Waste of time

Sadly Over-hyped

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Review: I quite enjoyed the first movie in this massive franchise. Its good to finally see a Jet Li film were there not flying in the air and fighting on strings. Anyway, the movie is basically about Americans trying to take over China. Some of the gangs buy into the Americans policies and attack the people that are trying to keep China the same. Its quite a simple storyline, but there are other aspects to the story, like the down and out fighter who wants to fight Jet Li so he can prove that he is the best and open his own fighting school. The fighting scenes were quite impressive and the different disciples who are working for Jet Li, we're quite funny. Aunt Yee, who was the lady character, did become annoying after a while but the showdown at the end was brilliant, mainly because it reminded me of the old Kung Fu movies and the ladder work was amazing. Anyway, the film does seem a bit long but it's an enjoyable movie which is worth a watch. Enjoyable!Round-Up: You can tell that this film had quite a big budget because of the epic scenes but it still looks unAmericanised. Personally, I think that there is a hidden message behind the movie, from a Chinese point of view, which is why this franchise was so big overseas. The added wit to the script made the movie original and interesting but it's the action that's second to none. I just hope that the rest of the movies in this franchise, are in the same calibre as this one. Budget: N/A Worldwide Gross: HK$30millionI recommend this movie to people who are into their Jet Li movies about a doctor trying to stop China from becoming Americanised. 6/10

First thing about this movie are a few criticisms. It is not a bad movie; in fact as it comes to the end the action heats up so much that you are left on the edge of your seat. Unfortunately there are a few things that hold this movie back from being great. Firstly it is quite long: there are a lot of scenes in the movie that really don't need to be there and you start to become agitated and bored waiting for the real action to heat up. Then there are the characters: they are all the same. As such it is very difficult to work out who is who, though by the end of the movie I was able to tell. Finally I find that the structure of the movie was quite bad. It was as if bits had been cut out to shorten it even more and thus I had difficulty following what was going on. Still, the action in the movie is stunning, and by the end of the movie you do have an idea of the plot. Then again, Hong Kong action movies were never known for their plots but more for their stunning martial arts sequences. This movie delivers though.The time is China at the turn of the century, possibly even earlier in the 19th Century, but it is a time when the United States had a stake in China and had fortresses there along with other European countries. This puts it somewhere between 1870 to 1900, though the weapons suggest that it is earlier rather than later. The movie is based around a dojo run by Heung (Jet Li), a Kungfu master. Heung is fighting against the Sheueng gang and the authorities to keep his dojo running, but everything seems to be going against him. There are salesmen wandering around selling passages to America, the Golden Mountain where people go to get exceedingly rich. What is really happening is that these salesmen sell the Chinese to the Americans as slave labour and take their money as well. The Sheueng gang is also involved in this as they are kidnapping Chinese women and selling them to the Americans.This movie is at the end of the Chinese empire. The Western nations have entered and carved it up and the Emperor is powerless. In fact China is sitting on the edge of revolution. Justice does not exist for the Chinese as they are treated as second class citizens, and it seems that China now exists for the Westerners. They are in China for the trade, but they own the trading cartels and the Chinese now exist around them. They have no stake in the Westerner's business and are kept in order by a militia run by the British.This is a time of hopelessness for the Chinese. They have lost all autonomy, and there is no justice for the meek. Heung's Dojo is burnt down by the rival gang and nobody offers themselves as a witness. When he is ripped off by a Fortune God, nobody is interested in helping him, and he is the one to blame for the results. Then there is the stage play that is ruined by an ambush by the rival gang. When the fighting erupts, the Americans shoot everybody indiscriminately. It is a crime simply to be Chinese. Though one learns later that it is because the Americans are working with this rival gang and it was a setup.Once Upon a Time in China is a very anti-Western film. In this movie, it is the westerners who are the bad guys, especially the Americans. In this movie, we sympathise with the Chinese and begin to hate the westerners because they are unjust and torture the original inhabitants of the land. The movie is also anti-imperialism for it attacks the imperialist nature of the western powers. The word western is always spoken with venom in the mouth of the people because they have invaded and taken their land.This movie is awesome when the fights really start up. Though it is slow at the start, once the action begins this movie speeds up and drags you in. It is the action that makes this movie what it is. The action is intense and awesome, and with typical Tsui Hark style, there is one fantasy element, and that is Iron Robe, the martial artist whose stomach is like iron and sword blows simply bounce off of it.

A traditional kung fu movie with elements of the Wuxia sub-genre, Once Upon A Time In China is considered by many to be one of the finest martial arts movies of all time; I don't rate it so highly, preferring my action to be a little more realistic and a tad more 'bone-crunching'.Set in a troubled 19th century China, where centuries of tradition is being threatened by an influx of foreigners, this historical epic is directed by Tsui Hark and stars the incredible Jet Li, ably supported by Rosamund Kwan, Biao Yuen, Jacky Cheung and Kent Cheng. With a pedigree like that, I was expecting something truly astounding, but what I got was an overlong, over-stylised and definitely over-rated film. Saddled with a dreadfully dull story and some particularly poor comedic moments, it does not entertain as much as I had hoped.Li plays Wong Fei Hung, martial arts master and all round good guy, who, along with his students, battles the foreign invaders who are plundering China. Kwan plays his love interest, Aunt Yee, who has recently returned from America, and who tries to educate Hung about the wonders of the Western world. As the troubles mount, Aunt Yee becomes the target of unscrupulous traders who try to sell her into prostitution, leaving Hung and his men no option but to pit their fighting skill against guns in a daring rescue attempt.Although the movie admittedly features some well choreographed fight scenes which will undoubtedly appeal to fans of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (as will the breath-taking cinematography), the action relies too much on clever wire-work and skillful editing for its impact, and the whole affair left this particular viewer rather disappointed.

Two of my favorite films are "One Upon a Time in America" and Once Upon a Time in the West." So naturally, I would be attracted to this film just to see if it matches the others. It does.Jet Li stars as the legendary Chinese hero Wong Fei-Hong. He is fighting against intruders from the West. Yep, invading armies like us. The people of China are not going to give in. He is asked to train the locals in kung fu. Things get complicated with the arrival of Wong's "Aunt" Yee (Rosamund Kwan), just back from a two-year stay in the West. She is not really his Aunt, so romance simmers between the two.There are plenty of evildoers in this film. Gangs looking for protection money, corrupt government officials (no surprise there!), and those nasty foreigners. You will want to watch this film more than once. Jet Li's performance, coupled with his kung fu wizardry, carries the viewer through any shaky patches. The fight scenes are the main attraction, of course, and the film delivers the goods again and again.