Once Upon a Time in China (DVD, 2001)

First of all, the movie: let me start off by saying that you should not try to compare this movie to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" anymore than you can compare the 1920s movie "The Lost World" to the modern, Spielberg-directed and CGI-enhanced "Lost World." And while some of you may say that in the latter example there was a much greater time gap between the movies, my point is that Hong Kong cinema has gone through drastic changes over the past decade, with many of the current crop of movies sporting high production values--"Storm Riders", released a couple of years ago, was one of the first (if not THE first) HK movies to use Hollywood-quality special effects and CGI, and many subsequent movies have tried to follow suit (e.g., "The Duel", "Man Called Hero"). In contrast, "Once Upon a Time in China" was made on a much, much smaller budget, but is generally considered a classic martial arts movie, and the one that not only propelled Jet Li to stardom, but also revived a genre that had long gone stagnant.

Personally, I believe that this is one of Jet Li's best movies (I've seen them all), especially if you're looking for a movie which best showcases his terrific martial arts ability. In this movie he plays Wong Fei Hong, a Chinese folk hero who has been depicted in hundreds of movies by dozens of actors, but by Jet Li for the first time. He is joined by a well-known Hong Kong cast (e.g., Rosamund Kwan, Yuen Biao, etc.).

The DVD: no, the video image is not of five-star quality, but I don't see why so many people are complaining. I've seen at least 50-70 Hong Kong DVDs over the past year, and most of the time the quality is poor to mediocre at best. Here we have an American release which may not measure up to current releases like Fight Club or Toy Story, but which is still head and shoulders above its Hong Kong counterparts (most of which are still much more expensive to acquire). Yes, the sound is in 2.0, but it's the visuals (e.g., fight scenes) that are the center of this film, not the audio. And there is a dubbed English track for those who resist reading subtitles (I've never listened to it, though, as I hate watching poorly-dubbed movies more than I hate reading subtitles). Plus, since this is an American release, the subtitles are much, much better than most you'll find in your average HK DVD.

But perhaps the best feature of the DVD is the commentary by martial artist and HK film expert Ric Meyers. Some critics have complained in the past that this movie can be inaccessible to viewers not familiar with (1) Hong Kong movies, or (2) Chinese history. Ric Meyers does an excellent job of guiding the viewer through the movie, explaining some of the smaller details like (1) the purpose of the Lion Dance at the beginning of the movie, or (2) the importance of the "queue" (spelling?), which is the Chinese male's pony-tail. These are all significant to the movie and their respective scenes, but can be all-too-easily lost on the average american viewer. Plus, Mr. Meyers provides some good background information on the actors and their characters.

In sum, this is a good DVD of a classic HK movie at an exceptional price. I believe it's the perfect introduction to HK cinema, as it has probably THE leading HK actor (Jet Li) playing the most famous movie figure in HK cinema (Wong Fei Hong) and is directed by one of HK's most famous directors (Tsui Hark). Add to this the very informative commentary track, and you can't go wrong.