Product Description

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 09/27/2005

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8625 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2001-07-17
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Box set, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: Cantonese, English
• Number of discs: 3
• 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

Bad DVD transfer
Having seen the first two movies on digital cable, I can say that they are great movies, but the DVD transfer quality really suffers on the 3-pack. Scenes alternate from blurry to clear with visible digital artifacts. The only scenes which are crisp and clear seem to be when there is little or no movement. If you don't like the movies, the video quality is bad enough to be distracting, and if you enjoy the movies then you deserve to buy a different version. I hope that the discs offered individually have better video quality. 5 stars for the movies, 2 stars for the video quality of the transfer.

Awesome Pre-America Jet Li Flicks
If you thought Jet Li products like "The One," "Black Mask" or "Cradle 2 The Grave" were great films--you don't know what you've been missing. The "Once Upon A Time In China" plays like like an underground version of mainstreamed US releases, including "Crouching, Tiger." It's hardcore kung fu, with little fantasy, a good dose of history, and grimy, all-out, no-holds barred fighting.

The 6-part series (of which Li only appears in the first three, and the sixth) follows Wong Fei Hong, a doctor long renowned in Chinese legend. The setting is in late 19th century China as issues of colonialism, and suspicion toward foreigners runs ramapant. Fei Hong is usually neutral, with stronger leanings toward anti-westernization. Villains often play the part of the complete anti-westerners, doing any and everything to kick the French or British out. In the pro-west corner is Aunt Yee (aunt via a distant relation it seems, which lessens the weirdness of the romantic tension between her and Fei Hong) who dresses "modern," takes pictures with a camera, and believes the future lies in assimilating more of the western form into the culture.

Fei Hong is caught in the middle. He is extremely proud of his country and its people, but knows there is some merit to Yee's belief. For one, as a doctor, he has seen and understands some of the more efficient medical methods of the West, and knows that they surpass some, but not all Chinese methods. He fights both overly zealous Chinese and foreigners who don't mind making murder and brutality part of the process.

The Yuen Wo Ping choreographed scenes could make up a manual for shooting the kung fu fight scene. The cuts are long, extended takes, from numerous angles, with only splashes of slow motion. Wire work takes precedence over CG EFX (there aren't really any), and the fights are fast and furious, with few dramatic pauses where the fighters glare at each other, etc. You will see some of the most clever and awe-inspiring fight scenes ever caught on film.

One fight in the first volume takes place in a multi-story barn where Fei Hong battles Iron Vest Yim atop ladders and hay bales, using the ladders as if they were his feet. In the second, more historical volume, there are amazing sequences against Donnie Yen, it top "Iron Monkey" form, and a fight against the White Lotus sect where winning the battle is only half the fight: both fighters are at the same time trying to stay atop tables, ledges or people, as long as they don't touch the ground.

It's a definite must-have for your collection, and if its the start of your collection, you'll be drawn to his other pre-mainstream films as well. Note that his assistant Fu changes from volume to volume (Yuen Biao sets and is the standard as Fu in Vol. 1) but this is a minor, although slightly irritating side issue. The fights are mind-blowing--"Crouching, Tiger" without the intimations of love, fantasy, magic or slow motion. Just drawn-out street fights in the true fight-to-survive mindset.

This collection not complete, however......
My wife and I are HUGE Jet Li fans! We currently own EVERY Jet Li movie currently available on DVD. (Yes, that includes all the Hong Kong DVDs) If you're unfamiliar with the 'Once Upon a Time in China' series (henceforth referred to as OUATIC), it is fantastic! The action is astounding, and the acting is very good for Honk Kong cinema. It's the continuing story of Wong Fei Hung, the storied doctor and martial arts master of the Boxer Rebellion era, and one of the fabled 10 Tigers of Canton. If you are new to Jet Li movies, or Wu Shu/Martial Arts movies in general, then this is a fantastic series to start with. Now, with that said, the question remains....why did I only give this 4 out of 5? It's simple. This is billed as THE 'OUATIC' collection. Well, not quite. The entire series to date has 6 installments. Now granted, OUATIC 4 and 5 do NOT star Jet Li, but OUATIC 6 (Once Upon A Time in China and America) DOES mark the return of Jet Li to the series. And it's my second favorite of the Jet Li 'OUATIC' films. If this collection included it as well, then it would be 5 stars all the way!