Yuen Biao, who starred in Once Upon a Time in China, at the time had found out that most of scenes had been cut out of the film and was promised to be the main star of the film, which he felt he was lied to due to Jet Li getting the main focus throughout the movie. Biao teamed up again with Wu Ma to star in his own take of the Wong Fei Hong legend. Although Wu Ma focuses on the students of Wong Fei Hong rather than the Wong Fei Hong himself as the Once Upon a Time in China series had done also biao wanted to make his own version of how his character in ouatic shouldv’e been.
Biao takes a break from starring in fantasy flicks to star in this traditional kung fu piece which i loved the first time i seen it and still do till this day. The first real fight is when yuen biao is aboard a ship and tries to enter a foreign bar on the boat, but he is quicky stopped by a british man who calls them “scum”. This quickly leads to biao doing a jump kick to the face followed by a side kick throwing the guy back and through a table. Then a big fight breaks out with Biao showing some excellent kicking skills and even trying out snake fist (which doesn’t work for him).
The movie focuses around Yuen Wah the main badguy, who has a place being filled with opium dealers and users and Biao see’s this as a chance to get into the gang and stop them from inside the gang and take down the main villian. Theres a great scene where a bunch of ninjas come into the school of wong fei hungs and come face to face with biao and his crew. Also Yuen Shi Kuan shows up in the movie as a officer trying to stop Yuen Wah but also crosses paths with Biao throughout the film.
Other grabbing scenes include Biao and Kuan’s battle across a giant chess board and of course the final fight where Biao faces aload of Wah’s thugs, showing incredible acrobatics and unstoppable kicking techniques with his golden framed shoes. Yuen biao vs Yuen wah is always a reason to get this movie as these two are fantastic when staging a brilliant fight scene also shown in Biaos first movie as director called Kid From Tibet.
Yuen Biao was out to prove a point with this movie as he felt his kung fu skills weren’t on show in Once Upon A Time In China due to the director taking the main focus away from him onto Jet Li’s character. The movie might not be as good as OUATIC but the fight scenes are a fantastic watch and show Biao back to his best delievering some of his best kicking skills on screen.
[Rating: 8/10]
Yuen Biao is quite under-appreciated. I always enjoy is work.
yeah i agree with you. he should get a life time achievement award for all the work he has done infront and behind the camera.
One of my all time favorite kung fu stars….
Very underrated – not sure why Yuen's career never really took off
i agree with you. i think hes one of the best eva martial artists in movies.