Bride With White Hair 2, The (1993)

Posted on Jun 26, 2002 under Fantasy, Martial arts |

Written and directed by David Wu
Starring
- Brigitte Lin
- Leslie Cheung
- Christy Chung
- Sunny Chan
- Joey Memg
Produced by Ronny Yu

Part of the problem with most sequels is that they’re literally afterthoughts. Most well-done movies try to be a complete viewing experience in and of themselves; I mean, how pissed would you be if you paid eight bucks to see a movie (or even two bucks to rent the video) and found out that you got half the story? Especially since the making of a sequel is (in all but a few cases) completely dependent on how well the first one does — which could very well mean that you’re given the first half of the story, and the second half is never made. Those few movies which had successful sequels were designed specifically to both present a self-contained story in the first installment, and, if the box-office dollars were there, to have somewhere to go. That’s why the first Star Wars ended at a good stopping spot, while The Empire Strikes Back ended with a complete cliffhanger: they didn’t know if Empire would be made, but by the time they made Empire they knew damned sure that Return of the Jedi would be financed.

In most cases, though, a sequel is forced to sweep up any leftover plot bits from the first movie and try to milk them for enough story to make a second whole movie. And since the best nickels have already been spent in the first movie, the sequel comes in wanting.

Confusius say, “Hubba, hubba.”

And if you’re expecting me to say, “But The Bride With White Hair 2 is different,” well, sorry to add to the disappointment in your life.

The first Bride With White Hair had a tragic ending, in the classical sense: A downer conclusion caused by the foibles and faults of the protagonists. However, thanks to the fact (presumably) that the original novel on which it was based left the protagonists alive, there was a danger not present in other tragedies, such as, say, Romeo & Juliet; somebody’s going to say, “Gosh, that’s just too sad! We can’t leave them that way — the story’s not over until there’s a happy ending!” (On a side note, I just realized that someone could do a “happy ending” sequel to Romeo & Juliet if they make it a zombie love story. Boy, I’ve got to stop telling these ideas to the world.)

Unfortunately, there was really nowhere for the characters of Cho Yi-Hang (Leslie Cheung) and Lien Ni-Chang, aka Moonlight (Brigitte Lin) to go after the end of the first movie; their character arcs had run their course. So this second movie largely has to follow completely new characters, using the tragic love story of Cho and Moonlight almost as set dressing.

At least she isn’t using a gaudy blue wash. Man I hate that.

This time around, our ill-fated couple is Kit (Sunny Chan), nephew to Cho Yi-Hang and heir-by-default to the Wu Tang clan, since most of the clan was massacred in the first movie, and Moonlight’s been picking them off as best she can for the last ten years. In an effort to protect the clan, Kit’s wedding to his sweetheart Lyre (Joey Memg) is hastened so that they can get an heir as soon as possible. (A side note on Lyre: In the dubbed version, it sounds like her name is “Yu Koung” or something like that. I have no idea where “Lyre” came from in every published credits list I’ve seen.) Naturally, Moonlight attacks just as the honeymoon’s about to start, killing men all over just for the heck of it — with her prehensile hair! Given that she also demonstrates some violent psychokinesis all through the movie, one has to wonder why the prehensile hair gets so much play, especially because it’s pretty unconvincing (it looks just like what it is — huge loops of fake nylon hair), and calls to mind nothing so much as Medusa from Marvel’s The Inhumans comics.

Kit’s not really much of a kung fu fighter, and his best friend Liu Hang (Richard Suen) saves his life by knocking him over the head with a mallet and dumping him down the secret garbage chute. Lyre, meanwhile, is kidnapped by Moonlight in order to show her the errors of ever trusting and loving a man.

See, Moonlight has assembled herself a cadre of manhaters to help her with her goal of eliminating the Eight Clans. Each has been wronged, spurned, or trodden upon by the men in their lives, and thus they all end up speaking with such radical feminist fervor that Andrea Dworkin would be proud. Moonlight’s second in command, Yuen-Yuen (Ruth Winona Tao), is pretty much an out-and-out lesbian, and homoerotic tones are front and center all through the “Sisterhood’s” scenes — especially Lyre’s drugged brainwashing, which takes place in a nice, steamy hot tub. (Don’t bother looking for the “director’s cut,” bubba. It doesn’t exist.)

“What did I ever do before the Pigeon of the Month Club?”

Kit, meanwhile is rescued from the cesspool by Yu-Yi (Christy Chung), a rebellious and spunky renegade from another clan who flouts tradition by wearing men’s clothes and smoking incessantly. Once she nurses him back to health, they meet up again with Liu Hang and representatives of each of the Eight Clans, banding together to bring down the white-haired witch. Notable among them is tough kung-fu Granny Yin, who becomes their nominal leader and mother figure.

Which, I suppose, is as good a place as any to point out one of the main flaws in this movie, compared to the original: Too damned much comic relief. The first one had lighter moments, sure, but still reserved and supportive of the lyrical atmosphere that maintains the movie. Here, we’ve got spunky Yu-Yi, knuckle-headed Liu Hang, tough-but-tender Granny Yin… It’s a full complement of Stooges that keep the mood ever from approach the “dark fairytale” feel of the original.

On the other hand, without the comic relief characters, we’ve really got no characters of consequence. Again contrasting to the original, in which Cho and Moonlight went through an arc of distrust openness, suspicion, betrayal, and penitent condemnation, our young lovers here start out loving each other, and Kit never changes. Lyre, having been brainwashed in the hot tub (yet another phrase I never thought I’d compose), is always screeching about how Kit only wanted her for raising an heir — but since we all know she’s been mindwarped, it’s not like it’s a real character transformation for her.

“Not ONE WORD about my hat!”

In an apparent effort to address this character inertia, there’s a flashback sequence inserted from Kit and Lyre’s courtship, where their correspondence was carried by heavily-anticipated carrier pigeons. Then there’s a breakdown in communication, with each worrying that they’ve fallen out of favor with the other — when in reality, the pigeon’s been shot down and eaten by none other than Yu-Yi. In my most charitable mindset, I can see this whole episode as an attempt to show that there were still insecurities in the lovers’ minds, which Moonlight and the Sisterhood could play off when they turned Lyre to the other team, so to speak — but the cut between the pining lovers and the pigeon roasting on a spit just induces giggles.

The anti-witch squad attempt an assault on the Sisterhood’s fortress, but naturally have their asses handed to them repeatedly, so naturally it’s up to Cho to show up, deus ex machina-like, to save the day in the end. (After all, with Leslie Cheung’s name so high in the credits, he’s at least got to appear on screen for four minutes or so, right?)

There’s never a roll of duct tape around when you need it.

It’s not a bad movie per se, but it’s completely unnecessary to the story of Cho and Moonlight. Lacking both the scope and the vision of the original, it never manages to do more than echo faintly the lyrical, bittersweet atmosphere that was The Bride With White Hair’s true strength, and make you wish that you were watching it instead of this one.