Funny, i preferred Once Upon a Time in China 2 to [/i]1[/i], saw the two a year a part almost (still not popped 3 in the player yet) but thought the choreography, characters and handling was more effective in this one.
The choreography (or maybe just the editing) is cleaner in 2. It seems there are less obvious slip ups (where sound fx don't line up quite right or there are obvious discontinuities within a fight) but they're still there. That's something I think you either learn to cope with in Hong Kong cinema or you don't.
Can't agree with the rest of your assessment though, and feel like I should defend Part 1, which is one of my favorite movies. The bad guys are maybe a little less stereotyped than in the first movie but they're still pretty flat as characters. The romantic angle is played up even more strongly in this one but all the good parts are pale throwbacks (that shadow dance!) that become predictable the second time around. Yuen Biao, who played Leung Foon in the first movie, apparently left because they cut out a lot of his scenes; in response, it seems Tsui cast a much weaker actor and completely eviscerated the role so now all of the tension in his relationship with Wong becomes petty bickering over who gets to impress the girl.
I probably sound like I liked it less than I actually do. I think it's a decent martial arts flick with better than average acting, choreography, and story. It's just got none of the originality of the first movie. It's also quite lovely to look at, but somehow Tsui Hark didn't come up with any images as striking as these ones from the first movie: the bicycles in the rain scene with Foon and Aunt 13, the scene where Aunt 13's shadow caresses Wong's, Aunt 13 stopping to get a last photograph of Po Chi Lam as it burns, and the fight at the theater. Part 2 does have that opening scene with Wong Looking out the window of his train but that was about it, just everything else in this one I found pretty but not especially moving. Also, I said before that the villains in part one are generally pretty one-dimensional (this is especially true of the greedy westerners). There is one very strong exception with the character of Yim, Leung Foon's jaded, ambitious master. I especially liked the bit where Foon steals left-overs for Yim after witnessing his fight in the rain, in front of the bonfire. Maybe I'm just corny but I found that scene pretty touching.
I'm not a massive fan of the director (name's annoyingly slipped me) wirework though.
are you talking about Tsui Hark, the director of the movie, or Yuen Woo Ping, the action director? If you're just sick of wire-work but like ambitious martial arts choreography, you might check out Tsui Hark's later film, The Blade. It seems to be pretty divisive among martial arts fans that I know but it's a pretty interesting and dark swordplay flick that has some very over the top action scenes, that were supposedly done without the use of wires.
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