Once Upon a Time in China (Wong Fei Hung)

Arguably the best kung fu film ever made. An epic with five sets. Maybe it takes a bit of knowledge about the historical contexts, and familiarity with the character types (especially Wong Fei-hung himself, a real-life legend, some kind of combination of Robin Hood and…

Sean Gilman

how did they figure out the perfect amount of time a shot during a fight scene should last so it feels totally chaotic as a whole but you have exactly enough time to absorb each image and comprehend how insane it is before cutting to the next...and exactly when to slow down…

sydney

Today, I publicly denounce Jet Li and Tsui Hark for assault and battery. I felt physically attacked by so many subplots.

CinemaVoid 🏴‍☠️

Writer-producer-director Tsui Hark’s sprawling vision of a changing nineteenth-century China begins with this riotously entertaining epic, a blockbuster hit that cemented Jet Li’s status as the greatest martial-arts superstar of his generation. Li displays his stunning,…

Criterion

Tsui Hark's action scenes make me want to stand up off the couch like a great live sporting event, and I think it has to do with a false sense of spontaneity he creates. martial artists can change direction mid-air, the camera will follow, and the cutting makes it seem…

eddie

I love this movie and all it's broad themes, messy storytelling and endless fight scenes. Tsui Hark taps into a vein of pure cinematic bliss.

Justin Decloux

Breathtaking. Anyone passionately looking for the true classics of the wu-xia genre should encounter this stylish Hong Kong masterpiece that even gently reminds us of the existentialist beauty of the famous Samurai trilogy by Inagaki combined with the cultural elements of a…

Edgar Cochran ✝️🍋

Every bit the martial arts epic from director Tsui Hark. Once Upon a Time in China is based on legendary fighter Wong Fei-Hung, though it is apparently a fictionalised version of the events of his life. The film very much puts Chinese national identity at its core and…

Slig001

Tsui Hark is the John Ford of Chinese cinema, and Once Upon a Time in China is his Stagecoach. I wrote about this, and weirdly enough it ended up kind of being about Martin Luther King, at The Chinese Cinema.

Sean Gilman