An oldschool Wing Chun (Bai Jing) is the daughter of the owner of a small tavern, but she does not behave at all as a girl should, and her father has already despaired of marrying her. Once in the tavern comes Ng Mui (Kara Hui) – novice Shaolin, recently burned by the troops of the Ming dynasty. Mui needs somewhere to hide, and while she is hiding near the city, Wing Chun learns from her the wisdom of a special “female” kungfu style. Which she will have to use when the henchmen of the authorities arrive in the city, looking for the unfinished Shaolin people.
Kungfu Wing Chun makes a very mixed impression. On the one hand, the film looks clearly not rich – the locations are minimal, the scenery is very simple, no special effects and visual beauties are not visible at all. But, on the other hand, from the point of view of action, this is quite high-quality, in a sense, “old school” kungfu-fighter, making you remember the latest films from the wave of “pseudohistoric” action films of the first half of the 90s – including the previous film about Wing Chun, with Michelle Yeo and Donnie Yen in the lead roles.
It is clear that a head-on comparison with this is not the best, but the deserved sample of its time, the new version does not stand in any way. But here it is worth considering the environment in which these films were born. It is one thing, 1993 with its powerful assembly line for the production of kung fu films and the heyday of many action directors, and quite another thing - 2010, when many of those who made films then, quietly retire, and it turns out that new stars are not only from whom, but, by and large, no one.
So, for such conditions and taking into account that first of all it is a militant, Kungfu Wing Chun is a project quite worthy, but only if you are not too exacting to its extreme simplicity. The script is extremely simple and does not bother with trifles and nuances, directing in television is static, jokes are naive and played, and actors play who are average (those who are younger), who are lazy (veterans). But they fight here an order of magnitude better, even despite the help of cables, stunt doubles and Bai Jing’s not perfect sports training – after all, Stephen Tung was engaged in kungfu choreography, just one of those veterans whom we will let go to rest, then only with combat.
In a word, for lovers of Asian old school.
Well, if not for amateurs - this film is perhaps the main and only star role in the career of Bai Jin, whose star so early and tragically sunk.