I just jump up from my chair when read Ng See-Yuen is going to make his own martial arts movie based on Kung Fu Wing Chun topic. For those who do not know who is Ng See-Yuen find information below.
Staying apart of Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung Ip Man 2 where tough grand master beats the hell out of Western fighter, this martial arts movie is about young, charming and filial girl named Wing Chun with a strong sense of righteousness, who works in popular eatery at Mount Da Liang. What is interesting her future husband Leung Bao Chou promotes a tea named Mountain Dew (our regards to PepsiCo) and does this as the best white collar broker from Manhattan.
Wing Chun is a very popular and beautiful girl and local villain, Gao Shing wants to marry her but if he beats her in fighting match. The same time Bao Chou parents urge young businessman to visit eatery at Mount Da Liang and marry Wing Chun too.
The battle is coming, Wing Chun does not want to marry Gao Shing and needs more Kung Fu Wing Chun skills to win a fight. Accidentally she came across Ng Mui, a abbess who’s highly-skilled in martial arts and escaping from the imperial guards.
Upon deciding to do this movie about the development of Wing Chun, producers auditioned over 200 people, eventually, 6 remained. After half a year of training, some gave up halfway, and coupled with various considerations, and eventually producers choose Bai Jing for a role of young Wing Chun.
The fights are fairly exciting in tempo and execution, if you watched some Ip Man films this one will not be the same, because a girl is not grandmaster yet, and her moves are sometimes still raw and unrefined. Fight choreography looks like the old Shaw Bros films, but without funny wire-fu. The villain played by Colin Chou looks very good and extremely skilled in kung fu, so Wing Chun needs to strain every muscle to defeat him.
Sometimes Kung Fu Wing Chun movie looks like a TV film with a lot of unnecessary subplots that could have been dropped, but in general it make me to watch this movie from beginning to the end even it was in Chinese with English subtitles. I can’t call it a romantic kungfu comedy, this martial arts movie is more deeper that just another kung fu film.
Ng See-Yuen is a Chinese director of independent film companies in Hong Kong, his career in the industry began at Shaw Brothers Studio, in 1975, he founded Seasonal Films Corporation where produced and co-wrote Snake in the Eagles Shadow and Drunken Master with Jackie Chan. In 1985, Ng was the first Hong Kong producer to make a film in the USA that successfully showed the Hong Kong style of action, when he worked with Corey Yuen on No Retreat No Surrender 3, which starred then unknowns Loren Avedon. He also co-produced Jackie Chan’s 1992 film Twin Dragons, and four of the Once Upon a Time in China series.