It's often been noted (and sometimes I agree) that Tsui Hark really reached his cinematic peak in the mid-1980s with 'Peking Opera Blues'.

It wasn't until the first installment of the Wong Fei-hong epics, 'Once Upon a Time in China' that his resurgence was commercially recongised. The sequal to that groundbreaking film is equally impressive and in many ways overcomes the faults of the first.

Whilst the plot itself is entirely fantastical in format, giving much credence to the 'Once Upon a Time' section of the title (it manages to merge Wong Fei-hong, Sun Yat-sen and the White Lotus cult into one period), the narrative remains smooth and involving. This is largely assisted by the superbly choreographed action sequences (from nouveu-action master, Yuen Wo-ping) and the simmering romance between the lead charcters.

The narrative bears strong markers of Tsui's style, specifically his ambivalent attitude to obsession, dominance and paranoia. threatening mechanisms of politics lurk continously in the text's background, where only Wong and Sun Yat-sen emerge as rational and restorative figures.

The focus on anti-foreignism and persecution of differences (specifically through the White Lotus cult which Wong exposes) reflects ambivalence in the lead up to 1997-handover and negotiates a local identity (Wong was a Cantonese folk hero who is strongly embraced and identified by modern Hong Kongese).

The combination of action sequences and Tsui's kinetic style (the use of alleyways and structures is noteworthy) create an intense movie which is both compelling and reflective.