Once Upon a Time in China

Original title: Wong Fei-Hung

1991
R
2h 14m

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

20K

YOUR RATING

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Kung Fu Martial Arts Wuxia Action

Legendary martial arts hero Wong Fei-Hung fights against foreign forces' plundering of China. When Aunt Yee arrives back from America, Wong Fei-Hung assumes the role of her protector.Legendary martial arts hero Wong Fei-Hung fights against foreign forces' plundering of China. When Aunt Yee arrives back from America, Wong Fei-Hung assumes the role of her protector.Legendary martial arts hero Wong Fei-Hung fights against foreign forces' plundering of China. When Aunt Yee arrives back from America, Wong Fei-Hung assumes the role of her protector.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

20K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 5 wins & 4 nominations total

Trivia
Wong Fei-hung was a famous practitioner of hung gar kung fu, although the techniques Jet Li uses are mostly of the long fist method and tai chi.

Goofs
(at around 54 mins) A 31-star US flag is seen shortly after an adult Wong Fei Hung attempts to defend the Po Chi Lam clinic from a fiery attack. The 31-star flag was used from July 4, 1851 to July 3, 1858. Wong Fei Hung was born on July 9, 1847, and so could not have been older than a few days shy of his eleventh birthday when this flag was still in use. Also, the rows of stars shown on the 31-star flag are inverted. The flag shown has rows of 7, 6, 6, 5, and 7 stars respectively (from top to bottom). The actual flag has rows of 7, 5, 6, 6, and 7 stars top to bottom.

Quotes
Yim: No matter how good our kung-fu is, it will never defeat guns.

Alternate versions
A version distributed by 'Made in Hong Kong' UK has a running time of 140 mins. with a extra 10 minutes previously unreleased on video.

Connections
Featured in The Art of Action: Martial Arts in Motion Picture (2002)

User reviews80

Review

Featured review

This is much more than a Kung Fu Movie

Wong Fei Hung is a legendary Chinese hero (like James Bond) whoe has some 90 films about him before this movie. In fact Jackie Chan plays Wong Fei Hung in Legend of Drunken Master. So this movie is not merely a kung fu movie. This movie's main theme is of Chinese culture vs Western culture as it is embodied by martial arts vs guns. How can China remain beautiful in its art that requires years of dedication to master, when success can be so cheaply purchased with Western firearms? Wong Fei Hung must make sense of it somehow, and in the end shows that while you can't fight guns with kung fu, that kung fu in the right hands can be just as deadly as guns. (It's not the gun... it's the bullets.)

Woven into this main theme is the theme of a lost sense of Chineseness and lack of communication. The characters who cut off their queues (their symbol of loyalty to the Qing dynasty) because of desperation or confusion or ambition. The Chinese/American who cannot read Chinese. The mistaken Lion dance.

Beyond this conflict, the movie has countless inside jokes for the fans of Honk Kong cinema. The trampolines at the end were a tribute to the early kung fu movies that used them before wire techniques were introduced. The scene where the two disciples have to dress up in the Peking Opera: Sammo Hung (TV's Martial Law) traditionally played the role of the butcher in this series. He, along with the other character who dressed up in the movie were originally trained in Peking opera and form there entered kung fu movies. So it was an inside joke. The nerdy character is played by one of Hong Kong's most popular pop singers.

This movie is simply incredible, even though the kung fu is not as satisfying as in some of Jet Li's other movies (The Legend and Fist of Legend). I recommend seeing it on DVD. That way you can see the original movie with subtitles. Then you can go back and watch it with a running commentary. Stay away from the English dubbed version, as it cuts scenes from the movie.