Customer Reviews

Once Upon a Time in China Part 2

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

JET LI & DONNIE YEN! (need I say more!)

...actually I could go on-and-on about this movie, but I'll try to stick to the essentials. Personally, I think this one's the best of all the other OUATIC sequels. Yes, they're all excellent films, but what makes this outstand; well it has two of the most gifted martial artists of all time.

I still get goose-bumps everytime I watch the dramatic scene where General Lan (Donnie Yen), is shown in an eerie-evening setting, and demonstrates his amazing skill and grace using a wet cloth-stick. Its an exquisite visual with glowing lanterns hanging everywhere...and then the scene explodes into a fierce and thrilling all-out battle with Wong Fei Hung (Jet Li) using bamboo sticks. (Talk about tension!)

Of course the entire film is done equally impressive; a powerful story about the political turmoils of China. Here, Wong Fei Hung is caught in the choas while visiting Canton for a medical conference. Although the scripts are brief and simple, the story in itself is very dramatic with much credit to the stunning cast performaces. Not to mention, a chilling soundtrack/effects that captivates and brings out the mood of the story. Truly a high-quality film, directed by Tsui Hark, and put it together with the brilliant Yuen Woo-Ping as the action choreographer, well you got one of the best films ever made.

Very,very good movie, on top of that it's a great
martial arts flick. Any Jet-Li fan needs to have
this in their library.

A different reversal of roles, he plays a doctor
who looks like a monk helping people and fighting
occupation over territories in China.

His character Wei-Fong is well layed out, he has
some flaws, but he is great when the time comes.

The martial arts stunts are really top notch,
I can even list all the stunts but the fights
with the White Lotus bunch is outstanding.

Pretty good acting too all around.

In the second film in this series, martial arts film legend Jet Li stars as Dr. Wong Fei-Hung, a real life folk hero of 19th century China. Combining solid martial arts action (as you'd expect from a Jet Li movie) with an equally solid storyline which delves into actual historical elements, this movie is a winner all-around, thus justifying the Hong Kong Film Award that it received.

THE STORY:

It is 19th century China and Western influence is growing in China bringing with it both good and bad elements. Dr. Wong Fei-Hung, a noted martial arts instructor and doctor, as well as his countrymen must contend with the expanding influence of the West and its impact on Chinese society. The country is in turmoil. An anti-Western extremist reactionary cult, the White Lotus Society, has arisen with a maniacal following bent on destroying all things Western, including Chinese who have begun to adopt Western ways. It is up to Wong Fei-Hung and his loyal followers, his loving "Aunt" Yee and his student Foon, to stop the ruthless destruction of the White Lotus. In addition, the film delves into history further as Wong and his companions meet and aide Dr. Sun Yat Sen, the famous Chinese revolutionary. There are tons of battles as the White Lotus, The Chinese Government, the British forces and Dr. Sun Yat Sen's revolutionaries all battle against each other, with Wong Fei-Hung and his followers all caught in the middle...

THE COOL STUFF:

If you love martial arts action you've got TONS of it here. The fight scenes are NUMEROUS and ELABORATE as you'll be treated to tons of fighting set in 19th century China is tons of marketplace settings as well as vintage Chinese dwellings and buildings. The sets and costumes are just awesome. The fight scenes between Wong and the White Lotus are just awesome. In addition, though the storyline is serious, unlike in the first film, this film does incorporate some humorous moments into it courtesy of the Westernized Aunt Yee and her interactions with Wong and Koon which lead to some hilarious moments (on the train ride as well as the dinner scene with the dog). Another hilarious scene is the acupuncture seminar that Wong and Koon attend with Sun Yat Sen and the Western doctors.

THE DVD FEATURES:

The features of the DVD, while not extensive as most new DVDs are, are perfectly acceptable. Included on this DVD are the following:

1. Bonus Movie Trailers for the following:

a. Once Upon a Time in China II

b. Once Upon a Time in China Trilogy

c. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

d. Miracles by Jackie Chan

2. Filmographies for Director Tsui Hark, Jet Li and Rosamund Kwan, Donnie Yen

THE VERDICT:

The most common criticism for most martial arts/action flicks are that the stories [disappoint]. The redeeming quality for them is, of course, the action. Like its predecessor, Once Upon a Time in China II overcomes 8these criticisms by delivering solid action and (lo and behold) a GREAT story. In addition, the film, besides having an awesome story and action sequences also incorporates just the right amount of humor to make it a nice package all around.

Overall, besides oohing and aahing to tremendous fight scenes you'll also be treated to a great look at a crucial period in Chinese history.

Highest Recommendation

This movie is a great continuation of the OUATIC series. It picks up some time later after the first one, with Wong Fei Hung, his asst. Foon, and Aunt 13 travelling to Canton to attend a medical convention. Unfortunately, Canton is in the midst of riots brought on by a nationalist group, the White Lotus, whom take an immediate disliking to Aunt 13 for her western ways.

Great fighting, better than the first. The storyline is also a very interesting continuation from 1; while in 1 we saw the western influence and exploitation seeping into turn of the century China, here we glimpse the other side of the coin, non-exploitative foreigners being persecuted by patriotic groups.

This movie is for anyone interested in Chinese history, Jet Li, martial arts or period pieces. Once Upon a Time in China continues to be quite the epic story.

I loved the openning scene. It's quite stylish. The story is simple but effective.

