Once Upon A Time In China (UK)

This is the film which restarted Jet Li`s career. This and "The Shaolin Temple" are my favourite of his films. This deals with Eastern fighting techniques meeting Western firing techniques.

There are some brilliant fight sequences in this film, the best being the one where Li takes on at least 15 men with a staff.

There is a good supporting cast including the class Yuen Biao and Rosamund Kwan (who also apeared in Armour Of God alongside Jackie Chan).

There are a decent set of extras (the usual for HKL discs), and the picture (Anamorphic 2.35:1) and sound (Dolby Digital 5.1 in English and Cantonese) have been improved drastically over any VHS release you will have seen.

This is a true classic of Chinese cinema, a film directed by the brillian Tsui Hark.

Buy it.

If you`ve read the blurb, read the other review: then you know what this is about. I won`t regergitate. All I will say is that if you love kung fu, if you think you might like kung fu, or if you`re open minded fancy a peek at Hong Kong film: then buy, rob, steal, mug or sell your house to get this film.

It is an absolute classic. If you don`t like this, you`ll never like Kung Fu films.

Once Upon A Time In China is one of the best martial arts films I have seen. It manages to combine a good and engaging story with great visuals and action.

HKL did a great job with the transfer and sound, the features are also good with the stand out being the audio commentary by Bey Logan.

All in all a worthy presentation of a great martial arts movie.

One of the best films ever made! Stunning, well choreographed fight sequences, memorable soundtrack, historical context, super acting and plot combine to make this one of the greatest ever films made.

This film makes Crouching Tiger look like Romeo Must Die. Jet Li is superb as the legendary doctor and martial artist Wong Fei Hong. Yuen Woo Ping (CTHD, Matrix, Iron Monkey) has hardly better the choreography in this and OUATIC 2. The end battle between Jet Li and Master Yim uses ladders very inventively and defies belief.

The disc is good, the picture is OK considering the age of the film and the extras are sparse but effective. If you like wire fu, see this. If you don`t like martials arts, see it anyway!

This is a visually stunning movie. It is by far better than Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and is one of the best movies ever to come from Hong Kong. Jet Li stars as the legendary Wong Fei Hong, who stands up against foreign invaders and protects his country, which he loves. The action/martial arts scenes are beautifully orchestrated and the plot is very interesting. This is the best of a very strong trilogy of Once Upon A Time In China movies starring Jet Li and Rosamund Kwan.

The picture and sound are very good for its age. The colours are very good and the picture is generally sharp and detailed. The soundtrack is presented in DD 5.1 and is glorious. The score of the movie is fantastic and goes well with the setting of the movie.

Like many Hong Kong Legends discs, there arent that many good special features. There are some interviews, trailers, photos and a commentary. These seem to be standard features on all their discs and while they are mildly intriguing and HKL are doing their best to bring together the extras for us, for a classic movie such as this, more better features are demanded. Perhaps a 2 disc set?

Overall its a quality film on a generally good disc. Highly recommended for purchasing or renting at the very least.