Hot Picks

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- Exteriors 2023

- Brotherly Lies 2022

- Pandemonium 2024

- All the Fires 2023

- Isleen Pines 2023

- I Was a Soldier 2024

- The Seductress from Hell 2024

- Dreaming of the Unholy 2024

- Part-Time Killer 2022

- Ruby's Choice 2022

- 6 Hours Away 2024

- Burnt Flowers 2024

- Final Heat 2024

- Stargazer 2023

- Max Beyond 2024

- What Is Buried Must Remain 2022

- Protanopia 2024

- Final Wager 2024

- Dagr 2024

- Hunting for the Hag 2024

- The Company Called Glitch That Nobody and Everybody Wanted 2024

- Coyote Cage 2023

- Tower Rats 2020

- Script of the Dead 2024

- The Bell Affair 2023

- Easter Bloody Easter 2024

- Velma 2022

- Everwinter Night 2023

- Main Character Energy 2023

- Stupid Games 2024

- Bittertooth 2023

- 4 Minutes of Terror: Night Slasher 2024

- Apart 2024

- The Abandoned 2006

- Becky 2024

- The Evil Fairy Queen 2024

- The Black Guelph 2022

- Followers 2024

- Silence of the Prey 2024

- Battle for the Western Front 2024

- Beware the Boogeyman 2024

- Subject 101 2022

- Driftwood 2023

- The Legend of Lake Hollow 2024

- Black Mass 2023

- Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2 2023

- The Manifestation 2024

- Spirit Riser 2024

- Garden of Souls 2019

- It's a Wonderful Slice 2024

- Caleb & Sarah 2024

- Pareidolia 2023

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

Once Upon a Time in China

Hong Kong 1991
produced by
Tsui Hark for Film Workshop/Golden Harvest
directed by Tsui Hark
starring Jet Li, Yuen Biao, Rosamund Kwan, Jacky Cheung, Steve Tartalia, Kent Cheng, Jonathan Isgar, Yen Shi-Kwan, Mark King, Yuen Kam-Fai, Shih Kien, Wu Ma, Bruce Fontaine, Wong Chi Yeung, Lau Shun, Yuen Shun-Yee, Sham Tsim Po, Simon Yam, Yuen Cheung-Yan, Tony Yuen, Mike Leeder
written by Tsui Hark, Leung Yiu Ming, Tang Pik-yin, Yuen Gai Chi, music by Romeo Diaz, James Wong, martial arts choreography by Yuen Woo-ping, Liu Chia Yung

Once Upon a Time in China, Wong Fei Hung, Wong Fei Hung (Jet Li)

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

Available on DVD!

To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned)

Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!


Flix.com

China, late 19th century: After the Black Flag Army has been disbanded, its former commander Wong Fei Hung (Jet Li) organizes its former soldiers into a militia to counter the threat of foreign imperialistic forces. The militia has its headquarters in Wong's own clinic.

Wannabe martial artist and actor Foon (Yuen Biao) comes to Wong's army to learn kung fu, but doesn't get far since the master is out. Anyways, he makes friends with Porky (Kent Cheng), one of Wong's right-hand man, and when Foon later falls foul of the gangsters of the Shaho clan, Porky organizes the militia to defend him - which eventually leads to most of the militia being arrested, the Shaho clan declaring war on Wong Fei Hung, and Wong's clinic being shut down, he being put under house arrest.

For whatever reason, Foon hooks up with master Iron Robe Yim (Yen Shi-kwan) and organizes a duel between Yim and Wong, in which Wong is defeated (not quite fairly though). And while Wong and his men are arrested in the process, Foon and Yim hook up with the Shaho Clan - but when Foon finds out the clan holds Wong's auntie Yee (Rosamund Kwan) prisoner to sell her into slavery or prostitution in America, he switches allegiances - even if that means that he gets brutally beaten up by Master Yim and the Shaho Clan.

In the meantime and rather unexpectedly, the local police has expressed its sympathy with Wong and his militia and they let them go free. Soon enough, Wong and the militia attack the Shaho Clans headquarters to free auntie Yee, give Master Yim what he was asking for and let Foon redeem himself ... and need I say all ends happily?

 


Flix.com

A tremendous hit in Hong Kong and subsequently all over the world, this film does feature exciting visuals and great martial arts sequences (especially the finale between Jet Li and Yen Shi-kwan fought mainly on letters is breathtaking) - but on the whole, it simply isn't a very good film. The main problem of Once Upon a Time in China is its script, which seems to be moving nowhere in particular and takes forever to set up surprisingly little. Likewise, subplots are thrown into the story at the least appropriate times, and all characters uniformly seem to lack motivation. Add to this lead Jet Li who might be a great martial artist but isn't much of an actor, and Tsui Hark's direction that seems to be uncertain whether it should turn the whole film into a comedy, and you are left with - well, a few ingenious setpieces, but very little to tie them together.

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find Once Upon a Time in China
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find Once Upon a Time in China here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai

Something naughty?
(Must be over 18 to go there!)

x-rated  find Once Upon a Time in China at adultvideouniverse.com


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!