Wing Chun
CAST

Michelle Yeoh
Donnie Yen
Waise Lee
Yuen King Tan
Cheng Pei Pei
Norman Chu

ACTION
Yuen Clan
Donnie Yen
WRITER

Elsa Tang
Wong Wing Fai

PRODUCER
Yeung Gwok Wing
DIRECTOR

Yuen Woo Ping

RATING
   Wing Chun
Wing Chun
AKA : The Legend Of Kung Fu Queen
Year : 1994     Reviewer : Tony Ryan

For a film based around the theme of Wing Chun, or at least one starring its namesake, one would expect to see some of the fighting style. However, this is not the case, and the action is typical Woo-Ping, and unfortunately, some typical Donnie Yen too! By that I mean, quality choreography, but an undue amount of ridiculously OTT undercranking.

 

 

The story follows Michelle Yeoh as a Bean curd seller, but quickly becomes confusing, convoluted, and an excuse for bizarre comedy between the usual high quality flying fist action. As mentioned, the fight scenes are well choreographed as you would expect from the Yuen’s, but suffers drastically from Donnie Yen syndrome - i.e. maximum undercranking. What confuses me most, is that Donnie is quite possibly the fastest, most gifted screen fighter of his generation, and looks even more ridiculous being sped up than someone with average talent. It has dogged his work throughout the 90’s and he doesn't seem to have learned not to do it. Michelle doesn’t quite perform as well in some scenes as she did in 'Tai Chi Master' but this may be due to her picking up a serious back injury during filming. Otherwise the action is up to the Yuen’s usual standard.

 

 

'Wing Chun' is not a bad film by any means. In fact, it is quite enjoyable, but only for those partial to Hong Kong style zany comedy, and wire-worked action sequences. If that’s your bag, then this is the film for you. It doesn't match either stars best films, so newcomers may be better off seeking out films like 'Iron Monkey', 'OUATIC 2' and 'Tai Chi Master' first, but this is a welcome addition to their collection. If only the undercranking wasn’t there, this may have been one of HK’s finest 90’s actioners. Instead, it is more on a par with the entertaining 'Heroes among Heroes'.

Distributor : Modern
Region : 0 (NTSC)
Running Time : 100 mins
Video :
1.85 non-anamorphic widescreen. A fairly decent budget release with a reasonably sharp image. Colour representation tends to be inconsistent however ranging from decent to slightly washed out. Minor scratches are present throughout.
Audio :
DD5.1/2.0 Cantonese or DD2.0 Mandarin soundtracks with optional English or Chinese subtitles.
Extras :
- Trailers for 'Sleeping With the Dead', 'Return From the Other World' and 'J.S.A. - Joint Security Area'
Notes :
N/A
Wing Chun
Wing Chun
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