Sightlines · reception
How Once Upon a Time in China was received
1991 · Tsui Hark · Once Upon a Time in China on Sightlines
The arc
A smash in Hong Kong in 1991, it single-handedly relaunched the Wong Fei-hung legend and set off the early-90s kung fu revival; long stuck in the West in dubbed, chopped video editions, it's since been fully canonized — Criterion boxed the whole series in 2021.
What’s debated
The eternal fan debate: is the original actually the peak, or does Part II (with the Donnie Yen showdown) outdo it — plus the purist grumble over wire-fu versus 'real' grounded kung fu.
Its footprint
The theme song 'A Man Should Better Himself' — James Wong's rework of the traditional tune 'General's Orders' — became shorthand for Wong Fei-hung across all of Chinese pop culture, and the ladder fight finale is one of the most referenced action set pieces in martial arts cinema.
Where it stands
A cornerstone of the Hong Kong canon and the standard 'start here' answer for anyone getting into Jet Li or 90s kung fu cinema.
Did you know? Tsui Hark was reviving an already record-setting icon: Kwan Tak-hing had played Wong Fei-hung in roughly 77 films from the 1940s onward, making the character one of the most-portrayed heroes in movie history before Jet Li ever put on the robe.