#once upon a time in china

[boardsdonthitback]

Jet Li - Once Upon A Time In China II (1992)

Happy 61st Birthday Jet Li!

[romanceyourdemons]

once upon a time in china (1991) has everything you could want from a wong fei-hung movie, and a wong fei-hung movie directed by tsui hark at that. it has beautifully choreographed and visually very interesting fight sequences, sporadic but entertaining slapstick, a young jet li, and more. like once upon a time in the west (1968) and once upon a time in america (1984), the film provides a very cynical revisionist presentation of the american dream; unlike those films, this one is set in late 19th century guangdong, which renders that cynical revisionism more of a violent feel-good patriotism (tsui hark’s career-long specialty). the story beats and arguments of the film are pretty much to be expected, even if they are executed so well that their basis in cliche hardly lessens their impact at all. one thing worth noting about these typical story beats, however, is that the main recipient of the film’s vitriol, the core of the conflict and the source of the film’s most brutally punished antagonists, is not the colonizing british and americans whose presence is ubiquitous in this film’s foshan. they are antagonists, to be sure, but they are only secondary ones. the real antagonists are the chinese who sell out their nation and culture to seek benefits and forward their own goals at the feet of foreigners. the central presence of these turncoat chinese, as well as the secondary but still significant presence of foreigners who give up everything to seek justice for the chinese, prevent the story from being a simple one of nation against nation, and neither is the ending one of simple victory of tradition. kung fu cannot beat guns, the film argues. plugging one’s eyes to the world and bowing to foreigners to maintain one’s hold on antiquated symbols of power—like the obsequious manchu officials and the brutal, desperate master yim—merely allows capitalistic foreigners to profit at the expense of the chinese. the film ends with wong fei-hung donning western clothes, but continuing his martial arts instruction. kung fu cannot beat guns, the film argues, but the united spirit of the chinese people can. the film feels very modern in more ways than one, but as i mentioned before, tsui hark set out (as always) to make a feel-good patriotic movie, and by gum he made one. once upon a time in china (1991) provides everything you could look for in a film like this, and it provides it well, so if you are looking for wong fei-hung films i would definitely recommend this one even if you don’t watch any others

[linggluu]

he who saves the lion dance

[eclecticpjf]

Now watching:

[wojit]

Please...

[madamshogunassassin]

ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA (Tsui, 1991)

[baddawg94]

[cemyafilmarsiv]

Once Upon a Time in China II directed by Tsui Hark

[cinemajunkie70]

A very happy birthday to the legendary Tsui Hark!

[hotpotdragon]

Once Upon a Time in China (1991)

[boardsdonthitback]

Jet Li - Once Upon A Time In China II (1992)

[romanceyourdemons]

always carrying a fan that has all the unequal treaties china has been forced into signing written on it sure is Some Sort Of Power Move in the late 19th century

[linggluu]

Anyways, I was binging the Once Upon a Time in China series because it has been decades and accidentally downloaded the 小戏骨 version of 狮王争霸 and was delightfully surprised :) . Dialogues and scenes are like, 80% the same and it's sooo cute :)

ps: Xiao Xi Gu was a program that ended a few years ago but it's basically children acting out grown up dramas. They've done Dream of the Red Chamber, Justice Bao and some others. I was looking forward to Xiao Xi Gu's version of Legend of the Condor Heroes however the project was pulled before filming started due to copy right issues.

[movieposters1]

[panicinthestudio]

[baddawg94]

Jet Li as Wong Fei Hung

Rosamund Kwan Chi Lam as Cousin Yee

1992’s “Once Upon A Time In China Part 2” 🇨🇳

Directed by Tsui Hark

Produced by NG See Yuen