Customer Reviews

Once Upon a Time in China #1

5 star:		(61)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

First of all, the movie: let me start off by saying that you should not try to compare this movie to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" anymore than you can compare the 1920s movie "The Lost World" to the modern, Spielberg-directed and CGI-enhanced "Lost World." And while some of you may say that in the latter example there was a much greater time gap between the movies, my point is that Hong Kong cinema has gone through drastic changes over the past decade, with many of the current crop of movies sporting high production values--"Storm Riders", released a couple of years ago, was one of the first (if not THE first) HK movies to use Hollywood-quality special effects and CGI, and many subsequent movies have tried to follow suit (e.g., "The Duel", "Man Called Hero"). In contrast, "Once Upon a Time in China" was made on a much, much smaller budget, but is generally considered a classic martial arts movie, and the one that not only propelled Jet Li to stardom, but also revived a genre that had long gone stagnant.

Personally, I believe that this is one of Jet Li's best movies (I've seen them all), especially if you're looking for a movie which best showcases his terrific martial arts ability. In this movie he plays Wong Fei Hong, a Chinese folk hero who has been depicted in hundreds of movies by dozens of actors, but by Jet Li for the first time. He is joined by a well-known Hong Kong cast (e.g., Rosamund Kwan, Yuen Biao, etc.).

The DVD: no, the video image is not of five-star quality, but I don't see why so many people are complaining. I've seen at least 50-70 Hong Kong DVDs over the past year, and most of the time the quality is poor to mediocre at best. Here we have an American release which may not measure up to current releases like Fight Club or Toy Story, but which is still head and shoulders above its Hong Kong counterparts (most of which are still much more expensive to acquire). Yes, the sound is in 2.0, but it's the visuals (e.g., fight scenes) that are the center of this film, not the audio. And there is a dubbed English track for those who resist reading subtitles (I've never listened to it, though, as I hate watching poorly-dubbed movies more than I hate reading subtitles). Plus, since this is an American release, the subtitles are much, much better than most you'll find in your average HK DVD.

But perhaps the best feature of the DVD is the commentary by martial artist and HK film expert Ric Meyers. Some critics have complained in the past that this movie can be inaccessible to viewers not familiar with (1) Hong Kong movies, or (2) Chinese history. Ric Meyers does an excellent job of guiding the viewer through the movie, explaining some of the smaller details like (1) the purpose of the Lion Dance at the beginning of the movie, or (2) the importance of the "queue" (spelling?), which is the Chinese male's pony-tail. These are all significant to the movie and their respective scenes, but can be all-too-easily lost on the average american viewer. Plus, Mr. Meyers provides some good background information on the actors and their characters.

In sum, this is a good DVD of a classic HK movie at an exceptional price. I believe it's the perfect introduction to HK cinema, as it has probably THE leading HK actor (Jet Li) playing the most famous movie figure in HK cinema (Wong Fei Hong) and is directed by one of HK's most famous directors (Tsui Hark). Add to this the very informative commentary track, and you can't go wrong.

If you enjoy martial arts movies at all, you must own this movie. The cinematograpy is excellent, the fight scenes are superb, and the movie as a whole is top-notch. I enjoyed the gratuitous playing of the theme song throughout the movie; it really added to the atmosphere. Tsui Hark and Jet Li bring to life the story of the great Chinese folk here, Wong Fei Hung. I particularly recommend the DVD version.

The film which started one of the most famous and successfull Hong Kong franchises of alltime is the best of all the Wong Fei Hung films. One of the most ingenious fight scenes ever seen (esp. Yim and Wong's battles) and probably the most intriguing, emotional and complex storyline of any Hong Kong Martial Arts film make Once Upon a Time in China enjoyable to almost any Martial Art fan. Jet Li (in the film which made him a superstar) portrays Wong Fei Hung the best, in my view. He almost did to Wong what Liam Neeson did to Oskar Schindler. Li's masterful fighting skills, awesome charismatic presence and his wise, flawless acting makes him superior to other kung fu superstars like Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao, Sammo Hung, Bruce Lee..only Chow Yun-Fat equals his skills. The end fight sequence between Master Yim and Master Wong is in the top six most tense and exciting Hong Kong action sequences ever (along with Fist of Legend, The Killer, Hard-Boiled, A Better Tomorrow II and Drunken Master 2).

This is one of his classics and the newest actor to portray Wong Fei Hong (classical Chinese folk hero).

