Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Once Upon a Time in China II Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 25, 2020

Note: This film is available as part of Once Upon a Time in China Trilogy.

The Once Upon a Time in China franchise is regularly cited as having kickstarted the weirdly dormant martial arts film genre in the Asian market, but it’s also arguable that the series helped to foster another element of “eastern” cinema that is not necessarily relegated only to China (Korean films also come to mind in this regard): a kind of “rah rah” jingoism that seeks to exploit national identity while also perhaps hinting, none too subliminally at times, that the “natives” (Chinese or otherwise) may be just a bit smarter than some of the interlopers. Once Upon a Time in China appeared in 1991, helping to catapult Jet Li to superstar status, and continuing an even by then decades long tradition of crafting entertainments around the adventures (typically “fictionalized” if not outright fiction) of real life Chinese martial arts master and folk medicine healer Wong Fei-hung. Wong lived from around 1847 to 1925, but it didn’t take long for a rather gargantuan mythos to be built up around the character, so much so that by the late forties, Wong was an immensely popular character in Hong Kong films. Kwan Tak-hing made a veritable career out of playing Wong, appearing in some 70 films about the character, and there are several rather well remembered films about Wong that came out as Kwan was winding down from playing Wong (incredibly, the actor continued the role from the 1940s to the 1980s, earning a place in the Guinness Book of World Records in the process). These include the Shaw Brothers’ Challenge of the Masters, Drunken Master with Jackie Chan, and the relatively recent Rise of the Legend. The Once Upon a Time in China films offer some typical martial arts frenzies, but the films are also quite notable for how they portray a nascent nation defending itself from outside influences, and creating its own identity in the process.

It's probably salient to note that it took Tsui Hark, Jet Li and the assembled multitudes less than a year after Once Upon a Time in China premiered to offer audiences a sequel, and the good news is that in this particular case, haste did not make waste. As with the first film, Once Upon a Time in China II manages to support all three legs of its particular stool, meaning that the film traverses content that includes Wong's mastery of both martial arts and folk medicine (two legs), as well as offering more cogent commentary on the perceived plight of a nascent Chinese nation trying to come to terms with the increased intrusion of outside powers.

Jet Li is of course back on hand as Wong Fei-hung, but in what even Donnie Yen admits was probably a bit of "stunt casting", Yen himself is here as one of Wong's nemeses, a Chinese official named Nap-lan Yun-seut, though rather interestingly it's at least arguable that the film presents some Chinese cultists as chief antagonists and perhaps even outright villains. The film offers a lot of quasi-"palace intrigue" as revolutionaries and counter-revolutionaries spar to decide what the emerging Chinese nation will be like.

This first sequel perhaps has less of the sometimes cheeky comedy that informs some of the other films in this series (though there is definitely some pretty lowbrow slapstick here, mostly courtesy of Max Mok's Leung Foon character), and its political subtext is probably among the most overt of the franchise. Once again, some of the action set pieces are spectacularly staged, and Tsui Hark keeps the pace brisk and even breathless at times.

Once Upon a Time in China II Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Once Upon a Time in China II is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka! Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Eureka! provided only check discs for the purposes of this review, and so I'm not privy to any verbiage about the transfers that might be included in an insert booklet, but Eureka!'s site states that the transfers of the first three films in this set are culled from new 4K restorations. As I mentioned in the Once Upon a Time in China Blu-ray review, I found the transfer of the first film to be marginally less consistent than the next two, and so my scores reflect that, though that said, our scores can only account for so much, and in that regard, I'd rate this film as better looking than the first, but perhaps doesn't offer the same levels of saturation that the third film does. This has the same kind of yellowish qualities that I mentioned with regard to the first film, but probably not to the same extent, though once again if you look, for example, at the Golden Harvest masthead, blacks don't seem especially deep and there's a kind of hazy undertone to subsequent proceedings. Speaking of hazy, this is another Tsui Hark film that is filled with an almost comical amount of haze and mist drifting through various shots, stylistic choices that, along with other aspects like skewed perspectives and fish eye lenses, can lend at least the perception of softness to certain moments. That said, there are very nice detail levels evident throughout this presentation, and some moments, like a late extreme close-up of Yen's face or even later the kind of weird feather adorning a hat he wears, provide substantial fine detail levels. Outdoor material pops extremely well in this transfer, with some bright and vivid primaries. I'm giving this an official score of 4.5, at least in part to indicate I felt this looks better than the first film, but especially in terms of palette saturation, I'd probably score this closer to 4.25.

Once Upon a Time in China II Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Once Upon a Time in China II features the same array of audio options as the first film, with Cantonese tracks in LPCM 1.0 and 2.0, a Mandarin track in LPCM 2.0, and an English dub in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. I found the English dub even less convincing than on the first film, with some pretty anemic amplitude and an overall boxy and kind of oddly reverberent sound. The mono and stereo tracks all sounded fine to me, though as with the first film, there are some kind of interesting differences in the mix. The Mandarin track sounds like it either has different effects, or at least a different mix, with some effects sounding considerably brighter on that track than on either Cantonese track. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout, and I heard no signs of age related wear and tear.

Once Upon a Time in China II Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary by Mike Leeder and Arne Venema


• Mike Miller: Memories of Once Upon a Time in China II (HD; 51:11) is an appealing sit down with Miller, who goes into some biographical detail, discussing how he became interested in martial arts and how that led to his career.


• The Legend of Wong Fei-hung II (HD; 15:32) continues with the second part of the three part series about the real life Wong, and includes a look at some of the history of Hong Kong and how some bullying by gangs moved Wong to take action.


• An Audience with Jet Li (HD; 10:53) was shot during a UK promotional tour for Romeo Must Die.


• Interview with Donnie Yen (HD; 16:28) is an archival piece with Yen, who discusses how Once Upon a Time in China made Jet Li an instant superstar, and how that made a team up between Donnie and Jet a martial arts "must see".


• Original Theatrical Trailer (HD; 3:08)

Eureka! only provided check discs for the purposes of this review, and so I don't have access to any packaging or non disc swag. Eureka!'s website indicates this is another rather handsomely packaged release with insert booklets and exclusive essays.

Once Upon a Time in China II Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The political aspect of Once Upon a Time in China II may provide this film with a bit more drama than some of the other films in this franchise, but Tsui Hark obviously knew what audiences were coming to this sequel for, and so this film, unlike its immediate predecessor, pushes action to the forefront a lot of the time. Jet Li is once again a commanding presence, and he's well matched by Yen. Technical merits are generally solid, and the supplementary package very appealing. Recommended.