MOVIE · 1991

Once Upon a Time in China

ActionAdventureDrama134 min

Late-19th-century Canton is under pressure from foreign powers, and Jet Li is Wong Fei-hung, the martial arts master drawn from his school into a widening fight over China’s future. When Rosamund Kwan’s Aunt Yee returns from America with Western manners and ideas, Wong becomes both her protector and a reluctant witness to how quickly the old order is shifting. As his students and the local militia are pulled into clashes with foreign and local governments, the film threads nationalist upheaval, comic social friction, and intricate kung fu through a world where firearms and political force are changing the rules.