Once Upon a Time In China Series - The Jet Li Era

[Righteous Master]

Hey everyone, I just finished watching some Once Upon a Time In China flicks and Thought I might ask my fellow Jet Li/MA fans which film in the Once Upon a Time in China series was their personal favorite. Please only include the films in which Jet Li was featured in.

Once Upon a Time In China

Once Upon a Time In China 2

Once Upon a Time In China 3

Once Upon a Time In China And America

[Graeme Noble]

Part 2 contains the best fighting - no doubt about it. I love the group fights and both staff fights between Jet and Donnie are fantastic.

Part 1 is also good but Yuen Biao is wasted and it drags a little.

Part 3 and America are both mediocre and not as good as the originals.

Maybe you should have included the Wong Jing movie, Last Hero In China starring Jet and Gordon Liu - it is kind of part of the series and it is better than parts 3 and America.

[Guest Yi-Long]

I'm not a huge fan of the series, as for me, WFH is a pretty boring character. I much prefer the character of Fong Sai Yuk, as played by Willie Chi or something, in Burning Paradise.

But OUATIC 1 and 2 are the 2 best movies in the series. Yuen Biao is wasted in the first and I'm disappointed that Donnie and Jet didnt have a fight without weapons in the 2nd movie. To me, both 1 and 2 are equally good.

[Graeme Noble]

I think another WFH movie people should check out is 'Martial Arts Master Wong Fei Hung' starring Chin Kar Lok and Lam Ching Ying.

I uploaded the end fight of this one onto youtube,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttQA2ISMC5E

[AlbertV]

I have to agree on Part 2. It clearly has the best fights of the film, including the duels between Jet and Donnie, plus it is nice to see David Chiang in the film as well.

[Morgoth Bauglir]

I prefer part 1 in ever single area.

[Sifu]

Both 1 and 2 are far superior than 3. After seeing 3 I was quite dissapointed! Yuen Bun did a mediocre job on the choreography. And quite frankly 4-6 don't even show up on the radar for me

2 was excellent, I loved Donnie Yen, and even though I was thrilled with how he dies it was well worth waiting for the climax. It also had some of the greatest staff fighting ever.

One of my favorite facets of the series is the theme, the Wong Fei Hung theme (aka "The General's Mandate"), it always gets stuck in my head. Yet, I still own 4 different versions of it!

[Milkyway]

Part 2 - Woo Ping's choreography, coupled with masterful skills of both Jet and Donnie, is truly astonishing! plus the movie was more even and better directed than the original.

Part 1 - has some great moments (including Yam Sai Kwoon fighting Yuen Cheung Yan) but as a whole had less impact action and story/acting-wise that part 2 had.

[Righteous Master]

I think I would have to agree with you guys. Part 2 is great. The MA scenes between Jet and Donnie are great. I also agree that Jet and Don should have fought with and without weapons.

BTW- Thank you, Graeme for suggesting Last Hero In China. I will check that one out for sure.

[Morgoth Bauglir]

To me the best fight in the series is the ladder fight in part 1. And that fight in the rain is somethign special. The 2 best acting performances in the series I have to give to part 1. Jet and Yen Shi Kwan are amazing. Yuen Biao is kind of wasted, but so what? Overall it is a great movie, and the story is superb. It doesn't have some injected plot like that White Lotus Cult. The story in part 1 is very well told, and part 2 is just a mess.

Last Hero in China is good, but it needs to be seen with the English dub.

[Righteous Master]

I can't say for sure which version I prefer. The English dubbed or English subtitles. If you watch the first in the series with English dubs you miss the first few minutes of the movie which has Jet saving the dragon costume from touching the ground (or the floor of the ship)which is seen as disgraceful and a bad omen during a dragon dance of this kind.

I am not sure if any of the other movies in the series lose any of their original content with English dubs enabled. Does anyone else know if this is the case?

[Guest LoBo]

I like the first one best.

________

Mercedes-Benz C291

[Morgoth Bauglir]

I can't say for sure which version I prefer. The English dubbed or English subtitles. If you watch the first in the series with English dubs you miss the first few minutes of the movie which has Jet saving the dragon costume from touching the ground (or the floor of the ship)which is seen as disgraceful and a bad omen during a dragon dance of this kind.

I am not sure if any of the other movies in the series lose any of their original content with English dubs enabled. Does anyone else know if this is the case?

OUATIC part 1 is heavily cut if you watch it with the English dub, and the voice acting is horrible. The oriinal language version is FAR superior.

Last Hero in China you have to see it with the English dub. It is much more funny than the original language version. The movie is already hilarious, but the English dub will have you laughing so hard you will be crying. It all has to do with the voice acting.

[The Dragon]

OUATIC II is a very good movie, and it could stand alone from the other films...

In part I, Jet was injured and was doubled by Hung Yin Yin most of the time:mad:! I hated the fact they didn't even mask it well.

There's no flow to the fights because half the time he's not fighting.

Part III was seemingly rushed together for a quick buck. You cannot have a film surrounding Lion's dances unless you're Lau Kar Liang, who understands how to keep the Martial essence in the story.

Part II is carried by the electrifying performances of Donnie and Jet. The are so charismatic when squaring off against one another, it's reminescent of Lee and Norris.

[Righteous Master]

I agree with that opinion. Jet and Donnie work very well together. Hopefully they will make more films in which they fight eachother. Fighting together would not be bad either.

[Sifu]

Part II is carried by the electrifying performances of Donnie and Jet. The are so charismatic when squaring off against one another, it's reminescent of Lee and Norris.

I don't know about that, but I will say that I felt that it was very intense and it just came down to them, and only them!

Number III just had fights with groups of people, hardly any one on one And yet I somewhat enjoyed it. The series never faultered much under Tsui Hark's direction.

[The Dragon]

I don't know about that, but I will say that I felt that it was very intense and it just came down to them, and only them!

Man, you like breakin' balls down you? Just remember, your comments aren't the only ones people log on to read... Just think about that... SFB's!

[Sifu]

What're you talkin about, I mean that the film came to the two of them fighting at the end Sorry for the misunderstanding.

By the way, I'm not tryin to start stuff. Honestly. but to complete a quote put "

[TheGrimReaper]

I've put my vote for the part II of the series - because of the fights Part I is getting the silver medal (for being the first of the series), then comes Last hero in China - a hillarious effort, Part III comes on the same level as Martial arts hero Wong Fei Hung - both of them I find low class, as for Once upon a time in China and America - haven't seen this one...

[FrankBolte]

and in all those movies WFH never uses hung gar,the kung fu style that hes famous for...I like part 1 best..

But the best WFH movies are

challenge of the masters and

martial club

[daisho2004]

Hands down I thought pt.#2 was the best, the fight between Jet & Donnie was Awesome. Overall they are all very good.

[Sifu]

I think OUATIC II was one of the near perfect Wire-Fu films. The only one from this period that tops this film in my mind is Iron Monnkey. But that's just because the balance of action, comedy, and drama was perfect. The scale was obviously much smaller in scale.

[gravedigger666]

"America" unseen(hardly I miss anything?),3 is worst.No proper end fight and movie is teh bore anyway.I do not care 2 that much either but #1 is Great:)

[Morgoth Bauglir]

You missed a great performance from Clubfoot in part 6 (America). Not too much else to speak of though.

[Sifu]

You missed a great performance from Clubfoot in part 6 (America).

His character evolved so much from the third film! He almost kills Wong Kei Ying in OUATIC II for god's sake.