Product Description

Three action-packed Jet Li movies in one! Includes Once Upon a Time in China, Once Upon a Time in China 2, and Once Upon a Time in China 3. Starring martial arts superstar Jet Li (Cradle 2 Grave, Lethal Weapon 4). Directed by acclaimed Hong Kong filmmaker Tsui Hark (Black Mask 2, Double Team, Knock Off).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49236 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 1994-06-22
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: Cantonese, Mandarin Chinese
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: Mandarin Chinese
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 359 minutes

Amazon.com
Once Upon a Time in China
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 westernized "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 Sha Ho gang terrorizes local businesses and has begun dealing with the Americans in exporting Chinese for slave labor 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 traveling 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. --Shannon Gee

Once Upon a Time in China 2
Actor and martial arts maestro Jet Li and iconoclastic director Tsui Hark revisit historical China and legendary folk hero Wong Fei Hung in the second installment to the wildly popular Once Upon a Time in China film series (or better yet, "serials"). The main players include Li as Wong Fei Hung, Rosamund Kwan as his beloved but Westernized Auntie 13, and their clumsy sidekick Foon (Max Mok). China is in a period of political unrest. Dr. Sun Yat Sen is beginning to gain momentum behind his Nationalist party. A Qing minister (played with intensity by skilled fighter Donnie Yen) firmly carries out his job as police enforcer and a crazed cult called the White Lotus Sect has decided to take matters into their own hands by bullying citizens and destroying everything foreign. Wong and his crew find themselves at odds with the minister and the Sect, who have more in common than they initially let on. It all leads to some high-octane action scenes, including an all-out table-stacking and airborne brawl with the Sect (in which Wong uncharacteristically goes a little berserk himself) and a one-on-one matchup between Li and Yen. Tsui juggles the multilayered plot while Li juggles his opponents in a perfectly serviceable epic that is perhaps not as significant as the first Once Upon a Time in China but is solid kung fu nourishment for fans. --Shannon Gee

Once Upon a Time in China 3
Set in the era when China was just beginning to establish relations with Europe, Once upon a Time in China 3 is a mixture of politics, intrigue, broad comedy, and kung fu action. Charismatic Jet Li stars once again as Wong Fei-hung, a legendary Chinese hero who is a doctor, a pacifist, and an amazingly skilled martial artist. Like many Hong Kong films, this movie has a woefully complicated plot: in summary, a kung fu competition not only sparks a bitter rivalry between different martial arts associations, it also becomes the linchpin in an assassination plot. But this leaves out Wong Fei-hung's increasingly romantic relationship with his aunt (played by Rosamund Kwan), the rehabilitation of one of the villain's henchmen, and the introduction of a steam engine to a Chinese factory, among other subplots! Once upon a Time in China 3 is not the strongest in the series--the subtitling is unusually clumsy, the editing is rough, the plot is confusing, and the melodrama is more crudely played than in the other films--but there's still a clear, raw authority to the storytelling that is a hallmark of director-producer Hark Tsui (Peking Opera Blues, Green Snake). Though it seems to have been made in a rush, Once upon a Time in China 3 will still reward devotees of Hong Kong films, and the frequent and wild fight scenes will appeal to action fans. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

Once upon a time review
This is a classic starring Jet Li at the early part of his career. It was a bonus to add all three volumes at once.

One of the all time great Chinese films
This is a bit of a renaissance-man-film, if one can say that. It does a lot of things simultaneously. Firstly, it is a great kung fu flick, with some of the best names in the buisness including of course Jet Li, the inimitable Yuen Biao as well as Yuen Wo Ping of later Matrix fame. Secondly, it is a big, well told drama about doctor Wong Fei Hong, a real life character and something of a Chinese folk hero, and the modernisation/changing of Imperial China some hundred and a bit years ago. If you took away the fighting, it would still be a good film, a very rare thing with martial arts films. Thirdly, it is a great opportunity to see how the Chinese themselves (if "only" the Hong Kong Chinese) look upon their own history and their own heroes. That particular time in Chinese history, in which "Once Upon a Time in China" plays out, is not only tumultuous and chaotic, but the actual transitional period between imperial and repulican China.

It is well acted, wonderfully directed, beautifully scored, and a blast to watch. Definitely one of the best films ever to come out of Hong Kong.

Basically an encyclopedia of the greatest kung fu scenes ever filmed. . .
First off, buy the "Once Upon a Time in China" Trilogy, not Collection. Collection has far more technical issues than the Trilogy. Unfortunately, since Amazon groups all of its reviews, there's confusion as to which version is being referred to.

Second, there are 6 movies in this series. The first 3 are the ones to focus on (and the ones sold in this package). 4 and 5 don't star Jet Li. Number 6 (Once Upon a Time in China and America) stars Jet Li, but has a different director (Sammo Hung) than 1-3 did (Tsui Hark, HK's Spielberg-some would argue) and is, at best, mediocre.

The OUATIC series is about the adventures of Wong Fei Hung, a Chinese folk hero. This character pops up a lot (as a child in Iron Monkey, Jackie Chan's character in the Drunken Master series). Each portrayal is very different and most aren't based but on the slightest detail to the actual historical character. But that aside, here's what the movies are really about:

Yes, Jet Li's character struggles with a HK overrun with British Imperialists and the woman who loves him and all the drama that follows and. . .honestly, no one really cares. The story is an odd mix. When there aren't action sequences, much of the story plays out like a routine period piece. The story is decent and worth a look, but subsequent viewings will have you simply skipping ahead to the action sequences because. . .

. . .these are simply the best collection of HK/Kung Fu/Wire Fu fight sequences you will ever find. You have an actor at the top of his kung fu game with choreographers who are given a lot of freedom and creativity to use the actors talents, all captured by a director at the peak of his powers. These fight sequences are the stuff of legend, the yardstick that all kung fu fights are measured against. Not to take anything away from other flicks of Jet's like Fist of Legend or Fong Sai Yuk, but these are the best. And to get them all in one package for such a cheap price is nothing short of criminal. I paid a small fortune to get these three films from HK before this version was released.

You'll see some of the most innovative and intense wirework, skill, and choreography you've ever witnessed, stuff that makes the Matrix look tame by comparison, despite coming out years before the Wachowski's ever put word 1 to paper. Every scenario you can imagine is captured, Jet vs. 1, Jet vs. some, Jet vs many, Jet with weapons, Jet with bare hands, Jet with props=like an ubrella, Jet vs. flaming arrows, Jet vs. boss characters in the most insane environments you can imagine. I can't stress it enough, this is as good as it gets. Even skipping over the story, the fight scenes will entertain you and your next several generations long after you're gone. Simple as that. If you're into Kung Fu flicks and somehow have slept on this one, just buy it.