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Mood:
- ExcitingStylized
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Plot:
- Master WarriorTragic HeroCulture ClashHeroic MissionHeroesRivalrySocietyFolk Hero more...
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Genres:
- ActionAdventurePeriodForeignDramaHistorical
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Place:
- AsiaChinaClinicSchool
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Audience:
- Boys' Night
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Praise:
- Critically Acclaimed
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Style:
- Martial ArtsEpic
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Attitudes:
- SeriousRealistic
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Flag:
- Violent Content
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Once Upon a Time in China, 1991
Cantonese, English
Hong Kong
Profile of Once Upon a Time in China
The mood of Once Upon a Time in China is exciting and stylized. The plot centers around a tragic hero, a master warrior, and culture clash. It is a foreign, action, and adventure movie. Stylistically, Once Upon a Time in China is epic and features martial arts. In approach, it is serious and realistic. It takes place, at least partly, in a clinic and at a school. Once Upon a Time in China is set in China. The movie is known for being critically acclaimed. It is especially suggested for a boys' night. Note that Once Upon a Time in China includes violent content.
Summary of Once Upon a Time in China
In one of the recurring gags of ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA, attempts to take Wong Fei Hung's picture always fail. The failure to capture the image of Wong (Jet Li) serves as an appropriate metaphor for the place of the Ching Dynasty folk hero in Chinese cultural memory. A legendary master of a variety of kung fu styles, Wong has been subject to numerous interpretations in dime novels and films since the 1930s. In the late 1970s an irreverent portrait of the young Wong Fei Hung emerged in DRUNKEN MASTER. In director Tsui Hark's hand, the beloved historical figure is given the full lionized treatment as he fights for dignity and self-determination against Western imperialists. A revisionist drama that recalls the struggle of the small-property owner fighting for her land in Sergio Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, Hark's epic is both a tragic and heroic examination of China's transition to modernity. Like the best of Hark's films (ZU: WARRIORS OF THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN), ONCE UPON A TIME contains imaginative fight sequences, including "no-shadow" kicks and a thrilling battle using bamboo ladders.
Details
| Language: | Cantonese, English |
| Country: | Hong Kong |
| Release date: | 21 May 1992 |
| Runtime: | 134 min |
Cast and Crew
as Wong Fei-hung
as Aunt Yee
Photos
Clips
Critics Reviews
TV Guide
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- by: Staff (Not credited)
