Once Upon a Time in China didn't simply give Jet Li another martial arts role. It gave him one of the defining characters of his career. Director Tsui Hark reimagined legendary martial artist Wong Fei-hung against a China struggling with foreign influence, technological change and the collision between tradition and modernity. Jet Li's extraordinary physical ability provides the spectacle, but his restrained performance gives Wong the dignity and moral authority the character needs. The result is martial arts cinema on an epic scale — history, comedy, romance and extraordinary fight choreography wrapped around a hero trying to understand whether protecting tradition means refusing to change. Criterion credits the film with cementing Jet Li's position as the leading martial-arts star of his generation, while the Hong Kong Film Archive places it within the long cinematic reinvention of Wong Fei-hung.
The Story
Inside The Fight
As foreign powers expand their influence over late Qing dynasty China, martial arts master and physician Wong Fei-hung finds himself caught between defending the traditions he values and confronting a world rapidly changing around him. With violence growing in the streets and local criminals exploiting the uncertainty, Wong must protect his students and community while facing opponents who challenge more than his fighting ability. At the same time, his relationship with Thirteenth Aunt exposes him to Western ideas and technology that complicate his instinct to preserve the old ways.
THE MASTER
Jet Li Made Wong Fei-hung His Own
Jackie Chan had already played a young Wong Fei-hung in Drunken Master. Decades before either man, Kwan Tak-hing had made the character a fixture of Hong Kong cinema.
Jet Li therefore wasn't stepping into an empty pair of shoes.
What makes his performance work is that he doesn't try to erase what came before.
His Wong is disciplined, principled, and extraordinarily capable, but he's also a man discovering that physical mastery can't answer every problem confronting his country.
Li's speed makes the fights spectacular.
His restraint makes Wong Fei-hung a character.
The Hong Kong Film Archive particularly highlights the combination of Wong's traditional Confucian values and his uncertainty toward Western culture and technological change.
A CHANGING WORLD
This Is A Fighting Movie About More Than Fighting
The punches and kicks are only one part of the conflict.
Wong is living through a world in transition. Foreign influence is increasing, traditional structures are being challenged and technology is changing what power looks like.
That gives the film an unusually interesting question for a martial arts epic:
What happens when being the best fighter in the room is no longer enough?
Wong can defeat another martial artist.
A fist is considerably less useful against a gun.
Tsui Hark repeatedly places those two worlds side by side, allowing the action to become part of a much larger story about identity and change. HKFA describes the film's late-Qing setting specifically in terms of unrest and vulnerability to Western aggression.
THIRTEENTH AUNT
Rosamund Kwan Represents The World Wong Doesn't Understand Yet
Thirteenth Aunt isn't simply there to provide Wong with a romantic subplot.
She's connected to the very change that makes him uncomfortable.
Her familiarity with Western customs and technology puts her somewhere between the traditional world Wong understands and the modern one arriving around him.
That makes their relationship much more interesting than a straightforward romance.
Wong's feelings for her force him to confront ideas that discipline or martial arts can't solve.
The Hong Kong Film Archive similarly identifies Thirteenth Aunt as both Wong's love interest and an influence pushing him toward accepting change and modernity.
THE SHOWDOWN
The Ladder Fight Is Martial Arts Choreography At Its Best
Then we get to the ladders.
Wong's climactic confrontation with Iron Robe Yim turns an ordinary warehouse into an enormous martial arts playground.
Ladders become platforms, obstacles and weapons. Height constantly changes. Balance becomes as important as power.
It's exactly the kind of sequence that demonstrates why great fight choreography is about far more than two performers exchanging techniques.
The environment becomes part of the fight.
HKFA calls the bamboo-ladder showdown a fight “for the history books,” highlighting Jet Li's physical skill, Tsui Hark's staging, and the film's action choreography.
THE LEGACY
Once Upon a Time in China Started A New Martial Arts Era
Wong Fei-hung had already been appearing on cinema screens for decades.
Once Upon a Time in China made him feel new again.
The Hong Kong Film Archive traces Wong Fei-hung films back to 1949 and describes Tsui Hark's early-'90s revival as another major phase in the character's extraordinary screen history.
For Jet Li, the effect was equally significant.
His combination of speed, precision and composure made him perfectly suited to this version of Wong, and the role became inseparable from his rise as one of the defining martial arts stars of the 1990s.
The film didn't discard the traditions of kung fu cinema.
It took them into a new decade.
Fighting Cast
In The Corner
““Once Upon a Time in China made Jet Li's speed spectacular, but it was the dignity he brought to Wong Fei-hung that made the character unforgettable.””