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WING CHUN (HK/China)

 ABOUT THE MOVIE

Genre: Martial-Arts/Drama
Starring: Nicholas Tse, Yuen Biao, Sammo Hung, Rain Li, Hung Tin-Cheung
Rating: PG
Year Made: 2007

 

 


 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Languages: Mandarin
Subtitles: Chinese
Format: 28 VCDs
Episodes: 40
Distributor: Innoform Media

 

 

SYNOPSIS:

Liang Zan, the owner of a clinic in Fo Shan, is well-liked by the people of Fo Shan. He has two sons; the elder son, Liang Bi is a gifted, hot-headed youngster who loves martial art and the younger son is the opposite of Liang Bi.

Liang Zan bears the responsiblity of finding a successor for the family's martial art, 'Yong Chun'. Liang Zan initially has high hopes on Liang Bi. But Liang Bi grows up to be a prodigal son. As Liang Zan refuses to choose Liang Bi as the successor, the father and son relationship sours.

The disciple of a martial arts sect, Gao Ming has lost his sister due to his misjudgement of people. He went to Fo Shan to look for his sister and there, encounter Liang Bi and bad blood between them arises.

The story 'Yong Chun' revolves around the legendary martial art exponent, Liang Zan, Liang Bi, Gao Ming and a few other exceptional ladies. In it, gratitude, love and hatred entwined.


MOVIE REVIEW:
  

Before I embarked on this, I was hoping deep down it would set a benchmark for all future martial arts television series simply because it stars two of the greatest kung-fu stars of all time, Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung.

Reprising their roles from the original movie, “The Prodigal Son”. Yuen plays Liang Zan, a well-know physician and also a “Wing-Chun” martial arts practitioner in Fo Shan. Zan has two sons, Liang Bi (played by Nicholas Tse) and Liang Chun. Bi is a notorious trouble-maker much to the dismay of his father while his brother, Chun takes after his father in the medical field. Bi hates his father for not imparting the art of “Wing Chun” to him and both have a tumultuous relationship ever since.

Bear in mind this is a 40-episodes drama you are looking at so there are plenty of characters being introduced as the plot thickens. There’s the faithful butler of Zan who has a daughter who is secretly in love with Bi and that’s only the son, Zan’s sister-in-law is having a crush on him too. Subplots and plenty of martial arts’ mumbo jumbo aside, for the first 10 episodes of the series, the story focuses mainly on the stiff competition between Bi and He, son of an evil businessman in the province. But the sole reason for it is to introduce the main villain to the audience, Gao Ming (played by Sammo’s real-life son, Hung Tin-Cheung).

Our favourite bubbly fighter Sammo who plays Wong Hong Bo, the master of Liang Zan will not appear until episode 15. And Gordon Liu (“Kill Bill”) has a cameo appearance in one of the episodes facing off Liang Zan.

Surprisingly, the action sequences are short and subtle for a martial-arts series. There are no prolonged fighting acts unlike the usual martial arts movies. Choreographer Tung Wai seems to abandon the use of fancy wire-works here and preferred the use of realistic hand and leg sparring. Do not expect a lot of fancy somersaults and high jumps either, perhaps this is Tung Wai’s way of paying respect to the actual true form of “Wing Chun”.

A self-proclaimed martial-arts fanatic, Nicholas Tse who has no background in martial arts put in a believable performance as the impulsive Bi. Though not as elegant as compared to Yuen and Hung’s heydays, Tse certainly has the makings of an action star. Hung Tin-Cheung who nabbed the meatier role of a villain unfortunately seems stiff and unnatural. But it’s an eye-opener to see him facing off Daddy aka Sammo Hung in a particular sequence.

Filmed in Hengdian movie studio (“Fearless”, “Hero”) “Wing Chun” the series never really set any record or benchmark. Despite Yuen and Sammo’s being the leading men, this 40 episodes drama series can be a drag to sit through at times. Pacing is slow to a crawl and the action scenes constitute perhaps a minimal 10% of the whole production. To be fair, this is a general trend of a drama serial. But to put the talented Yuen, Sammo, Tse and Hung in here is a wasted opportunity.

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee

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This review is made possible with the kind support from InnoForm

 

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