# Once Upon a Time in China (黄飞鸿)
**Once Upon a Time in China** (黄飞鸿) is a 1991 Hong Kong martial arts film directed, produced, and co-written by [Tsui Hark](https://www.edgepedia.org/tsui-hark), starring [Jet Li](https://www.edgepedia.org/jet-li) as the [Cantonese](https://www.edgepedia.org/cantonese) folk hero and historical martial artist Wong Fei-hung. Set in Canton in the late Qing dynasty, it follows Wong as he defends his martial arts school and militia against corrupt officials, local gangsters, foreign interests, and a rival fighter, while confronting the encroachment of Western powers and technology[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/2024/martial/pe-event-2024-martial-fs-film13.html) • [2](https://www.netflix.com/tw/title/17078070). The film revitalized the kung fu genre, made Jet Li an international star, and launched a series that ran to 1997[3](https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3282747/all-10-once-upon-time-china-movies-and-rip-offs-rated).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title / release | 黄飞鸿 (Wong Fei-hung); Hong Kong premiere August 15, 1991[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103285/releaseinfo/) |
| Director and writers | Tsui Hark, with Yuen Kai-chi, Leung Yiu-ming, and Elsa Tang[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/2024/martial/pe-event-2024-martial-fs-film13.html) |
| Production | Golden Harvest; 134 minutes, Cantonese, color[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/2024/martial/pe-event-2024-martial-fs-film13.html) |
| Cast | Jet Li (Wong Fei-hung), Yuen Biao, Jacky Cheung, Rosamund Kwan, Kent Cheng, Yen Shi-kwan[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/2024/martial/pe-event-2024-martial-fs-film13.html) |
| Hong Kong box office | Over HK$29 million; among the top 10 films in Hong Kong in 1991[5](https://www.hk01.com/%E6%AD%A6%E5%82%99%E5%BF%97/667179/%E5%BE%90%E5%85%8B%E7%89%88-%E9%BB%83%E9%A3%9B%E9%B4%BB-%E4%B8%89%E5%8D%81%E5%91%A8%E5%B9%B4-%E8%AE%93%E6%B4%AA%E6%8B%B3%E5%AE%97%E5%B8%AB%E6%89%93%E5%8C%97%E6%B4%BE%E8%B4%8F%E7%A5%A8%E6%88%BF%E6%83%B9%E5%82%B3%E6%AD%A6%E7%88%AD%E8%AD%B0) • [6](https://www.brunel.ac.uk/creative-writing/research/entertext/documents/entertext061/ET61Wux5YuED.pdf) |
| Hong Kong Film Awards | Won Best Director, Best Editing, Best Action Design, and Best Original Film Score at the 11th awards; nominated for Best Picture[7](https://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/once_upon_a_time_in_china.htm) |
| Series | Spawned sequels between 1991 and 1997, starring Jet Li and later Vincent Zhao[8](https://www.scmp.com/article/600230/hardline-heroes) • [9](https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/cinema/tsui-hark-the-free-spirited-trailblazer/once-upon-a-time-in-china/) |
## Spoilers
### Story and themes
Time Out summarizes the premise as [Wong Fei-hung](https://www.edgepedia.org/wong-fei-hung) imagined as a young man in 1875, battling renegade Chinese in cahoots with the unscrupulous British[15](https://www.timeout.com/movies/once-upon-a-time-in-china). The sprawling narrative addresses colonialism, corruption, [Westernization](https://www.edgepedia.org/westernization), and modernization in a manner that is both historical and contemporary[14](https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3045556/hong-kong-martial-arts-cinema-jet-lis-star-turn-once-upon). Wong upholds Confucian tradition with a healer's sense of duty, yet is bewildered by rapidly changing [Western culture](https://www.edgepedia.org/western-culture) and technology, and gradually comes to see that his countrymen must move with the times[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/2024/martial/pe-event-2024-martial-fs-film13.html).
A newly introduced character, Thirteenth Aunt ([Rosamund Kwan](https://www.edgepedia.org/rosamund-kwan)), is both Wong's love interest and someone who inspires him to embrace change and modernity[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/2024/martial/pe-event-2024-martial-fs-film13.html). The film's antagonists include the American Jackson (Jonathan Isgar), who runs a trafficking pipeline of sex workers and laborers to the United States, and his local collaborators, notably "Iron Vest" Yim (Yen Shi-kwan)[16](https://theweek.com/culture-life/film/best-martial-arts-movies-of-all-time). The climax is a guns-versus-fists finale that the Criterion Collection describes as a thrilling affirmation of Chinese cultural identity[17](https://www.criterion.com/films/30712-once-upon-a-time-in-china-ii).
