Customer Reviews

Warriors Two

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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 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

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.

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.

There are very few films out there that can claim they present any authentic Wing Chun Kung Fu; this movie is one of them. The choreography in the film is noticable, but it does not ruin the film at all. There is an extensive training sequence in which some basic principles of Wing Chun are mentioned (however, not described very well). The actual movements that the actors perform appear to be some Yip Man lineage movements, so take this film with a grain of salt. As much as the Yip Man students would love to claim they are "The Original", this is simply not so - Their lineage is one of many that are all original in their own way. They just happened to be represented in this film. That being said, it is a very entertaining flick and even though the Wing Chun is just so-so, it is still nice to be able to say, "Hey, I recognize that technique!"

Next to "The Prodigal Son" this is the second best representation of Wing Chun Kung Fu on film. Bruce Lee's films contain much of the essence of Wing Chun and even some techniques, but he also flavored it with many varying styles culminating in his own Jeet Kune Do. So, I don't consider Bruce Lee's work to represent true Wing Chun; though you can recognize a lot of what he does and the principles of JKD and Wing Chun are very similar.

I am a Wing Chun student and also a fan of martial arts films, especially Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li. I have seen various styles of kung fu/wu shu in film, but rarely Wing Chun. This is a great review of techniques in action.

We learn the Cantonese words and numbers in class, and it is cool to see them right in the movie. I like the intro segment and of course the training sections at the school with Siu Lim Tau, Chum Kiu, and a bit of Biu Gee, as well as the pole (Lok Dim Boon Gwan) and even some Bak Jom Dao (butterfly knives). There is also wooden dummy work and a room with 2 wooden dummies that come out at cashier Hua to help train his skills.

It is great to see techniques like tan sau, pak sau, fook sau, gan sau, kwon sau, fak sau, blindfolded chi sau, pole forms, inch punch, rooting energy, etc. Sammo Hong is also entertaining and incredible. He is joking around and yet kicking butt (like Jackie Chan is known for). Later in the movie he fights an opponent in the dark in a bamboo forest. Cool.

Overall I am very pleased with this movie and is the best wing chun movie I have seen apart from the training videos my sifu has made. This is entertaining and educational. (and it also is a bit funny to hear the sound of horseshoes on cobblestones when the horses are running on dirt or through the water! ha.)

I am always looking for great kung fu movies, and of course the really unique ones are the older ones. I was not let down with this great film. I have seen it twice and will watch it again sometime, wish i had a kung fu buddy to watch these films with . The story was great and easy to follow. The fight scenes have to be some of the best except for the fight between sammo and that idiot with the bowl on his head , i mean seriously sammo should have just killed him right away! The fights are better than stuff i see today , sometimes they are so well done that i cant help from smiling cause its so cool. The only bad parts of the movie are when the teacher gets killed and the woman gets stabbed with two swords, i was very sad when they died. The pray mantis style you have to see in this movie! If you love this stuff you need to get this movie !

I saw this flick approximately 25 years ago, and it always stuck in my mind as an amazing kung fu movie!! I was not able to find/ locate this flick,,,cuz I never could remember then name of it but I always remembered Sammo Hung as one of the main characters. I watched almost every Sammo flick just to track this movies,,,,I only succeeded in finding this movies May 02,2006,,,based on the reviews here on amazon. Even-though it's 25 years later,,,I am still impressed by this movies,,,,therefore I cannot give it nothing less than a 5 star!!

Kung Fu clásico, con personajes magicos, y con muy buenas coreografias de peleas.
Buen humor, buen tema y buen desenlace. Sammo Hung es de los mejores actores en este campo.
Buena calidad de DVD, no tuve problemas para reproducirlo.
Advertencia: solo subtitulos en ingles y chino

I just took a shot to the arm and it was, well, wow, let me catch my breath. This good priced shlt is called Warriors two, the movie I would have to consider sammo's masterpiece. I am partial to prodigal son, but I would put this ahead of "the victim" for sure. Nto as brutal of a final scene but it does haev one that tops the finale from the victim. Yeah, I"m serious.

Now I would giv this a 4.5 but I HAD to go with the 5. This is one that NO movie fan of any genre would be dissapinted with. Even that idiot who said he hated prodigal son, get this one sonny cause it has some mindblowing mindlessly good action for you. The openinig sewuence between Leugn Kar Yan(aka beardy) and cassanovas wong is spectacualr and then with sammo and like 10 other dudes that show up that can fight, you have yourself one of the best klung fu movies ever. Teh reson I say this is sammo's overall best work is because he made a pretty good story with very colorful characters. The make up on everybody is not your average independent production where everyone rememebers the white wig that silver fox had on, these guys look AWESOME. The guy with the huge scar on his face is great to look at and I would put him as my # 6 favorite fighter in this movie. IN MOST MOVIES HE WOULD BE 1 OR 2. But add in Lee Hoi San, Billy Chan, Hark-on Fung, ching-ying Lam as a swordsman, and a cameo with Lau Kar Wing putting on a beautiful display of a dance of death, and I think only hwang Jang Lee hiself as another one of the bad guys could have made this movie any better. But making Beardy the old wing chun master was truly masterful. Not a martial artist by trade, btu you will certainly be liek me the first time you see him and say damn, that is one the baddest ass dudes of all time right there.

Good comedy, good final fight and good fights all the way around. But I haev to say to anyone who practices the MA's, wing chun is being given the spotlight here, just like in prodigal son, the emphasis is on technique early on, then the end just does the best it can movie wise and says screw everything else.

The picture is BEAUTIFUL, not all the way widescreened, but presented in an awesome 16:9 format, you need to go get this today if you love kung fu or if you want to find out if you like this special genre. I would put this in my personal top 20 or 30.

ALSO LOOK OUT FOR THE SICK ASS SCISSOR KICK THAT SAMMO LANDS AND TAKES A GUY DOWN WITH. AND THERE IS A KICK THAT CASSANOVA WONG DOES WHEN HE JUMPS OVER A TABLE AT THE END THAT I HAD TO REWIND FOR 20 MINUTES. When I continued the movie I was lost and I swear to god I just pressed the play button again seconds after finishing the whole thing, and if I ahd time, I would have watched it a third time in a row. Kung fu fans have never had a better reason to rejoice then this dvd.