Stars: Jet Lee, Rosamund Kwan, Yuen Biao, Jacky Cheung

Director: Tsui Hark

Summary: A man takes on the forces of evil. Featuring martial arts action in many fight sequences.

In one of the recurring gags of ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA, attempts to take Wong Fei Hung's picture always fail. The failure to capture the image of Wong (Jet Li) serves as an appropriate metaphor for the place of the Ching Dynasty folk hero in Chinese cultural memory. A legendary master of a variety of kung fu styles, Wong has been subject to numerous interpretations in dime novels and films since the 1930s. In the late 1970s an irreverent portrait of the young Wong Fei Hung emerged in DRUNKEN MASTER. In director Tsui Hark's hand, the beloved historical figure is given the full lionized treatment as he fights for dignity and self-determination against Western imperialists. A revisionist drama that recalls the struggle of the small-property owner fighting for her land in Sergio Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, Hark's epic is both a tragic and heroic examination of China's transition to modernity. Like the best of Hark's films (ZU: WARRIORS OF THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN), ONCE UPON A TIME contains imaginative fight sequences, including "no-shadow" kicks and a thrilling battle using bamboo ladders.

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The first of a popular series (six in all) starring the charismatic and athletically adept Jet Li. Li plays legendary folk hero Wong Fei Hong, a late 19th-century southern Chinese healer and kung fu master. The story begins with Western powers (American, British and French) encroaching on the city of Canton. Wong is asked by the Black Flag army to safeguard the town by creating his own militia of kung fu experts. His assistants include the butcher "Porky" (Kent Cheng), a Chinese-American named Bucktooth So (Jacky Cheung) and his westernised "Auntie" Yee (Rosamund Kwan), a non-blood-related childhood friend for whom he holds a special affection. But the Westerners aren't the only problem in Canton. The ShaHo gang terrorises local businesses and has begun dealing with the Americans in exporting Chinese for slave labour and prostitution. A down-on-his-luck kung fu master named Iron Vest Yim (Yan Yee Kwan) has decided he needs to defeat Wong to open a school and Leung Fu (Jackie Chan contemporary Yuen Biao), a travelling opera troupe groupie, just keeps getting in the way. This epic martial-arts film showcases Li's amazing fighting and acrobatic skills and established Tsui Hark as a top-notch action film director. The final fight scene between Wong and Yim entails a dizzying orchestration of kicks and punches while teeter-tottering on ladders. The DVD features star bios, filmographies, trailers and clips from early Wong Fei Hong films that starred veteran actor Kwan Tak Hing. --Shannon Gee

Aspect Ratio:	16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	Cantonese, Chinese
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Feature Length Audio Commentary With Bey Logan And Mark King, Animated Biography Showcase, Original Theatrical Trailer, UK Promotional Trailer, Production Photo Gallery, Interview Gallery
Year:	1993
Release Date:	January 22, 2001
Runtime:	128 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	M D V 466
Label:	Hong Kong Legends
Keywords:	Martial, Time, China, Wide, Screen, Once, Upon, Wong, Fei, Hung, Arts
Genre:	Martial Arts