Once Upon A Time In China Reviews

Complete Rubbish

Overhyped and simply doesn't deliver. Ignore that fawning review titled 'Perfection' - this movie pretends at grandeur but is a real stinker. Cinematography - cliched. Plot - bobbins, particularly the toe-curling slapstick comedy bits, presumably for the cabbage throwers in the pit. Oh yeah, the transfer is rubbish as well. The people who think this is cinema need their eyes examined.

One of the best martial arts films of all time.

Let me start by pointing out to those who are incapable of working their DVD Players (& from the reviews on here there seem to be a few) that this movie comes with a choice of Cantonese or Dubbed English audio, & English or Dutch subtitles, therefore noone needs to moan about the bad dubbing. It may well have been bad. I don't know. I simply switched the audio to Cantonese & watched it with the English subtitles.

As for the film itself. Did some of the other reviewers watch the same movie? This is a true classic of the genre. Well acted, superbly shot & what's more it has a coherent plot! That's more than can be said for many martial arts movies. I would never normally stoop to rubbishing other reviewers comments, but as so many just trash the movie & any who profess to like it in one or two uninformative lines, I feel justified on this occasion.

Completely spoiled.....

by the absolutely dreadful dubbing into English!! I even tried watching with the sound down and subtitles on - but it didn't really help. Therefore my rating is based on this rather than the actual film - I would say however that the fight scene between Master Yim and Master Wong was absolutely fantastic. If you're going to watch this don't get the dubbed version.

I don't understand how this could eve have been termed a "classic" by some... After 20 minutes I switched it off, it was that bad: dialogue / fight scenes / acting / music : no redeeming features at all. Not a "B" movie, more like a "C" (or "D" -> "Z", take your pick). Give it a miss if your time is precious to you

A fantastic tale of China begining to feel the influence of westernisation. Jet Li plays the legendary hero Wong Fei Hung, a noted physician, philospher and kick ass kung fu master!! It trys to give background to the US & British ideals versus the traditional chinese ways. Fei Hung is not against these new ways but is sceptical and finds out soon enough that slavery is the main reason for the foreigners on his shores. Cue martial arts action second to none, this is Jet Li at his finest alongside Fist of Legend. A good watch for action fans, a must for all martial arts fans. This is how it is done!

Not his best!

I am a great Jet Li fan but have to admit this was not one of his best. To start with the dubbing was poor, it would have been better to have been subtitled. The camera work was also confusing at times as scenes jumped without any explanation - at first I thought it was a case of the DVD being scratched. It took ages for the fight scenes to appear, but they were to the usual standard you would expect from such a star as Jet Li.

Only really one for the hardcore Jet Li fans, not really for those who have only seen his Hollywood films.

CLASSIC. I loved this film. From the very start, Jet Li displays his physical power and martial arts skill. The action sequences (which are long and many) are spread between two different choreographers: One who specialises in wire-fu, and another in ground work. I loved both parts equally.

Like Hong Kong martial arts? This film's for you. Like Jet Li? This films for you. Like films in general? THIS FILMS FOR YOU! WATCH IT!!

Basically an excellent 2 hour fight - but you'd be disappointed if it wasn't. Confusing, daft plot and some weird, unamusing humour - one of the characters looks like Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Martial arts

There seemed to be a lot of martial arts action but very little story in this film.

Half way house

This is a bit of a half way house between the wonderful historical epics of Kaige Chen and Zhang Yimou and bad 70s Kung Fu movies. Not bad but slightly over cheesy for modern tastes.