Once Upon a Time in China 2
Review
Format: VCD
Stars: Jet Li, Donnie Yen

The White Lotus Cult in China is willing to give up anything to get rid of foreigners and cause trouble, while Sun and Luke are preaching about Democracy.

OUATIC 2 has a good load of weapon fighting, with a very dark atmosphere and proves to be moodier than OUATIC 1. The scenes are much darker, and the buildings are even more run down than in the first. ... k anyways...

To start with, Jet Li is amazing in this. So is Donnie Yen. They are both so incredibly fast and I think that Tsui Hark produced this with an extreme respect for their talents, both acting- and action-wise. Jet Li's assistant, Fu, starts things off in the beginning by taking on a thick crowd of cultists who want to kill Rosamund Kwon (she plays San Yee again), so Fu fights them off. What I liked about this part was that it was filmed well, but Fu didn't seem to be too powerful. The crowd still reacted well, though. Usually in crowd fights they dance around like idiots until someone acts, but this group did well. Fei Hung (Jet Li) comes in and beats them all up one at a time, and looks so damned good doing it. Tell you what, I bought like 7 Jet Li movies this weekend, I've watched one, and I can't wait to watch the other 6 because he is one of the best ones out there. He uses his fan like it's an extra hand, and in the background Fu is taking on the remainder of the group, and here he looks really good as well, doing one move where he slams his palm into a guy's forehead. Really cool.



The next scene doesn't happen for some time, when Jet Li fights Donnie Yen, who plays a Manchurian Officer. Donnie does a demonstration in the beginning with a long wet cloth, tearing up a bamboo housing where he's practicing. Li comes in, and they have a good looking staff duel, even though I don't really care for weapon fights. Lots of destruction and a few acrobatics, and while Donnie is breaking bamboo poles all over the place, Jet Li is smacking them with his staff, and after the fight is over Donnie's officers are making fun of Li, saying he can't break the bamboo, only to touch the poles and they break apart right then. Pretty cool.



There is a scene where Jet is in the British Embassy and the cult is invading, so Jet jumps up and kicks the little round thing on the corner of the stairs right into a guy's face. After that, Jet, again, bedazzles with his ability to lift himself off the ground and kick anyone within a 10 foot radius. Fu uses a big 'ol cross (from a church) to beat the hell out of a group.

Jet ends up in the White Lotus Cult church place to kill the leader. Jet beats up everyone with an umbrella, then he meets with Kung, the leader, up on top of a bunch of piled tables in the shape of a cross. This part is corny because it's basically impossible and there are lots of wires. Kung gets out his weapon, which is basically a wand with a bunch of hair coming out of it, and they do more wire fu, and more, and then some more until Jet wins, of course. I was hoping this wasn't the last fight, and it wasn't, thankfully. The final fight against Donnie was to come.



Ok, I am happy. Not as happy as I would like to be, but I'm still happy. Donnie fights Li in, as usual, an old place with lots of scaffolding and bean baskets. It's pretty amazing. Jet, at one point, is 25 feet up with a pole just that high, flailing it at Donnie who is down below. There's lots of acrobatic work here, and they totally destroy the surroundings, which I expected. Tsui Hark has a way of making everything around the actors just crumble at the right time. A minute later, they both have 2 halves of a staff each, and they go at it with these things which is really cool looking. They're both fast with such heavy objects (takes lots of wrist strength to fight with these things I bet), and the choreography is spot on. As I said, I'm not as happy with this fight as I would like to be because they never get out of the weapons mode, but nonetheless it's still really cool. Immediately after Donnie traps Fu and Fei Hung in an alley and Donnie fights with a long dry rag. Li uses another pole, which breaks repeatedly and he uses the broken part for whipping (literally). Very well done, and the scene itself was shot expertly.



With so much going on, it's amazing that the filmer was able to film EVERYTHING very well. I could see both of the actors with ease (unlike Legend of the Wolf, which has its own style), and everything was just so well done that I REALLY REALLY wish they had had hand to hand fighting instead of weapons. I think I came to hate weapon fights with those damned 2 beat movies that sucked (some were good mind you) during the 1970's, like that one at the end of Dragon Fist that made me fall asleep it lasted so long. So, I have a defect that might be changed over time, but I have a love for close combat. There were, eh, 4 or so good fights in this, which isn't too bad, but I would always like more, like maybe TEN or something, like Knockabout or They Call Me Phat Dragon. Oh well, these were all exceptional. I give this one a

8.5/10 - More, more, more fights with hands and feet, and less weapons. That would have made this film a 10, because everything else was great. Li and Donnie have awesome screen presence, and the scenes were all shot so well. It could have been one of the best.

UPDATE - 10/4/00 - After watching Once Upon a Time in China and America, I realized how valuable good camerawork and widescreen formatting is, as well as AWESOME editing. Even though there aren't as many fights here as I would like, I still appreciate the awesome production quality of the whole package and as of right now, this is the best OUATIC, until I see Last Hero in China. I upgrade the score to

9/10

UPDATE 10/9 - Rating System Change

5/5 - Excellent movie, I've decided.

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