Wing Chun (1994) Biography, Plot, Release, Reception, Trailer.

Wing Chun (1994)

Wing Chun (Chinese: 詠春) is a 1994 Hong Kong martial arts film directed and produced by Yuen Woo-ping. The film stars Michelle Yeoh, Donnie Yen, Waise Lee and Cheng Pei-pei.

Plot.

Wing-Chun is a young lady in charge of a family tofu shop in a mountain village with her father, sister and aunt. After local bullies tried to forcefully marry her during her youth, she trained to become a talented kung fu practitioner to fend off bad men lusting after her beauty, but her new prowess ends up scaring away any suitors to the chagrin of her father. She is the only person out of all the villagers who will stand up to the local bandits, led by two nefarious bandit brothers nicknamed the “Flying Chimpanzee” and “Flying Monkey”. One day, a young and beautiful widow named Charmy comes to town, catching the eyes of the predatory Flying Monkey. Wing-Chun rescues the hapless widow and gives her a job in her family shop, earning the enmity of Flying Monkey. Meanwhile, Wing-Chun’s childhood sweetheart Pok-To, who previously went away to learn kung fu in order to protect Wing-Chun from local bullies, arrives in town returning fresh from years of training to claim her hand in marriage.

He at first mistakes Charmy (who is enamored with the handsome stranger) for Wing-Chun and is disappointed that his “fiancée” is now a flirtatious saleswoman, and mistakes the masculine-dressing Wing-Chun as a rival suitor. Wing-Chun remains silent about the misunderstanding due to concern that Pok-To will not accept her current unfeminine, warrior persona. Wing-Chun later injures the Flying Monkey in a night duel, hitting him with a fireball and rendering him permanently impotent. This arouses the curiosity of Flying Chimpanzee, who comes to avenge his brother. Impressed with Wing-Chun’s fighting skills, he kidnaps Charmy and uses her to bait Wing-Chun and Pok-To to the bandit’s mountain fortress and surrounds them. He then challenges Wing-Chun to a fight, on the conditions that she, Pok-To and Charmy will be allowed to leave safely if she can successfully pull out a spear impaled into a wall within three rounds of fighting, but if she fails she will have to become his woman.

Release.

Guang Dong Tung Ah released it on DVD in the United States on 5 February 2002. On 20 September 2004, the DVD was released by Hong Kong Legends in the UK in Region 2. One year later, The Epic Action Collection DVD was released on 26 December 2005, a 4-disc set also including Iron Monkey (2-disc platinum edition) and Tai Chi Boxer; all three films were by directed by Yuen Woo-ping. One month later, The Michelle Yeoh Collection DVD was released on 9 January 2006, a 3-disc set also including Magnificent Warriors and Police Assassins.

Reception.

Joey O’Bryan of the Austin Chronicle called it a “fun, period martial arts film, unique in its stylistic approach to both violence and sexual politics”. J. Doyle Wallis of DVD Talk rated it 4/5 stars and wrote that what the film lacks in authenticity, it makes up for in “dazzling fight scenes”. Beyond Hollywood called it “a silly comedy with kung fu” that “knows what it is”. Chris Gould of DVDActive rated it 7/10 stars and wrote that the lack of actual Wing Chun fighting could [be] disappointing to some fans, but the action and comedy make up for it.