“Fong Sai-yuk II” DVD Cover
Director: Corey Yuen
Cast: Jet Li, Josephine Siao, Michelle Reis, Adam Cheng, Corey Yuen, Peter Chan Lung
Running Time: 96 min.
By Numskull
Not many wire fu movies deliver the goods as well as Fong Sai Yuk does, and not many sequels match up to the original as well as Fong Sai Yuk 2. Jet Li, Michelle Reis, and Josephine Siao all return as the title character, his puppy-dog eyed fiancee Ting Ting, and his ass-kicking mom, respectively. More high-jumping, hard-hitting chaos ensues as Fong tries to prove his worth to his godfather, the chief of the Red Flower Society, and contends with a real bastard called Mr. Yu who is masterminding a conspiracy to assassinate the chief and claim the position for himself (I guess that’s sort of a spoiler, but c’mon, who ELSE could it be?).
The movie is dragged down a bit by a lame subplot where Fong must court some rich daddy’s girl to get his hands on a sacred box with a valuable secret inside. Now, would anyone here care to guess if this causes Ting Ting to jump to conclusions and cause all sorts of difficulty for Fong as he tries to placate both women AND fulfill his duties? A show of hands, please? Hmmm…all of you? Yup, I expected as much…
Well, never mind the bimbos. The fighting is where it’s at. Jet’s battle with a gang of spearmen and the bamboo raft sequence are plenty cool, and the scene where he straps about a dozen swords to his body, blindfolds himself, and slashes his way through a gauntlet of friends turned enemies is spiffy as well. But the best is saved for last; the final battle has Fong fighting for his life as well as that of his mother, who hangs by the neck atop an elaborate stack of wooden benches, which the combatants constantly eliminate, replace, and shuffle around as they fight, with her life depending on the size and shape of the stack. Implausible as hell, but it deserves all the credit in the world for being one of the most creative and painstakingly arranged action scenes I’ve watched in a long time. It has a definite Iron Monkey (Yuen Wo Ping) vibe to it.
The Dimension release of this movie, “The Legend 2”, has been butchered and is to be spurned by people of intelligence and/or virtue. The Universe DVD is immeasurably preferable.
Numskull’s Rating: 7/10
