Ye Wen 2

This was the first movie I saw in theater since I came back to China 2 and a half weeks ago. I hadn’t expected to see a great movie, and I was ready to be very critical. But after the movie was over, I stayed in my seat a little longer, because I didn’t want anyone to see I had tears in my eyes. Yes, I had tears in my eyes at the end of the movie because I was so involved with the main character, and I was so happy that I saw a Chinese language film that was so well made.

The movie, a second installment of “Ye Wen” released two years earlier, tells the story of Ye Wen, Bruce Lee’s teacher (which I didn’t find out until the very end). We start with Ye struggling to open a Martial Arts school. Here we are introduced to one of the most powerful martial artist in the world. He is extremely humble, and he looked almost meek. That got me hooked right away. I hadn’t seen a Martial Arts character like that, and it fascinated me.

After some minor scuffles with a rebellious youth, Ye manages to run a fairly decent business, but then he is confronted by Hong, a local martial art teacher, and a thug who “approves" other teachers and collects money from them. Ye impresses Hong by defeating other teachers in a showcase, and proving himself a good match for Hong. But the conflict remains - Ye refuses to pay Hong the monthly fee that he collects from everyone else, until another confrontation between them gets abruptly halted by the appearance of Hong's own family, when Ye finally wins Hong's friendship.

Then the movie takes a sharp turn as it moves to the second half, which would be my only criticism on the plot. Hong is outraged by the fact that the Hong Kong Royal Police are taking advantage of him with no respect whatsoever. During the boxing match he was commissioned to set up, but with obviously no pay, he takes on the boxing champion, who openly mocks Chinese martial arts. Hong gets brutally beaten in the ring, and dies on the spot. And that's when Yen decides to take on the boxer himself. The movie ends with a heated boxing match between Yen and the boxing champion, which reminded me of "Cinderella Man" in a smaller scale, and Yen defeats the box champion and delivers a somewhat preachy speech afterwards.

The story is somewhat cheesy and cliche, but the movie still rekindled my hope for Chinese cinema, or at least Chinese language cinema made in Hong Kong. The main character got me immediately at the beginning, and the scenes were all constructed cleverly. Every moment of the film was either thrilling or entertaining. I was also amazed at the fact that the acting was a world better than the acting in most mainland productions I had seen so far. Hong Kong actors have better personalities for sure.