Kelly WandOnce upon a time in China
September 12th 2006 01:28
Oh, yeah baby! This is the stuff. Bring it on!
According to director Tsui Hark, he was inspired to make this film by Serge Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in the West”. I have to tell you those are pretty big shoes to be trying on your feet. It’s like hearing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and saying “I could do that”.
Normally, if you asked me what my favourite film was, I’d give you some kind of bullshit answer about comparing different films as being akin and as useful as comparing chalk and cheese. Put a gun to my head and I’ll tell you “Once upon a Time in the West” (or –depending on my mood - Warner Herzog’s “Nosferatu” or Francis Coppolla’s original “Apocalypse Now”).
“Once upon a time in the West” is a stunning operatic film with characters as large as the landscapes they fill. It is a film of volume and silence; a film that lovingly takes the convention of its genre and turns them on their heads.
“Once upon a time in China” is not like that. It is still extraordinary. It is, according to the notes attached to the three disc box set, based on the real life story of Wong Fei-Hung, a Nineteenth century physician and martial arts teacher with revolutionary sympathies and a desire to help the weak and poor of Fukien. He sounds like a cool guy. However, as a filmed autobiography, I think it is safe to assume some liberties have been made in the telling. For one, I cannot imagine a way that Fei-Hung’s revolutionary leanings allowed him to rebel against unjust constraints like the laws of gravity.
The noters do describe an occasion when he defeated a thirty man gang on the docks of Canton using a long wooden staff. Well, he certainly gets to that in the movie; many times over! And Jet Li, who plays Fei-Hung, looks good doing it. He looks damn good doing it. Athletically, he is in his absolute prime; pulling off the kind of moves that other Martial Arts stars only dream of. Despite his youth, he also has that startling charisma that allows him to play the quieter “Master” role with such dignity that he is not overshadowed as all those around him overact.
For Westerners like me, the epic tone the director strives for is initially undercut by a pervading low-brow humour. Despite the grandness and spectacle on offer, one cannot help but feel like that this is nothing but a light romp. It even dilutes the film’s major themes of the evil of western imperialism and exploitation and the factionalism and gangsterism that allowed it to flourish.
This, however, resolves itself in one of the greatest final hours in the history of Hong Kong Cinema. The grand fight sequence involving Li and Yam Sai-Kwon that takes place in the warehouse atop a rickety network of ladders, is a genuine genre classic. If it doesn’t leave your jaw dropped to the floor, you should perhaps have your doctor check you out for tetanus.
Anyone who has half an interest in this genre should check this film out. Anyone who has no interest in this genre should check it out. The camera work, choreography and set design are worth the price of admission alone. It is three hundred times better than any of those half arsed Hollywood vehicles that Li has appeared in. Look. Let’s be realistic. Jet Li versus Mel Gibson? What do you do with the other eighty nine minutes and fifty seconds of the movie?
Part Two is a step down from its dazzling predecessor but still kicks the shit out of most of its fellow martial arts movies. This time, Fei-Hung goes to Canton for a medical conference and meets Sun Yet Sen, a leading light in the democratic nationalist movement. He also encounters a rabid gang of extremists called the White Lotus. We know these guys are bad news from the get go because they kill somebody’s pet puppy. When they pick on Fei-Hung’s thirteenth Aunt (who doesn’t want him thinking of her as Aunt anything), you know they are going to pay big time in the final reel! Listen, anyone who would try to execute Rosamund Kwan deserves everything that is coming to them. And then some.
The third instalment is, perhaps, the weakest of the trilogy. This time, Fei-Hung goes to visit his father to tell him of his plans to marry his Aunt who is also known as Cousin Yee. (She’s Aunt in name only… we learned that it in the first movie so that’s all right then.) Fei-Hung may be a master of martial arts and blessed with wisdom beyond his years. He is fairly hopeless at spotting the fact that Cousin Yee has been making kissy faces at him for two rather long movies already. In this movie, Jet Li gets to do some embarrassed mugging at the camera which weakens his characterisation. Such behaviour had previously been reserved for side-kick character Foon.
The Dowager Empress has just announced a big contest to find the Lion King because she wants to impress the foreigners with her nation’s martial arts prowess. Martial artists form teams and one dons the lion’s head and the others carry the train made of fabric that forms the body. We’re used to seeing these big puppets dancing at Chinese festivals.
Well, apparently, you can fight in these things too and much of the fight action takes place in costume. Whilst this makes for spectacular art direction, it does lessen the emotional connection of the fight scenes.
Meanwhile Cousin Yee meets an old school chum, a handsome Russian dude who clearly has the hots for her (as does every other guy in the cinema). Of course, handsome Russian dude is up to no good. He wants to assassinate the Governor before he can cede land to the Japanese. The Russians are fairly certain this will provoke the Sino-Japanese war that some of us may remember from our history books. The Governor has told the Empress that the best way to deal with the foreign invaders is to get them fighting amongst each other.
Fei-Hung is jealous and is probably glad that the Russian dude is up to no good. If he was a nice guy, it would be harder to deal with him plot wise.
To finally ice the cake, there are all the usual rivalries between different clubs, societies and triads to make a dense plot that much denser. There are still some spectacular fight sequences on offer but it does feel a little over extended. I wouldn’t knock it though. It is still well worth seeing. I guess that the first film is just so mighty that its sequels can do little more than look pale by comparison. Compare them to - say – the Indiana Jones sequels and they win hands down.
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Comment by Threethumbs
Million Dollar Ideas
$1,000,000 ideas
-threethumbs
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
A martial arts epic in all the right ways. Once Upon A Time in China is a classic, highly influential and great fun.
A must see for martial arts fan.
Comment by Bob Short
Take John's advice and see this one today!