## Background: the Wong Fei-hung legend
Wong Fei-hung was a real physician and martial artist (1847–1925), a Hung Fist (southern Chinese kung fu style of Wong Fei-hung) master from southern China who had already been the subject of roughly a hundred films before Tsui Hark touched the material, most famously the long-running postwar series starring Kwan Tak-hing[10](https://sightlines.media/film/10617/once-upon-a-time-in-china-1991). Films about him number more than 100 in total, and in the 1990s the series entered the Guinness records as the longest-running film series in the world[11](https://www.thinkhk.com/article/2020-10/14/44553.html). The Los Angeles Times counted Tsui's film as what was said to be the 99th retelling of Wong's exploits[12](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-04-09-ca-20795-story.html).
Tsui wanted to make a film that paid tribute to the classic Wong Fei-hung films he had watched as a child while modernizing the legend for younger audiences[3](https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3282747/all-10-once-upon-time-china-movies-and-rip-offs-rated). His recast Wong is a younger, gravely upright figure standing at a hinge of Chinese history[10](https://sightlines.media/film/10617/once-upon-a-time-in-china-1991). Casting was itself a statement: Jet Li, a mainland actor from the north with professional wushu training, played a southern Hung Fist master[13](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/18995340/19057014/newsletter59.pdf), and his kung fu skills quickly saw him compared with [Bruce Lee](https://www.edgepedia.org/bruce-lee) and [Jackie Chan](https://www.edgepedia.org/jackie-chan)[14](https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3045556/hong-kong-martial-arts-cinema-jet-lis-star-turn-once-upon).
## Action choreography
The martial arts direction is credited to Yuen Cheung-yan, Yuen Shun-yi, and Lau Kar-wing, with [Yuen Woo-ping](https://www.edgepedia.org/yuen-woo-ping) also credited on the [Criterion](https://www.edgepedia.org/criterion) release[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/2024/martial/pe-event-2024-martial-fs-film13.html) • [17](https://www.criterion.com/films/30712-once-upon-a-time-in-china-ii). The film's innovations are choreographic and editorial rather than technological: it is a 35mm photochemical production whose reputation rests on fast editing and staged combat[10](https://sightlines.media/film/10617/once-upon-a-time-in-china-1991). The centerpiece is the duel between Wong and Iron Vest Yim fought atop bamboo ladders, which showcases Li's balance and footwork under Tsui's complex staging[18](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/5.-Exhibition-and-Screening/ProFolio/Profolio%20109-E.pdf). The umbrella fight became equally famous: Jet Li weaponized umbrellas from the Hong Kong maker Leung So Kee, breaking 26 of them in the process[19](https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3260189/how-139-year-old-hong-kong-umbrella-maker-weathered-storms-political-instability-japanese-not-jet-li).
## Reception and awards
The film was a commercial and critical hit at home. It placed in the Hong Kong box office top 10 for 1991, earned more than HK$29 million, and was named by Hong Kong critics as one of the ten best Chinese-language movies of the year[5](https://www.hk01.com/%E6%AD%A6%E5%82%99%E5%BF%97/667179/%E5%BE%90%E5%85%8B%E7%89%88-%E9%BB%83%E9%A3%9B%E9%B4%BB-%E4%B8%89%E5%8D%81%E5%91%A8%E5%B9%B4-%E8%AE%93%E6%B4%AA%E6%8B%B3%E5%AE%97%E5%B8%AB%E6%89%93%E5%8C%97%E6%B4%BE%E8%B4%8F%E7%A5%A8%E6%88%BF%E6%83%B9%E5%82%B3%E6%AD%A6%E7%88%AD%E8%AD%B0) • [6](https://www.brunel.ac.uk/creative-writing/research/entertext/documents/entertext061/ET61Wux5YuED.pdf). At the 11th Hong Kong Film Awards it won Best Director (Tsui Hark), Best Editing (Marco Mak Chi-sin), Best Action Design, and Best Original Film Score (James Wong Jim), with nominations for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor ([Jacky Cheung](https://www.edgepedia.org/jacky-cheung))[7](https://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/once_upon_a_time_in_china.htm). It was Tsui's first of three Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Director[20](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/18995340/19057017/TSUI%2BHark_c.pdf).
Abroad, the film reached the United States in a limited release on May 20, 1992, in a cut running 1 hour 35 minutes against the 134-minute Hong Kong version[21](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/once_upon_a_time_in_china) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103285/releaseinfo/). On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 90% Tomatometer from 30 reviews and an 88% audience score[21](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/once_upon_a_time_in_china). Critics have singled out the choreography: Time Out praised its "choreography, its flashes of wit, and its all-round exuberance"[15](https://www.timeout.com/movies/once-upon-a-time-in-china), and the Los Angeles Times called it a rousing epic with a DeMille-like sense of spectacle, while noting that Tsui dramatizes history without including some of Britain and America's worst conduct, most notably their role in promoting the opium trade[12](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-04-09-ca-20795-story.html).
