Once Upon a Time in China #1 (1991)

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 Flag 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 begun 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. The DVD features star bios, filmographies, trailers, and clips from early Wong Fei Hong films that starred veteran actor Kwan Tak Hing. --Shannon Gee Amazon.com essential video

Deep.

Despite the martial arts filled story, the movies best scenes are of portrayal of Chinese persecution. It portrayed the hard choices that had to be made to respect your leadership or to follow your need to make it right. In the end, movie is not amazing in contrast to the next Once Upon a Time in China 2, but it is a good movie to watch. June 24, 2008

Once Upon a Time in China #1

An Incredible kung fu movie! I recommend it to all martial arts lovers and fans of Jet Li. If one admires good kung fu fighting and interesting plot - this is it! This and the rest 2 parts of the trilogy are the best movies that Jet Li has done! I love it! April 12, 2008

Jet Li as the great Wong Fei-Hung !

I was definitely in the mood for Jet Li, and thus I grabbed "Once Upon a Time in China." The movie is about Wong Fei-Hung (Jet Li) a Chinese martial arts expert who protects the Chinese people from the foreignors (British and Americans) invading his land. Fei-Hung starts a militia to help protect the people, and they wind up getting in trouble by fighting with a local mob group. Fei-Hung also runs afoul with the local Magistrate who is kowtowing to the foreignors. Fei-Hung later fights with another martial arts expert, Iron Vest Yim, who wants to start his own Martial Arts school. All the plots come to a climax on the American base, where the Americans shoot at the British and Chinese, while trying to steal Chinese women to bring back to America. Yes, the plot is a bit out there, but the martial arts scenes are outstanding. Especially the final fight scene between Fei-Hung and Iron Vest!
There is alot of comedy intermixed in the storyline also. One of the funniest scenes, is where a Western camera is brought to Fei-Hungs house, and a picture is to be taken of him, another person and a bird. The camera goes off with a boom, and the bird inside the cage is turned to fried chicken! Pretty hilarious.
The picture quality is not the greatest for a DVD, but still very watchable. How can you not love the martial arts scenes in this movie?
There are some extras on the DVD:

* There is a commentary from martial arts reviewer Ric Meyers.
* 5 movie trailers, including one for "Once upon a time in china"
* Talent files for Tsui Hark, Jet Li, and Rosamund Kwan. The files were a bit underwhelming, and they did not have a full bio for all of Jet Li's movies.
The DVD also has 2 versions. The original Theatrical version and the English dubbed version. I watched the cantonese version, with English subtitles which was fine! August 5, 2007

A good Jet Li film

Jet Li is Wong Fei-Hung, a Chinese leader, who is also skilled in martial arts. Wong Fei-Hung is seeing the influence of the USA and England in China, and he attempts to learn some things about it in an effort to slow it down, since people he personally knows are enchanted by the allure of advanced technology and gold.

The film is set in the 1900's, as one of the supporting characters uses a first-generation camera for photography. This film is about 20% action, 80% story, so it is not a continuous kung fu fest. Jet Li was in his 20's when he made this film, so if you want to see what he was like before he became a superstar, this film is worth seeing-especially if you consider the low price it typically commands ($7-$10 brand new). July 6, 2007

Entertaining movie

Jet Li chinese movies are very entertaining. If you don't know this already and like martial arts, get it. May 7, 2007

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