Once Upon a Time in China and America (1997)
Reviewed by: Arshadnm6 on 2005-04-21
Summary: Jet Li returns to take his title of 'Wong Fei Hung' once again!!
Jet Li’s long overdue return to the Wong Fei Hung Saga, embraces HK Cinema with the entertaining and flamboyant ‘Once Upon a Time in China and America’. Note: That since the whole movie is based in America, it should have been named ‘Once Upon a Time in America’, unfortunately the title was already spoken for thanks to Steven Spielberg, so Sammo Hung (director) had little choice.

The basic plot is that Wong Fei Hung travels with Aunt Yee (Rosamund Kwan), and Club Foot (Xiong Xin-Xin) to America to begin a new life and start a ‘Po-Chi Lam Health Clinic’ with his apprentice Buck Tooth Sol (played by Chan Kwok-Bong). Along the way they meet up with a righteous gun slinger named Billy (possibly the American version of Billy the Kid, who knows??). Anyway things go awry when a Red Indian Mohican tribe attacks their carriage and during the fight Wong Fei Hung falls into the river and hits his head against one of the boulders. Aunt Yee and Club Foot meet up with Sol and decide to go look for Wong Fei Hung hoping he is still alive. Meanwhile Wong Fei Hung loses his memory and falls in with a Native American Tribe. Eventually Aunt Yee and Club Foot find Wong Fei Hung and try to resurrect his memory. Eventually things get back to normal about half-way into the film, but the local sheriff, the Mayor and some of the local thugs are plotting to rob the bank and put the blame on the Po-Chi Lam Health Clinic. Will Wong Fei Hung, Club Foot and Billy prevail and save Po-Chi Lam and bring the real culprits to justice?

The whole blend of countryside scenery and desert land is just what was needed to bring something new to the ‘Once Upon a Time in China’ series. The action is well choreographed and the fight scenes, although few, have been given some length of time with plenty of stunt work and few wire tricks. The mixture of gun blazing encounters with kung fu are a reminiscence of the predecessor (OUATIC5), but the only difference is that Sammo Hung had an excuse to use this initiative, you can’t have cowboys without any guns that would be plain silly. The entire storyline seems geared up towards finding a bad guy to beat up in the second hour of the movie. Eventually when the bad guys turn up in the last 15 minutes of the movie, the obvious Red Indian bad guy, whom seems to be leading the troupe, miraculously knows semi decent kung-fu, which requires some suspension of disbelieve but not enough to make the film any less than enjoyable.

The whole structure of the storyline is water-thin, which was a big surprise, considering Sammo Hung and Tsui Hark (taking the role of producer once again) were involved in the production. At least Jet Li’s presence and charisma did some good to uplift the movie. Although Zhao Wen Zhou is bitterly missed (since his appearance in OUATIC4 and 5), there is no question to whom the role of Wong Fei Hung should really belong to, namely Jet Li.

Overall there is very little that impresses, and Aunt Yee and Club Foot do get some decent screen time but the saga which began in China, should really have ended in China. Billy, the gun slinger, acts like a free-lance cowboy / vagabond most of the time he is in the picture, which gives him little, if any, integrity or sympathy for the loner that he is. Also the setting of the No-Mans Land ambiance does little credit to Tsui Harks producing abilities, since the need for a grand Po Chi Lam Health Clinic in the middle of a remote village, with a probable population of less than 100, seems vulgar at best.

Overall Rating: 7.8/10