6.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Hong Kong action comes West as Wong Fei-hung does battle with cowboys and Indians.
Starring: Jet Li, Rosamund Kwan, Richard Ng, Xin Xin Xiong, Jeff WolfeForeign | 100% |
Action | 30% |
History | 8% |
Western | 4% |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Cantonese: LPCM Mono
Mandarin: LPCM 2.0
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region B (A, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
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.
Once Upon a Time in China and America is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka! Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. As mentioned in the reviews of the previous entries in this series, Eureka! only provided check discs and so I'm not privy to any verbiage that may be in insert booklets, but in this case their website isn't very helpful, either. The site states that the first three films were culled from new 4K restorations, but only states that this entry is in "HD", while Fortune Star is evidently on record stating that this stems from a 2K remaster. This transfer offers a really nicely natural looking palette, one which is admittedly not as generally colorful as Once Upon a Time in China III Blu- ray review, but one which still pops with considerable authenticity in a lot of the outdoor material in this film. Director Sammo Hung doesn't tend to offer as many stylistic quirks as Tsui Hark did in the first three films, but that may actually redound to the benefit of general and especially fine detail levels, since a more stationary camera, often framed for midrange and close-up shots, can offer more "breathing room" to actually take in everything. While things are in no way "waxy" here, this has a somewhat processed look that is a bit processed and video-like at times. Again, I'm constrained by how the site lets us score things, but I'd probably pump this up to a 3.75 if I were able to.
Once Upon a Time in China and America follows its immediate predecessor's audio options on Blu-ray by offering Cantonese LPCM Mono, Mandarin LPCM 2.0, and English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks. This was my favorite of all the surround tracks in this set, and it's helped somewhat by the fact that there's so much English being spoken (even the Chinese language tracks feature English at times). The wild west setting offers good opportunities for nicely placed ambient environmental effects, and some of the interesting scoring in this film also resides regularly in the surround channels. The Cantonese and Mandarin tracks do offer a few variances aside from language. A lot of the sound effects are generally more reverberent in the stereo track (listen, for example, to the horses galloping early in the film, toggling between the tracks, for an idea of some of the differences that can be heard). Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly throughout all three presentations.
I've mentioned in some other reviews that the heirs and assigns of notable figures like Wong Fei-hung and/or Ip Man had better be receiving some substantial licensing fees for these filmmakers' often fanciful accounts of their famed ancestors' supposed adventures. Once Upon a Time in China and America is so patently silly on its (warpainted) face that it's hard to take any of it seriously, but that may at least also prevent it from seeming overly objectionable even to the so-called "PC police". Technical merits are solid for those considering a purchase.
(Still not reliable for this title)
黃飛鴻之三獅王爭霸 / Wong fei hung III: Si wong jaang ba | Eureka Classics
1993
黃飛鴻之二男兒當自強 / Wong fei hung II: Nam yee tung chi keung | Eureka Classics
1992
黃飛鴻 / Wong fei hung | Eureka Classics
1991
猩猩王 / Xīng xīng wáng | 88 Asia Collection #6
1977
A計劃 / A gai wak / Eureka Classics
1983
沓掛時次郎 遊侠一匹 / Kutsukake Tokijirō - yūkyō ippiki | Limited Edition
1966
Due once di piombo
1966
Le colt cantarono la morte e fu... tempo di massacro / The Brute and the Beast
1966
Il ritorno di Ringo / Blood at Sundown
1965
冒險王 / Mo him wong | Eureka Classics
1996
少林功夫 / Shao Lin gong fu
1974
5 Masters of Death / Shao Lin wu zu / 少林五祖
1974
Limited Collector's Edition
1966
Bai yu lao hu | 白玉老虎 | 2K Restoration
1977
Palace Carnage / Can ku da ci sha / Qing gong da ci sha / 清宮大刺殺 / 88 Asia Collection #36 / Slipcover in Original Pressing
1978
C'č Sartana... vendi la pistola e comprati la bara! / A Fistful of Lead
1970
Una nuvola di polvere... un grido di morte... arriva Sartana / Gunman in Town
1970
Dŕng Kňu Fēng Yún / 荡寇风云
2017
Texas, addio
1966
1970