My Cultural Diet

Although he’d appeared in several martial arts films prior to Once Upon a Time in China, this was the film that made Jet Li a bonafide martial arts cinema star, right up there with Jackie Chan. After this, he would go on to make multiple genre classics, including Fong Sai-yuk, Tai Chi Master, and Fist of Legend. Here, Li stars as Chinese folk hero Wong Fei-hung, a kung fu master who’s called to help defend China from the foreigners seeking to divy up the country as well as his fellow Chinese willing to sell out for a quick buck. Tsui Hark’s movie is certainly ambitious, and at times, approaches “epic” status. (The opening training sequence on the beach is one of the most stirring scenes of any martial arts movie I’ve seen.) And its storyline concerning foreign influence and China’s inevitable need to modernize is wonderfully nuanced. Unfortunately, the film occasionally descends into hijinks, usually courtesy of Yuen Biao, Jacky Cheung, and Kent Cheng’s characters and their constant bickering. Action-wise, the film is the epitome of “wire fu,” with Li flying through the sky and consistently defying the laws of physics. Sometimes it works and sometimes it’s just silly. In any case, there’s no denying Jet Li’s martial arts credentials — prior to becoming an actor, he was a four-time national martial arts champion in China — and it’s obvious why he ultimately became such an action icon.

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