Just watched the Hong Kong film ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA AND AMERICA, 5th film in the classic series directed by Tsui Hark and starring Jet Li as Chinese legend Wong Fei-Hong. As it takes place in America, we have to deal with some of the worst acting I’ve seen on celluloid, which is what you get with westerners in HK films. But the action is good, and that’s what counts in this type of film. It’s a shame what Jet Li did to his career after moving to Hollywood, as I’ve hated every film he’s done since leaving HK (I couldn’t even watch past 20-30 minutes of his latest one, CRADLE 2 THE GRAVE, which is the last American Jet Li film I will ever waste time on), exception being Zhang Yimou’s HERO. Tsui Hark should also get his ass in gear and start being more productive in HK, making more films like his excellent TIME AND TIDE, and less Van Damme stinkers.
Also saw the Brazilian film CITY OF GOD, which has got to be one of the best films I’ve seen this year, if not the last few years. You need to see this.
Category: General
ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA AND AMERICA is actually the sixth film in the series, not the fifth. Not that that improves the film in any way… :-)
6th? Really? From what I’ve seen, there are ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA 1 through 4, and then this one. What’s the other one?
Just wanted to nod agreement in regards to Hero and City of God. Those might be the best two movies I’ve seen this year.
I haven’t seen any good HK action in a while, though. Is the new Once Upon A Time worth finding?
ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA AND AMERICA is not new, it dates back to 1997. I don’t think it’s worth buying, but it’s definitely fun enough for a rental.
i think the 5th film doesn’t star jet li. there’s an imdb entry for it here. the once upon a time series is what really got me into hk films. but now i’m rather burned out on them.
Jet Li starred in the first three installments of the series, as well as the sixth one, ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA AND AMERICA. Chiu Man Cheuk played Wong Fei Hong in OUATIC 4 and 5.
You have a very nice blog