The Bride with White Hair 2
1993
Director: Ronny Yu
Stars: Brigette Lin, Leslie Cheung
An evil witch (Lin) is intent on killing off the eight great kung fu clans so she can rid the world of men. Only her former lover (Cheung) can hope to stop her with a special flower that will revert the witch to her former self.
This sequel to the mega-popular The Bride with White Hair fails to capture the magic of the original. Most of this comes from the fact that the two leads -- whose romance is the plot impetus for both movies -- only share one scene together. Plotwise, it also doesn't really stand too well on its own. American director James Cameron (Aliens, Terminator 2) once said "I don't believe a sequel should depend on the original," and I think that applies here. Those who haven't seen part 1 will either be bored or confused as pertaining to the plot, and Yu's direction leaves much to be desired in the action department. While there is a great amount of action, Yu uses slow motion way too much -- almost every shot later in the film uses it! And keep in mind that I am a huge John Woo fan, so I am quite used to slow motion being used in action sequences.
A nice piece of eye candy but little else.
RATING: 4