I saw a few compliant in here but as a Chinese I thought I'd give my 2 cents here. I feel that the movie evokes a deep emotion for me as how a classic hero would do in the most difficult times. When their country is surrounded by multiple external invasion forces and oppressed by it's own corrupted govenment, your fellow countrymen mostly cared for themselves and some are even preying on their own for profits, few are still willing to fight for a better future. The hero in this story is not just Wong but those two men who are willing to give up their lives to fight for their countrymen. Wong, again, caught up in the middle of uprising and must utilize his kung fu skill to battle for his beliefs and his love.

I think this is the best of the entire series. If you are only to get one of the series, please get this one.

rent it if you must but don't believe everything you read... this included of course.

In my humble opinion, this is the best one of the OUATIC movie series. The movie is not only great for the graceful fightings. It also strongly shows the feeling of the hotblooded patriots to find a way out for China during the time of chaos at the beginning of this century.

The best Kungfu movies never emphasis on violence and this moive is indeed a good example. There are many good fighting scenes which well reflect the characters and are beautifully choreographed. I am especially fond of the fighting scene between Wong Fei Hong and the offical, in which when Wong Fei Hong went to ask the offical to give refuge to the children, the official raided him aggressively and they fighted with staffs. The sentiments from both sides, villainy and righteousness, are poetically presented though their movement. So much better than those meaningless violent fightings.

OUATIC I and II are truely great movies, while the rest of the series, though pleasant to watch, are not as good. The movie shows the best of Jet Li along with fist of legend. Pity he acted in some really lousy movies too, especially some (all) of those he made in Hollywood.

Wong Fei Hung is an important figure, not only to Chinese history, but also to me as a student of the style, which he helped make famous. The Hung Gar Style is traced back to Hung Tsi Kwan (there are lots of debates over the spelling of his name) who taught Luk Ah Choy, and Wong Tai (Wong Fei Hung's grand father) who taught Wong Kei Ying (Fei Hung's father) who refused to teach Fei Hung, forcing him to turn to Luk Ah Choy for lessons. Fei Hung then went on to teach Lam Sai Wing who wrote the book that more or less made the style famous. Hung Gar is a very common style in Southern China, but is very rare stateside with only a small number of schools teaching it. Wong Fei Hung is therefore a matter of great interest to me, which is why I bought this film without actually seeing it first. Lucky for me it ended up being a very worthwhile purchase.
Although the film continues the bizarre and fictional relationship between Wong Fei Hung and his Cousin Yee this film is the most enjoyable of the three that I have seen. There is a lot of comedy in this film that works brilliantly along side the action and the drama for this film, which fully recognizes itself as being a work of fiction despite its use of historical figures.
Wong Fei Hung and his student Foon (Now played by a different actor) set off on an adventure with Cousin Yee that bring them up against the Sinister White Lotus Society who are determined to rid China of the foreigners using a mystical power that makes them invincible. But is this power real? The film's story is more intriguing than the previous film, and the action scenes are twice as good. I highly recommend this title as it, like its predecessor is one of the finest Kung Fu films out there. Even the English dub on this film is halfway decent!

The sequal to the hit Once Upon A Time in China takes off with Wong Master (Jet Li) taking a vacation with a couple of his best students. Right form the beginning of the movie Wong Master's martial art prowess is displayed. In this beginning scene he encounters a "White Lotus" sect whose aggressive ways in dealing with foreign affairs lead to too much killing. The fight that is created between Wong (Jet Li) and the White Lotus sect displays an internal fight with one's own countrymen. The fight scenes in this sequal are original and high intensity. A very imortant message slips through all the perfectly coreographed action scenes. Even the opposition may be evil and underhanded, violence is only a short-term solution. A nice touch to the movie is the romantic stirring between Wong Master and very distant Aunt with no blood relation. It's not as sick as it sounds... Definitely a must have.

This movie is the center master piece of all martial art movies, very and I mean very remarkable scenes, fights between Donny Yen and Jet Li and the cult master. It speaks a little humor that works better than the first movie, Tsu Hark has very apparently found the correct "style" to deliver this movie, this action package remains one of the top action thriller of all time in my mind. I found the idea of Donnie's role using wet twisted cloth as weapon is very intriguing, but yet when he was beaten by Jei Li using a broken bamboo to slice it apart is even more interesting. The thing is the weapon is created without intention in mind and the creative deadly idea was make right at the moment when Jei Li's almost got strangle to death by the wet cloth, the idea is just tricky but works remarkably. It tells u in a sense that the most powerful weapon at the end can be a simple creative mind that trigger just in a matter of second. I like that fight a lot. And the romance between Jet Li and his aunt in this confusing family branching thing has much thrill too, basically the girl is Jet Li's Aunt but they dun directly blooded each other as their accestors only linked to each other may be 5 or 6 generations back, but in each traditional chinese family they always bring along their whole family branch record so if it happens u found somebody's grand 10X generations ago was once in the branch he might go easy on u if hes richer. with this sense in mind, so when Jet Li propose to the girl its consider very outrages as even shes a lot younger than Jet Li but she s a senior of his and even they dun even have teh same last name but they do come from the same family. But then they are gonna get marry.. the whole damn thing is both amusing and confusing.

Jet Li once again reprises his role as Master Wong. OUaTIC2 takes the first film and makes it even better. I like the continuation of the characters this movie has. Things have changed since the first film and change even more during it. This introduces the White Lotus society as a mystical force that is demanding that the Westerners leave China, by any means. The action sequences of this film out do and are better than what we see in the original film. This movie also leaves behind the realism and goes more towards a fictional story, it even says that a lot of the film is fictional at the beginning. Overall, really great and if you like the first film, you will LOVE this. It is even better!