of his adaptability and the fact that since he is not "prejudiced" to a specific style of Kung Fu so he can imitate most forms very effectively.

Sammo Hung does well in his supporting role as Fat Chun a student of Leung Jan and is the effective comic relief in this movie (Dean Shek is quasi-comedic). He is also the catalyst for the crux of the film. After the credits role past, Sammo (rotund but actually looking in good shape) starts off as a rice dumpling salesperson that eats too much of his supplies and eventually gets tricked out of the rest. Because of this he becomes a manure mover where he cannot eat (I hope) the supplies.

Cashier Wah works for Boss Mo (Fung Hak-On who surprisingly looks like an anachronistic Next Generation Klingon; though there is a reason for that strange appearance) a wealthy merchant who has plans to become mayor. Wah overhears the devious plan for Mo to accomplish this and goes and tells a clerk named Chiu (Dean Shek) who is actually working for Mo. Chiu tells Wah to go to the Temple of Light to tell the mayor there, but that (of course) is a set-up. Wah escapes from this and is eventually is saved by Sammo. Wah's mother is killed and this leads him to become a student of Leung with Chun's trickery. And like every movie that showcases a martial art there are the training sequences and philosophy behind the fighting.

There are not too many faults with the film. It could have had more emotional content like Prodigal Son, but the sagacious action scenes do make up for a lot. It could have made better use of Phoenix (Cheung Man Ting) whose martial arts should not have been so bad being a niece of Leung; luckily this film is no where near as misogynistic as Sammo's first film Iron Fisted Monk. Dean Shek's character as Clerk Chiu was overused, not always funny and hurt the pacing of the final act. Also what happens to Leung Jan is not historically accurate (not much of a spoiler but you can ignore the rest of the parentheses if you like; he retired and moved to his ancestral village of Gu Lao) But these are just quibbles.

There is so much to like. The action scenes by Hak-On and Billy Chan Wui-Ngai are awesome. There are constant martial art fighting throughout the film including a good fight between Lau Kar-Wing and Lee Hoi-Sang and the excellent finale between Mo's Ground (She) Praying Mantis which is supernatural but does not seem out of place and Wah's hybrid Wing Chun. Cassanova Wong does this absolutely beautiful spinning kick across a table that is highlight in this film. There are many more good fight scenes that showcase Wing Chun with sticky hands, six-and-a-half point staff, Eight Chop Swords (Butterfly Swords), one-inch punch power, Wing Chun dummy, wooden men and many other aspects of this great martial art. One of Sammo's best attributes as a director/actor is that he showcases people's abilities without putting himself first and this really shows in this film. Leung Kar-Yan is perfectly cast. There are great small roles with Lam Ching-Ying, Eric Tsang, and (try to spot) Yuen Biao. Also, this movie has the best use of a metaphorical fruit (or is it a squash) and the staff that destroys it.

I have the Fortune Star/Fox R1 release that has a great picture but has some annoying sounds. There is no official mono (downmix of the 5.1) and many sound effects sound exaggerated especially the punches and kicks. There is also the case of a Cantonese version of Elvis's "Don't Be Cruel" that has supposedly replaced the original song in an early teahouse scene (I haven't been able to confirm this since I haven't heard the original Cantonese and have only read second-hand accounts like the loveandbullets site). Luckily since this was a later wave of Fortune Star releases the subtitles are not dubtitles though they seem to have Mandarin translations of names (Liang Tsan instead of Leung Jan and Yung Chun instead of Wing Chun). Even though this has no extras (The HKL R2 release has a lot of desirable extras) it is an inexpensive treat for a must have martial art film.
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I'm ashamed to say it but... "Everybody Wing Chun tonight!"

D. Wilson | NY by way of Cali | 10/19/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The great Sammo Hung does it all here... directing, choreographing, and of course, starring in this highly entertaining staple of the genre. Warriors Two doesn't bring anything particularly new to the party but it does have a fantastic cast spearheaded by Leung Kar Yan (in maybe his best role) and Casanova Wong and rounded out by typecast villian standbys Lee Hoi San and Fong Hak On (both always great). Sammo plays the loveable lump known as "Porky" and sports the best hairdo of his career (the Friar Tuck look)! What this film does a truly fantastic job of (as noted by all the other fine reviews) is give you a thourough and informative look at the Wing Chun style of fighting... beyond "Prodigal Son" (another Sammo classic) you'll never see it done better than here. The movie has a few problems though including it's use of humor. Don't get me wrong, some of it is actually pretty good (Sammo's opening scene with the pork buns had me grinning like an idiot for awhile) but it's actually the inappropriate use of it sometimes that will have you scratching your head (the ending shifts from big drama to levity without warning). The other issue I had was the villian in the final fight. Everything up until this scene is fairly grounded in a realistic approach but at the end the main villain leans at 120 degree angles and hovers and does all kinds of other kooky junk. Still minor qualms and they shouldn't deter you from searching this out if you haven't seen it yet. Sammo's best will always be "The Magnificient Butcher" but I wouldn't argue with anyone who says this is his second best movie... and in a career like his, second is pretty damn good.

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