cityonfire.com | Fong Sai Yuk II

	Fong Sai Yuk II "... this movie sucks like a rotten camel. " - Perkele Fong Sai Yuk II (1993) AKA: The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk II, The Legend II Literally: Fong Sai Yuk II Director: Corey Yuen Kuai Producer: Lee Yeung Hung Writer: John Chan Kin-Chung, Kay On Cast: Jet Li, Josephine Siao, Michelle Reis, Adam Cheng, Corey Yuen Kuai, Gai Chun Wa Running Time: 96 min. Plot: See reviews below. Reviews NUMSKULL'S REVIEW: 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 MASSACURE'S REVIEW: This movie gets alot of mixed reviews, if you are looking for the same kind of film as the orginal, you wont find it, the mother and son relationship isnt there, the light hearted fun atsmophere is also gone, its a different movie but not nessasarily a bad movie, i enjoyed it, and i love the last fight scene. I think the fact of a big rivalry saved the movie from getting a low rateing from me. But in all i like this movie. MASSACURE'S RATING: 6.5/10 PERKELE'S REVIEW: How can they do this to one of my favourite 90's kung fu flicks! "Fong Sai Yuk II" is another lame wire-fu fantasy filled with unfunny comedy and flying people. In the first movie the fights were quite amazing and the wire tricks were cool, but this time they've managed to spoil the whole film with more wires that is needed to hang up every goddamn jerk working in HK movie industry nowadays. This shit really made me embarrassed by the fact that I'm a huge fan of the first part. Besides the fights, the other very bad flaw is the story. They started to shoot the movie without a complete script and it shows. I didn't have a slightest idea 'bout what was going on (largely due the Swedish subtitles and a magazine I was reading at the same time) and neither the story nor the characters kept my interest. Jet Li, who I found at least tolerable in the series' first instalment, is now just a bad actor. Best character is again Josephine Siao as Fong Sai Yuk's mother and that Ting Ting ?girl (whatever) sure looks hot. But still, this movie sucks like a rotten camel. I'm pissed off. Damn! PERKELE'S RATING: 3.5/10

Fong Sai Yuk II

"... this movie sucks like a rotten camel. "

- Perkele

Fong Sai Yuk II (1993)

AKA: The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk II, The Legend II

Literally: Fong Sai Yuk II

Director: Corey Yuen Kuai

Producer: Lee Yeung Hung

Writer: John Chan Kin-Chung, Kay On

Cast: Jet Li, Josephine Siao, Michelle Reis, Adam Cheng, Corey Yuen Kuai, Gai Chun Wa

Running Time: 96 min.

Plot: See reviews below.

Reviews

NUMSKULL'S REVIEW: 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

MASSACURE'S REVIEW: This movie gets alot of mixed reviews, if you are looking for the same kind of film as the orginal, you wont find it, the mother and son relationship isnt there, the light hearted fun atsmophere is also gone, its a different movie but not nessasarily a bad movie, i enjoyed it, and i love the last fight scene. I think the fact of a big rivalry saved the movie from getting a low rateing from me. But in all i like this movie.

MASSACURE'S RATING: 6.5/10

PERKELE'S REVIEW: How can they do this to one of my favourite 90's kung fu flicks! "Fong Sai Yuk II" is another lame wire-fu fantasy filled with unfunny comedy and flying people. In the first movie the fights were quite amazing and the wire tricks were cool, but this time they've managed to spoil the whole film with more wires that is needed to hang up every goddamn jerk working in HK movie industry nowadays. This shit really made me embarrassed by the fact that I'm a huge fan of the first part. Besides the fights, the other very bad flaw is the story. They started to shoot the movie without a complete script and it shows. I didn't have a slightest idea 'bout what was going on (largely due the Swedish subtitles and a magazine I was reading at the same time) and neither the story nor the characters kept my interest. Jet Li, who I found at least tolerable in the series' first instalment, is now just a bad actor. Best character is again Josephine Siao as Fong Sai Yuk's mother and that Ting Ting ?girl (whatever) sure looks hot. But still, this movie sucks like a rotten camel. I'm pissed off. Damn!

PERKELE'S RATING: 3.5/10