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Left
abandoned and bitter from the first installment, Brigette Lin, now
a white-haired witch, heads an all-female cult bent on destroying
the eight martial arts clans from which her former lover, Leslie
Cheung, had come. Her own cult comes under attack by a man whose
bride was kidnapped by Lin. Cheung, meanwhile, sits atop a snow
covered mountain, waiting for the mystical flower to bloom that
can restore Lin's beauty.
Yu handed over the directional reigns to someone else on this film
and it shows. There is none of Yu's usually wonderful cinematography
on display here and this film feels like a cheaply made cash in
on the original. Brigette Lin looks somehow different and her scenes
must have been filmed in one day as she does not move from the same
location for the whole film. Also Leslie Cheung is only in the bookend
sequences but when he is on the screen he really does have an extreme
amount of presence. The end scene, where Cheung, meets Lin is well
shot and packs the required emotional punch. Maybe it would have
been better if this scene was tagged onto the end of the original
'Bride'. The majority of the film though, is made up of lame comedy
routines that bear little of no relation to the rest of the film.
These are only saved by Christy Chung who plays her goofy tomboy
very well. This is something of a departure from her usual window
dressing role and she rises to the challenge. Even the excellent
sets of the original have here been replaced by one interior set,
where most of the action takes place.
An
unnecessary ninety minutes plus that is only worth watching if you
want to find out the ending of the tale. If Ronnie Yu wasn't involved
in this as producer he would be very annoyed with what has happened
to his vision. Just the bookend scenes involving Leslie Cheung are
of any worth and look like they have been pasted in from another
film.
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