Royal Tramp II
Royal Tramp II is very similar to the first one
as Stephen Chow continues his parody of kung-fu flying films. There is
a wonderful jab at The East is Red. Again though the story itself is so
involving and everything so lavish that the comedy often gets lost. Still
I found this a lot of fun and it has a terrific last thirty minutes.
It begins right where the first Royal Tramp left
off. Cheung Man returns back to the Dragon sect where the head has her
turn back into her real form. This turns out not to be such a bad thing
as she comes out of the holy water, swirls around and there before us stands
the greatest HK female icon of all – Brigitte Lin. Who better to parody
these types of films. She swears revenge on Stephen Chow, but the sect
head warns her to be careful and not lose her virginity or she will transfer
80% of her power to the man.
Chow is in the middle of court intrigue once again.
How successful is he? Well let’s say that by the end he has Chingmy Yau,
Brigitte Lin, Michelle Reis and the twins after him. Not too bad. There
is the plethora of complications – the Emperor has ordered Chingmy to marry
the son of his main rival, but she is pregnant by our hero Chow. At the
same time the Dragon sect and Brigitte are trying to overthrow the Manchus
and kill Chow as well. Michelle Reis is a Ming rebel and is also trying
to kill Chow. The twins show up from time to time and Chow’s best friend
Natalis Chan is also only too willing to betray him.
All this is a mere bag of shells to Chow who once
again through luck manages to wiggle and talk his way out of death and
danger. At some point Brigitte is poisoned and the only cure is to make
love to a man. Who just happens to be within hailing distance? Chow of
course – some guys have all the luck. Brigitte’s seduction of Chow is one
of the film’s wonderful highlights as she magically creates a cocoon like
structure out of silk in which to bed him down.
Lots of spectacle and some comedy. There actually
feels like more action and flying in this film than in many legitimate
kung-fu flying films and it is often better done.
