THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR 2 (Bai fa mo nu zhuan II)
Hong Kong. 1993. Director/Screenplay - David Wu, Producer - Ronnie Yu. Production Company - Mandarin Films. Sunny Chun (Fung Chun Kit), Brigitte Lin (Lien Ni Chang), Joey Memg (Lyre), Christy Chung (Ling Moon Yee), Leslie Cheung (Cho Yi Hang), Ruth Winona Tao (Chen Yuen Yuen)
Plot: After her betrayal by Cho Yi Hang, the white-haired witch Lien Ni Chang has obtained revenge by slaughtering her way through all of the Eight Clans. She abducts Lyre, the bride of Fung Chun Kit, the last surviving member of the Wu Tang Clan, on their wedding night and takes her to her castle of men-hating warrior women. As Kit gathers a ragtag fighting force to storm her castle, Lien Ni Chang drugs Lyre so she will hate and kill Kit.
As Hong Kong's Wu Xia Pan (fantastic martial arts/swordplay) cycle went, Ronnie Yu's `The Bride with White Hair' (1993) was a fairly slapdash effort, directed with some style but also undeniably uneven. With director Yu having departed for the West and films like`Warriors of Virtue' (1997) and `Bride of Chucky' (1998), the reins of this sequel have been turned over to David Wu who actually makes the sequel a far more satisfying effort than its predecessor was.
The plot is definitely slight (even as Wu Xia Pan goes), but director Wu crafts it all with a much more pleasing roundedness. The heroism and swordplay all comes marvellously posed. And with the granny and tomboy warrior characters there comes a delightful undertow of comedy that was lacking in the more sombre original. The film takes awhile to build a full head of steam but once it gets underway into the familiar wild and crazy mid-air sword battles and impossible martial arts flips it is a good deal of fun. Wu does overdose with a little too much in the way of arty slow-motion camerawork but otherwise the film is quite satisfying.
Copyright 1998 Richard Scheib
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