Product Description
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Three action-packed Jet Li movies in one! Includes Once Upon a
Time in China, Once Upon a Time in China 2, and Once Upon a Time
in China 3. Starring martial arts superstar Jet Li (Cradle 2
Grave, Lethal Weapon 4). Directed by accled Hong Kong
filmmaker Tsui Hark (Black 2, Double Team, Knock Off).
.com
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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 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 be 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 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 nents 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