Second Life

Story: In the heat of the moment, Liang Jie (Zhou Xiaofei) takes revenge on the gangster boss who killed her husband. She has to go to prison for it, but she is also pregnant. After the boy is born and turns one year old, he is sent to an orphanage. Thirty years have passed now, and Liang (Yuen Qiu) is released from prison. She continues to run her acupressure studio and reports to the police that she is looking for her son. The son of the gangster boss she killed, Meng (Lei Mu), is now the gang's boss himself and wants to take revenge on the old woman. However, the first attempts to eliminate her fail as she is an outstanding martial artist. Ah Gui (Philip Ng), a close confidant and subordinate of Meng, is now supposed to pretend to be her son and kill her during an inattentive moment. Liang Jie is beside herself with joy at finally having her supposed son back and teaches him not only acupressure and acupuncture, but also how to use various herbs. Ah Gui's attempts to kill the old woman fail several times, so the gangster boss hires even more hitmen. Ah Gui doesn't want to betray his boss, but he also has to admit to himself that he no longer wants to kill Liang Jie, even though she has transferred her business and everything she owns to him in her will.

Review: After there were excerpts from the making-of of "Second Life" on X/Twitter and you could see the 74-year-old (!) Yuen Qiu - probably known to everyone as the landlady from "Kung Fu Hustle" - do almost unbelievable things for her age, this action comedy quickly had to be checked off of my watch list. In short, "Second Life" can easily be called the most successful martial arts comedy of 2024. The fact that Stephen Chow's already mentioned little masterpiece is referenced here and there does not only get obvious by giving Yuen Qiu more or less the same musical theme as she had in her iconic role of the landlady who always wears curlers. The action also has some humorous touches, even though it's not quite as comic-like. But what should come as the most surprising thing is that the story about a swindler who pretends to be a son, but ultimately really sees himself as such, manages to score points on a dramatic level too. Because of this, you don't just keep watching for the funny moments and nice fights.

Needless to say, that the movie also feels like a little journey through time, to the 90s or early 2000s to be more precise, when filmmakers wanted to pay homage to the 70s. If that makes any sense ... International villains also contribute to this, even though they are not C-level ones like back then. Especially the somewhat over-the-top but occasionally quite dry humor adds to this impression. Right from the beginning it is made clear that our heroes' abilities have something slightly supernatural to them, and in the further course of the movie pressure points, which can paralyze people or neutralize poison by releasing adrenaline, become more and more important. But since that's not enough, the supposed son is also blind, which doesn't stop him from being a masterful fighter, though. You get the feeling that the blind action hero is celebrating a big comeback anyway - not least because of "Blind War". And once again, the streaming service iQIYI is also involved as a producer.

Accordingly, it shouldn't come as a big surprise that the sets are very nice to look at and are also used meaningfully for some of the fights. And even though Liang Jie has to struggle with her age and impending dementia, which is the foundation for the necessary heartwarming drama, actress Yuen Qiu is also allowed to show some fantastically choreographed fight scenes. Only the trained eye will notice that she is no longer moving quite as fast, but it is still many times faster than what Hollywood tries to pass off as a power woman nowadays. As if that wasn't enough, Zhou Xiaofei (also seen in a small role in "Ip Man 4 - The Finale") plays the somewhat younger version and is also allowed to show off her skills. In a creative way, she even adds some faster pacing to the fights during the finale. A few different fighting styles come together too, so in addition to a katana-wielding Japanese woman, a capoeira fighter is added to the mix.

This alone is quite a lot of fun. But there is also a pleasantly touching story about a mother and a son, which also works because it is always lightened up by some well-done humor. If the introduction makes you worry that the funny scenes might get a bit too wacky, I can put your mind at ease. In this respect, the tone is scaled back a bit, and those scenes in which the dry humor comes through are actually the ones which manage to score quite some points. Philip Ng is also just the right person for the job, although he recently drew attention to himself as a villain straight out of a manga in "Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In". This time he plays someone who is a gangster but has his heart in the right place. It takes some time for him to realize it himself, but after all, that's the motor for these kinds of movies. The only important thing is that it works. And it does. Of course, there is no need to mention that Philip Ng delivers in the action scenes too.

With the already mentioned "Blind War" director Huo Suiqiang put an extremely entertaining B-movie on screen. In "Second Life" the "B" part was actually dropped, but it still shines through whenever the movie wants to pay homage to the classics. Only the ending leaves a somewhat nasty aftertaste due to Chinese censorship. Generally, however, we get a great martial arts movie, which is not only an eye-opener about what kind of body control you can still have in old age, but also delivers an appealing emotional story in which old age is a central theme. Sure, there may be a few longueurs and the story is basically nothing outstanding, but everything is executed with a lot of heart and so it seems more and more established that the streaming service iQIYI can somehow keep the good old HK cinema alive all by itself. And director Huo Suiqiang might also be good for one or two more surprises in the future.

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