Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Leoni Haney Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

TheBigSick This martial arts film is especially well-known for the legendary last fight scene between Jet Li and Donnie Yen, two of the all-time greatest martial artists, at an alley. The fight is both intense and speedy, and Li and Yen uses whatever weapons they can find, including ropes and wooden splinters, to fight each other.

Andrei Pavlov Maybe I don't understand anything in kung fu movies, but this one doesn't look good to me.To begin with, it makes a clownish impression. The Chinese men are flying and delivering very unrealistic moves. The "furniture fight" makes me laugh. They make a pile of tables, shout some stupid rhymes, make childish gestures, Wong makes a ridiculous "helicopter" kick (in the first film Wong also made a helicopter kick but it did not look this funny), etc.Then some scenes are exaggerated (take for instance the one on the train when Luke (?) can't decide which hand is his or another one with Wong) and look pathetic. The result is that I start feeling sorry for the actors.That's about all as to negative sides of the movie. All the rest is fine. The original film was fine from start to finish. The humour was not over the top. The fights were colossal but never laughable. And the jokes were funny but never pathetic.Why it has the same rating on IMDb as the original film and why they say that it has the most memorable fight scenes in Jet Lee's career are two mysteries to me.It is a much weaker attempt than the original movie: 6 out of 10 (it has its moments and the final fight is still memorable). Thanks for attention.

winner55 Of the three original films by Tsui Hark concerning Wong Fei Hung, this is certainly the best. The construction is tighter than Once Upon a Time in China I, and, although the third film is my personal favorite, this second film does not lapse into martial-arts-film-genre cliché as does the third.Of course that means that, in order to transcend its genre, paradoxically the fights of the second film have to be razor sharp - and they are. The fight scenes in this film were the best up until its time. The final duel between Jet Li and Donnie Yen is staggering, all the more so for being crafted as to appear utterly realistic. Dam', that wet rope flying at the camera scared the bejeezus out of me! But since the film presents kung fu so convincingly, for that very reason we can take it in stride, as just another element in the film's complex interweaving of traditional culture and modern politics. The film is really about the birth of a new nation, which has yet to be invented - the Republic of China, represented by its highly respected progenitor, Dr. Sun Yet Sen, the only revolutionary figure admired equally by Nationalists and Communists alike. And it should be noted here that Sun Yet Sen strongly believed that the only way the Chinese could rid themselves of Manchurian dictatorship was by adopting the Modernist culture of the West that the Manchurian's utterly loathed and feared.That, too, is paradoxical. To regain a traditional (pre-Manchurian) Chinese identity meant for Sun Yet sen adoption of a post-Manchurian Modernity - which, unfortunately, as all now know, looks an awful lot like the US. Which is perhaps why the originally intended climax of this series of films was to be Once Upon a Time in China and America (a plan disrupted by personal disagreements between Jet Li and Tsui Hark).Well, in any event - does the viewer have to know all this to enjoy the film? No; the film is constructed to work on its own as a glance back at an historic moment of decision which could only be completed in another decade. Thus its sense of incompleteness and hanging threads is actually part of the very fabric of the story.By the way - hopefully you will watch this film a second time - please note how much Tsui Hark accomplishes on what must have been a comparatively small budget! I mean, he's only got a couple back lot sound-stages, but he manages to reconstruct an entire world of 19th century China for us - that's really quite amazing!

bob the moo Master Wong Fei-hung, Shao Yun and Foon travel to the area of Canton to attend a medical presentation to Western doctors. While there Wong meets a fellow doctor who is soon afterwards wanted by the local government for arranging for weapons to be brought in and support an uprising among the people. Meanwhile the anti-foreigners feelings in the district are stirred up by the xenophobic White Lotus cult. Wong is put in a position where he must take a stand against the corrupt factors of Government and cult and protect Luke and the doctor.Immediately after watching the first in this series I got out the second. The first thing that hits you after the introduction to the White Lotus is the fact that this film is much funnier than the first. This is to it's strength as much of the first hour goes by without much action – there are one or two main fights in the first hour. Happily this comic touch helps keep the film going even when the political relationships get a little complicated to follow and to keep track of. Aside from this the drama is good and the complexity shouldn't put you off – things are explained gradually, not all at once. When I got to the end it made more sense than it had during the first sections.The action is not as good as in the first film, but it still tears strips off much of Jet Li's work in the USA to date. The scenes all showcase Li's natural talents to good effect, whether it be a street fight or the complicated (and a bit over elaborate) fight in the White Lotus temple. The climatic fight with Donnie Yen is very good.Li is a lot more relaxed in this film than the first. He was a bit too moral and upright in the first, here he is a bit more human. This change is partly due to the comic touches of Siu Chung Mok's Foon. Here Foon is more of a clown but Mok makes him funny without making him a fool. Kwan is good as 13th Aunt Shao and again is a lot more relaxed than the first film. Yen is good but isn't quite given the best scenes to show off his ability – although both of his scenes are pretty hot.Overall I must say I enjoyed this film more than the first one. It is a more well rounded piece of entertainment whereas the first was more serious. The martial arts action doesn't meet the standard set in the first part but it is still very good and better than the stuff Hollywood is now serving up as standard (Cradle2Grave anyone?). Great choreography and pretty funny.