Once Upon a Time in China

Director: Tsui Hark

1991 / 134min / DCP

No one wields a ’Scope frame with quite the same flexibility and dynamism as Hark, and the spectacular, Sergio Leone–inspired Once Upon a Time in China—perhaps the crucial film of the 1990s wuxia revival—shows Hark at his most flamboyant, keeping up with the human whirlwind that is Jet Li, here in the role of physician, martial artist, and 19th-century Cantonese folk hero Wong Fei-hung, who’s pitted against unscrupulous gangsters, human traffickers from the West, and his inconvenient feelings for “13th Aunt” Rosamund Kwan. Showstopping set pieces come fast and furious en route to a shoot-the-works shipboard finale; a monumental work of kinetic cinema.

Distributor: Janus Films

Part of Don't Play with Fire: The Films of Tsui Hark