one of my absolute favorites!

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Seeing as how "Once Upon A Time In Shanghai" is a remake of my all-time favorite martial arts movie, "Boxer From Shantung," of course I held this one up against high standards. Well for the most part it succeeds, with it's many elegant, artistic touches. Here we have a visually impressive period piece, about a poor laborer who comes to the big city to find his fortune. What he finds is friendship, corruption, and ultimately betrayal. Here martial artist Philip Ng replaces the legendary Chen Kuan Tai in the role of Ma Yongzhen, the immensely likable peasant who yearns for power, but despises corruption. Ng is a great choice to play Ma, as he is a charismatic and handsome actor. It's not easy to compare to Chen Kuan Tai, but Philip Ng comes close. The fight scenes are fast and furious, and very well-staged, and for once we have a good story to compliment the action. The sets and the period costumes are beautiful and detailed as well, although I wasn't so crazy about the digital video look of this film. The colors are very washed out, and the film almost looks like it was shot in black and white. Still I highly recommend this remake, as there are so few good martial arts films being produced today. Fans of the classic 70's stuff should really appreciate this. I also strongly recommend searching out the original "Boxer From Shantung" from 1972. It is a true masterpiece of the genre, and surpasses this film in quality and artistry..

Lets face it, the glory days of our Hong Kong action heroes such as Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, Jet Lee and such are gone... Heck, they don't even make them the same anymore, with each new film becoming more and more Hollywood-ised which was part of the reason we loved them in the first place - gritty originality!And with respect to all my heroes, it is nice to see a host of them standing proud alongside the next generation of action stars - namely, the handsome Philip Ng and Andy On.Once Upon A Time In Shanghai brings these great 2 talents together under the wing of the fantastic Wong Jing, amazing Yuen Woo Ping and many more to give us an epic martial arts feature!Sharing the screen is the always incredible Sammo Hung, Yuen Cheung Yan, Chen Kwan Tai to name but a few, each gaining a bout of screen action without ever stealing the limelight from the ass kicking Philip Ng.Beautifully shot and directed, simple and hard hitting, OUATIS is worthy of a place in any kung fu film fans collection!!

I love a good martial arts film but too often they end up disappointing me. Often, the action is, to put it charitably, really lame--with punches and kicks that obviously do not connect and ridiculous sound effects that are laughable. And, in a few cases, I've seen films that feature some amazingly skilled fighting but the story is paper-thin. Fortunately, with "Once Upon a Time in Shanghai", you have a film that manages to do both--with some of the best and most brutal fighting you'll ever see as well as an interesting story.This film is set in Shanghai in 1930 and is done in black & white (with a few artistic colors used very sparingly and artistically). If you are a retired history teacher like me, you'll be thrilled and disappointed by this. The cars and some of the costumes really are not from the right period --and the picky history teacher in me noticed that! But, I do appreciate how the film has a historical context and is based somewhat on events of the day. Back in 1930, Shanghai was a pretty wild town--with gangs and drugs and the like which you see in the film. But what makes this interesting historically is that the Japanese are also in the movie and are clearly villains. In real life, Japan would soon begin a full scale invasion of China that would last over a decade. Most westerners have forgotten about this horrible period in Chinese history (many millions were killed) but the filmmakers haven't nor have the Chinese. And, making them the villains clearly is something that would appeal to Chinese audiences--especially in the finale when Ma screams "Get the hell out of China!!". While there is still a lot of animosity between the nations today despite efforts by both governments over the years to improve relations and we can only hope this continues.As for the story, Ma (Philip Ng) arrives penniless in this big town and needs work. However, he and his fellow villagers didn't realize that Shanghai was a really rough place--with rival gangs running the streets. Not surprisingly, soon the nice newcomers are caught up in the violence of the streets. The only local who seems decent is an odd character played by Sammo Hung (a frequent collaborator with Jackie Chan)--and Ma inexplicably falls for the man's incredibly grouchy daughter. However, this romance doesn't have much time to blossom because of all the violence between rival gangs. One of these thugs, Long Qi (Andy On), is amazingly tough--and his martial arts skills are insanely good. And soon he and Ma end up coming up against each other. Here is where the film gets really good. Instead of Long Qi killing Ma or vice-versa, the pair are so evenly matched that they actually become friends. But Ma is a good soul and manages to not only stay pure of heart but become almost like Long Qi's brother. So everyone lives happily ever after, right?! Nah...this IS a martial arts film and soon the really bad bad-guys arrive--and the Japanese are not about to let some gangs or some country bumpkin like Ma stand in their way.What's next? Watch the film for yourself---you won't be disappointed. As I mentioned above, the fight sequences are amazing...no,...they are BRILLIANT. Intense, fast, highly skilled and insane are all words that come to mind. Plus, while the heroes are a bit too super-human (they can manage to STILL hang on after 137934 stab wounds!!), the fight sequences themselves don't appear too super-human! There are very, very few "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" sorts of wire-fu techniques in this film and I appreciate this. Yes, I know some of you readers love these--I still prefer the more realistic action sequences like you'll see in films like this as well as the Street Fighter series (with Sonny Chiba), the Gina Carano films as well as "Ip Man".Now all this sounds like I am super-excited about this film. Well, I am...though I have a few reservations. The back story is a bit weak (it involves a bracelet and a promise to mother) and unnecessary. Additionally using the 'Once Upon a Time in' part of the title is a problem since so many good and bad films have used this in their titles--such as "Once Upon a Time in the West", "Once Upon a Time in Mexico", "Once Upon a Time in Vietnam", "Once Upon a Time in China" (1, 2 and 3) and many more--and none of these films have anything to do with each other and can confuse viewers!! Still, Ching-Po Wong has crafted a fine action film--and one of the best ones I've seen in recent memory.

Once Upon a Time in Shanghai (恶战) is another action-packed drama film from the legendary martial arts choreographer, Yuen Wo Ping and HK action legend, Sammo Hung. The film sets in Shanghai in the 1930s, where the city once attracted many youngsters from different provinces in China to find fortune and fame. The film has a simplistic and straightforward plot, a story about a youngster, Ma Yong Zhen, well- equipped with martial arts and possesses incredible strength on his right fist, together with an unshakable sense of morality, comes to Shanghai looking for an opportunity.While it's nothing new here, the story is predictable as these sort of movies been done countless times before in the past, but this is a well- made stylish action film that reminds me of the HK martial arts films of the 80s and 90s about the criminal underworld and Japanese infiltration. The film features a lot of impressive martial art fight scenes...the intensity and swiftness of the fights between the actors were just astonishing to watch. You still cheer the lead character, saying 'Serves them right!' when he puts down the bad guys in the climatic battle near the end. Although the brotherhood and romantic love themes in the films are not properly fleshed out or developed, it still engaging enough to hold the action scenes together for the audience to continue watching it until the very end. It seems that Andy On and Phillip Ng are further establishing themselves as rising action stars other than the currently famous Donnie Yen. Not a bad movie by any means, this is still a decent Chinese film to watch for martial arts action junkies. Rating: 7/10http://yjcool.blogspot.com/2014/01/movie-review-once-upon-time-in- shanghai.html