Hacker Cinema
Once Upon a Time in China
黃飛鴻
1991 · Film · 133 min
Directed by Tsui Hark
In late 19th-century Canton, legendary hero Wong Fei-Hung battles foreign forces' (English, French and American) plundering of China. When Aunt Yee returns from America totally westernised, Wong assumes the role of protector. This proves difficult when his martial arts school and local militia become involved in fierce battles with foreign and local governments. As violence escalates, even Aunt Yee has to question her new western ideals, but is it possible to fight guns with Kung Fu?
2 positivefrom 2 commenters
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2 comments on Hacker News
"High brow" is generally not what you'll get in Hong Kong cinema. The director Wong Kar Wai comes to mind, but I'm not sure if any of his movies are set in the Opium War or hand-off eras.
For those eras, Once Upon a Time in China is pretty iconic to me.
Hmm. I know that propaganda and originality don't go well together, but strangely I've always felt that Chinese cinema got it right. I may be biased as I come from an Asian family. For sure they're different from Western cinema, most notably it's usually less cynical and multifaceted, and more linear and nationalistic. But there's such an adventurous spirit (those martial arts sequences help!) that I can look past all that. Perhaps because I'm Asian too, those anti-colonial sentiments are also more easily related.
But I don't know, maybe their creative machine really is running out of steam. I haven't really watch much recently (currently on a Scandi kick!) But I do recommend you to explore the classics like Once Upon a Time in China and Infernal Affairs.