Every Once Upon A Time Movie Ranked Worst To Best

The adventures of nineteenth-century Cantonese folk hero Wong Fei-hung has been the source of countless popular movies from the Shaw Brothers' Challenge Of The Masters in the 70s to Jackie Chan's Drunken Master to Iron Monkey in the 90s, not to mention this six-film series starring Jet Li.

As with other films to adopt the Once Upon A Time moniker, Once Upon A Time In China and its director Tsui Hark sought to use a genre film to make wider commentary on the country's past and identity.

In this case the story of Wong as a young man in the 1870s takes in themes of European colonialism, and the Westernisation and modernisation of China struggling against the country's traditions and old values.

Of course, what people are really here for, though, is martial arts spectacle and Once Upon A Time In China certainly delivers there. Li was a surprise choice to play the Cantonese hero, coming from a different part of China and not speaking much of the language, but he cemented his status as a martial arts icon with the physicality of the fight scenes.

Hark's decision to construct the action via slick editing and lots of fast cuts rather than long takes proved enormously influential in a faster style of action movie, with the first Once Upon A Time In China helping to kickstart a renaissance in Hong Kong martial arts movies following its release in 1991.