Wing Chun (1994)

Michelle Yeoh was the star and hero of this movie, let there be no doubt. Everyone else was along for the ride. And what a fun, fast paced, romantic ride it was!

Michelle Yeoh was amazing as the young woman, Wing Chun, who had escaped a forced marriage and gone to study martial arts for years. Upon returning home and setting up a tofu shop she was often the wall between the townspeople and roving bandits. Michelle did nearly all of her own stunt work and truly shone brightly in this role.

Donnie Yen played Leung Pok To, Wing Chun’s childhood friend, who had returned after several years away to ask for her hand in marriage. He didn’t recognize her as she was dressed as a man and mistakenly thought the pretty young widow who worked in Wing’s tofu shop was her. Suitors competed for the women and there was some good-natured bed hopping. There was a love triangle, or maybe square, on second thought it might have been a love heptagon.

Donnie was as cute as a puppy in his role as Wing Chun’s would-be suitor. Leung was skilled in martial arts but not as accomplished as his childhood love. Norman Chu seemed to have a good time playing the Bandit King, he made a brash and comical villain. He couldn’t decide if he wanted to beat Wing Chun or marry her. The side characters were interesting and distinguishable--the money counting and intimidating sister who had eyes on a scholar, the scholar who was torn between Wing Chun and the young widow, the young widow who was in need of a man’s, uh, services, and a bandit who wanted the widow as his wife--all helped fill out the story in a meaningful way.

I liked this movie because unlike a lot of kung fu movies the romances weren’t tacked on and were relevant to the plot. These were all people trying to earn their happily ever afters in between kung fu fights, of course.

Yuen Woo Ping outdid himself with the creative fights, one particularly clever fight between Wing Chun, a hired fighter, and a plate of tofu was ingenious. There were no deaths or blood-soaked bodies, just lots of high wire, good old-fashioned fights with people who knew what they were doing. The action was fast, stunningly choreographed, and well-acted at the same time. Though some parts of the fights were unrealistic, who cares when they were so entertaining.

Importantly, they stuck the landing. I loved the final fight between Wing Chun and the Bandit King. I’ve never seen fight scenes quite like the ones shot for this film. The culmination of it was perfect. They also made me laugh. This film made me laugh several times and I rarely if ever laugh at “funny” kung fu movies. This was not a perfect film and some parts of it were dated. Regardless of its flaws, I enjoyed it.

Michelle and Donnie are two of my favorite actors and this film was a dream team for me complete with romance and spectacular fights. If you enjoy kung fu movies, this one is well worth seeking out.

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