A masterpiece!

Rating: 9/10 (8 November 2000)

Do you remember the feeling you had when you first saw Once Upon a Time in China? You knew you'd just watched something pretty special. I felt the same about CTHD. I'm going to write this without including any spoilers, so apologies if something doesn't make sense. It will do when you see the film!
Firstly, this is a film that breaks a lot of conventions. Just when you think you know what is going to happen, it does something different. Characteristically of director Ang Lee, it is the female characters who are the strongest. Michelle Yeoh is, as you would expect from her, excellent both in terms of acting performance and her martial arts. But the star of the film is Zhang Zi Yi who I regret I know nothing about, who shows amazing speed and agility and takes her role suitably seriously especially in some of the sequences that are direct homages to genre cliches. And she's cute too! Chow Yun Fat once again puts in a sterling performance, given that he is not a martial artist, he didn't look out of place wielding a sword, although I thought one or two shots might have been over cranked. In a couple of his previous films he has looked a bit out of place when it comes to fight scenes, but here he was fine. Shows what a versatile actor he really is.
The fight choreography is by Yuen Woo Ping, so you know it's going to be good. Most of the fights are fairly stylised, lots of large sweeping moves and stances and all incredibly fast. There is a lot of wire work of which I'm not a fan, but it's used to give the fights more of a ballet type feel and didn't detract from them at all. The film has a steady sense of humour and keeps it up all the way through, which included interrupting one of the fight sequences with one of the best gags in the picture.
Downsides? Well a couple. Stylistically, the film can't decide whether to be shot in a Western of Chinese style, so there is a bit of both which seemed to me like a compromise. Whilst most of the fights are done in wide shot, there were some sequences done in close up which was even more annoying than usual because they were back to back with the wide shots. I also thought the exposition in the middle giving Zhang Zi Yi some back story was too long, the point this was making could have been done in a far shorter time.
I must say a word about the extras. One of the things I always love about some of the old Shaw Brothers films is the fantastic faces you get on some of the extras. CTHD has some of the best extras I have ever seen. Loads of big, mean looking thugs with strange beards or moustaches carrying huge, weird and wonderful weapons. It really adds a great deal to the character of the film.
The audience I was with loved the film, cheering and clapping during the fight scenes and in all the right places. There were unfortunately a couple of bits of unintentional laughter but I suppose that is to be expected. Because this film was made for a Western audience as well as an Eastern one, the subtitling is excellent, always clear and readable and making complete sense. Those of you who haven't seen this film are in for a real treat. I just can't wait for a chance to see it again.