A martial arts film gene, eh?
Probably explains it...
Deadly China Hero is ridiculous, and oh so much fun. Totally irreverent and gonzo.
Up next...
Not so much a review, more of an essay on how this film changed my life.
Once Upon a Time in China - Dir. Tsui Hark
While I have enjoyed, and loved, many films throughout my life, there is one film that stands out because of the doors it opened for my cinematic journey. This film opened my eyes to a whole new way of looking at genre cinema, and led me to discover countless other films, directors, actors and filmmakers. It also opened my eyes to seeing, and appreciating, an entire country's cinematic output in a way I had never done before. This film is Tsui Hark's landmark martial arts epic, Once Upon a Time in China.
Being a child of the '80s, I grew up loving karate and ninjas. I've said it before, but it deserves repeating, the '80s were in fact the “just add ninja,” era, and ninjas were about the coolest things ever. G.I. Joe had two awesome ninjas (and we all loved G.I. Joe), and the home video retailers always had a plethora of cheaply made ninja movies ready to be consumed by our VCRs and mimicked on the playgrounds at school. I was also quite fond of Black Belt Theatre, my weekly escape into the kung fu genre that wowed me and entertained me for many years. I would watch, and wanted to watch, anything that had anything to do with ninjas and the martial arts – that's just the way it was, it was meant to be.
After the 1980s and the death of Black Belt Theatre, kung fu cinema, and ninja-cinema, kind of fell off of my radar. These, of course, were the dark days of home cinema – great foreign genre cinema was almost impossible to come by on VHS. That is until around 1993, when a young Blockbuster clerk pointed me in the direction of a local Asian-video retailer called 5-Star Video, and I discovered Once Upon a Time, Jet Li and Tsui Hark. Upon my first viewing, I had no idea what to expect, and I thought the film might offer up the same kind of cheesy revenge-narratives and hokey dubbing found in the kung fu films I devoured as a youngling. Well, I couldn't have been more wrong. My mind was fully blown – glowing from my television was a film that not only contained some of the best and most outrageous action I had ever seen (I'll never forget my first experience seeing Jet Li move), but the narrative on display was far more complex and involving than any other martial arts film I had seen up until this point.
Once Upon a Time is awash in political intrigue and civil unrest, and depicts Hong Kong during a time of great change and turmoil. It is a story of a great Chinese hero, Wong Fei Hong (Jet Li), and how this hero led the people of Hong Kong to stand up against the imperialistic western invasion of the British colonizers. The story told in this film opened my eyes to the true abilities of Hong Kong filmmakers. I mean, I knew they could make some highly entertaining martial arts films, but I just never expected to see a film offer up such a moving and epic narrative. This wasn't because I didn't think Hong Kong filmmakers were capable of making “real” movies, it was just because I never even knew to look past the caliber of films shown on Black Belt Theatre. For this I am most grateful, this film opened my eyes to a whole new way of looking at world-cinema, and also opened the doors that have led to a lifelong passion for Asian filmmakers.
From the moment the film was over, I knew I had to see more: I wanted more Tsui Hark, and more Jet Li, and, not to mention, more of this wicked wire-assisted action. From here my cinematic endeavors gravitated towards the films of Ching Siu Tung, Jackie Chan, Jing Wong, and Yeun Woo Ping, and films such as Butterfly and Sword, The Flying Daggers, New Dragon Gate Inn, and A Chinese Ghost Story. It was like discovering a whole new section at the video store – a section that happened to contain some of the greatest, most beautiful, most action packed, and amazing films I had ever seen. I truly felt alive, and like I had discovered some great cinematic secret-treasure. I became a young man on a mission, a mission to unearth as many of these films as possible – I dug through the dark and dusty shelves of video stores clearly on the wrong side of the tracks, and worked hard to gain the trust of the retail clerks who wanted nothing to do with a gweilo such as myself.
But alas, it was all worth it. All of the strange looks, and mispronounced titles and names, and all of the driving around looking for the next best flick – it was all for my passion. The seed for this passion may have, in fact, been planted with the help of Stormshadow, Snake Eyes, American Ninja, and Black Belt Theatre, but it was Tsui Hark and Jet Li who really fostered and nourished my love for Asian cinema. And because of this fact, I will always hold Once Upon a Time up in the highest regard. This film is my mythological herald, calling me on my journey to seek out, discover, and understand all of the great films from Hong Kong, China, Korea and Japan