The action is great, although some parts of this movie can be quite boring. I would watch this movie just to see one kick that Jet Li executes (without being suspended on wires) in which he does a 540 degree split kick jumping from one bench to another during the opera fight scene (nicely jazzed up with a jet's "whoosh" sound effect).

However, if you want to see Jet's true fighting talent without the cheesy Chinese element (which usually involves lots of wire suspension), see "Fist of Legend" - Jet's new and improved version of Bruce Lee's "Chinese Connection". I also highly recommend "Tai-chi Master" which also features Michelle Yeoh in top form (Bond girl from "Tomorrow Never Dies").

Once Upon A Time In China is one of the most important landmarks in HK film history with stunning fight sequences, great performances from all the cast and a strong controversial plot altogether. Sadly the American Region 1 DVD fail to do justice to the film. Picture is muddy and sound is mono. Even the english dubbed version suffers from near total darkness. Sound is only mono and not a very good one at that. It's even worse than the Region Zero available in the Asian market.I recommend the UK Region 2 instead. It is definitely ten times clearer and has a full-length commentary by director Tsui Hark and also interviews. Avoid this DVD at all cost!

This is the story of a famous Martial Arts master during the early 1900s named Wong Fei Hong who was one of the famous Canton tigers. This is the first in the series of 5, 2 of which are not Jet Li. Jet Li's sidekick is played by Yuen Bao (for a number of Jackie Chan movies). They are my favorite martial arts movies of all time. There are a lot of great fight scenes, but a lot of wire work (Done very well however, unlike Romeo must Die). I highly recomend this title, and every other one of the "Once upon a time in China" series (One of the movies has no number, it is called "Once upon a time in China and America").

The bad news first -- this DVD transfer is awful! Unless you enjoy getting eye strain from unconsciously squinting through the whole movie (hoping that'll improve the picture quality), don't buy this DVD! Columbia TriStar really deserves a beating for this one. So how bad is it? There are motion artifacts galore, and even in still pictures everything is somehow blurry or double. In panning shots of a ship, diagonal ropes on the ship are not only jagged, but blurry almost beyond recognition. A shot of ships in the harbor is so blurry that the ships appear to have extra mast pieces. Faces in the background appear blocky, almost like an enlarged JPEG image. I don't know why this movie was released in anamorphic form, since it appears to have even less resolution than a letterboxed movie!

And then there's the audio. It has Cantonese and Mandarin language selections, as well as a dubbed English version. Well, guess what? Both the Cantonese and Mandarin versions have been dubbed also! Where is the original sound? I find it hard to believe that the entire soundtrack of this movie was replaced with overdubbing before it was released! [EDIT: Now that I know better, I find it much easier to believe.]

OK, if you still must have this movie, either buy it on VHS or never watch it on anything larger than a small TV so you won't notice how awful the picture is. And if, after all this warning, you still must buy this DVD, then just remember: I told you so.

For a DVD, as some have mentioned, the video quality is quite poor (I watched it in "Bob" filter which helped a little) and sound is also in mono. However, this is true if you are happening to be watching the SUBTITLED version of the DVD. For some odd reason, the makers of this DVD thought it was a good move to have a DUBBED version on different section on the same DVD. And, this is really strange because once I chose the DUBBED version in the menu, the video quality was A WHOLE LOT better and crisp and the dubbed sound was in stereo. Why they would not allow me to hear the cantonese/subtitled audio with this video track I'll never know (I prefer subtitles). Either way, if you're mostly just looking at the action and things, check out the dubbed section which has better video quality. If you like the movie with some drama and subtitles, click on the subtitled version (though video quality is not as good). -_-

Although it's not mentioned in the technical specs here on Amazon or elsewhere, the Once Upon a Time in China DVD includes a short text biography of the historical Wong Fei Hung, as well as 3 short scenes from classic Wong Fei Hung films made in the 70's.

Westerners will not appreciate or understand the historical story line in this movie or how funny it is. Part of the problem is that the story was originally written in Cantonese for Hong Kong viewers who were well versed in the history and folklore of Wong Fei Hong. It was never intented for world-wide distribution and the translation of these films are unfortunately never good. What is funny to a Chinese viewer in Chinese is "what...and huh, that was stupid" to those who just isn't born to that culture.

Jet Li shines as Wong Fei Hong. His later films for American audiences are designed to showcase his martal arts skills but little else.