## Legacy
The film revived the declining wuxia genre and initiated a new cycle of period martial-arts films in the early 1990s, and it resurrected Jet Li's career after his *Shaolin Temple* days, making him a kung fu superstar in the lineage of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan[6](https://www.brunel.ac.uk/creative-writing/research/entertext/documents/entertext061/ET61Wux5YuED.pdf). Tsui's 1991 film swung the Hong Kong industry out of a run of slapstick comedies and unleashed a wave of kung fu films[22](https://www.scmp.com/article/255958/directors-commercial-challenge).
The series it began ran from 1991 to 1997 across six films starring Jet Li and, later, Vincent Zhao Wenzhuo[8](https://www.scmp.com/article/600230/hardline-heroes); Tsui himself directed or produced four of them between 1991 and 1994[20](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/18995340/19057017/TSUI%2BHark_c.pdf). The third entry, *[Once Upon a Time in China III](https://www.edgepedia.org/once-upon-a-time-in-china-iii)* (1993), was co-produced with Beijing Film Studio and became the first film distributed in the mainland on a revenue-sharing basis, earning distribution profits of several million RMB and stimulating later mainland-Hong Kong co-productions[23](https://www.cschinese.com/word/46177202016.pdf). Li left the series after the early sequels following a break with Tsui[12](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-04-09-ca-20795-story.html).
The film's influence reached Hollywood: [Quentin Tarantino](https://www.edgepedia.org/quentin-tarantino)'s *Kill Bill* (2003) explicitly employs Yuen Woo-ping choreography and undercranked action in the Hong Kong idiom that *Once Upon a Time in China* helped export[10](https://sightlines.media/film/10617/once-upon-a-time-in-china-1991). The complete series later received a Criterion Collection box set[17](https://www.criterion.com/films/30712-once-upon-a-time-in-china-ii).
## References
1. [Once Upon a Time in China, Hong Kong Film Archive programme note](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/2024/martial/pe-event-2024-martial-fs-film13.html)
2. [《黃飛鴻》, Netflix Taiwan](https://www.netflix.com/tw/title/17078070)
3. [All 10 Once Upon a Time in China movies and the rip-offs rated, South China Morning Post](https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3282747/all-10-once-upon-time-china-movies-and-rip-offs-rated)
4. [Once Upon a Time in China (1991) release info, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103285/releaseinfo/)
5. [徐克版《黃飛鴻》三十周年, HK01](https://www.hk01.com/%E6%AD%A6%E5%82%99%E5%BF%97/667179/%E5%BE%90%E5%85%8B%E7%89%88-%E9%BB%83%E9%A3%9B%E9%B4%BB-%E4%B8%89%E5%8D%81%E5%91%A8%E5%B9%B4-%E8%AE%93%E6%B4%AA%E6%8B%B3%E5%AE%97%E5%B8%AB%E6%89%93%E5%8C%97%E6%B4%BE%E8%B4%8F%E7%A5%A8%E6%88%BF%E6%83%B9%E5%82%B3%E6%AD%A6%E7%88%AD%E8%AD%B0)
6. [Sabrina Q. Yu, Martial Arts, Acting and Kung Fu Hero in Change: Critical Responses to Jet Li's Once Upon A Time In China (1991), EnterText 6.1](https://www.brunel.ac.uk/creative-writing/research/entertext/documents/entertext061/ET61Wux5YuED.pdf)
7. [Once Upon a Time in China (黃飛鴻) (1991), LoveHKFilm](https://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/once_upon_a_time_in_china.htm)
8. [Hardline heroes, South China Morning Post (2007)](https://www.scmp.com/article/600230/hardline-heroes)
9. [Once Upon a Time in China, M+ Cinema](https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/cinema/tsui-hark-the-free-spirited-trailblazer/once-upon-a-time-in-china/)
10. [Once Upon a Time in China (1991), dir. Tsui Hark, Sightlines](https://sightlines.media/film/10617/once-upon-a-time-in-china-1991)
11. [張卓立：黃飛鴻電影怎樣體現香港電影和社會的進程？, 思考香港](https://www.thinkhk.com/article/2020-10/14/44553.html)
12. [Martial Arts Period Epics Tell a Tale of Two Chinas, Los Angeles Times (1993)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-04-09-ca-20795-story.html)
13. [Hong Kong Film Archive Newsletter 59](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/18995340/19057014/newsletter59.pdf)
14. [Jet Li's star turn in Once Upon a Time in China, South China Morning Post (2020)](https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3045556/hong-kong-martial-arts-cinema-jet-lis-star-turn-once-upon)
15. [Once Upon a Time in China film review, Time Out](https://www.timeout.com/movies/once-upon-a-time-in-china)
16. [The 8 best martial arts movies of all time, The Week](https://theweek.com/culture-life/film/best-martial-arts-movies-of-all-time)
17. [Once Upon a Time in China (1991), The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/30712-once-upon-a-time-in-china-ii)
18. [ProFolio 109, Hong Kong Film Archive](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/5.-Exhibition-and-Screening/ProFolio/Profolio%20109-E.pdf)
19. [How 139-year-old Hong Kong umbrella maker weathered storms, South China Morning Post (2024)](https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3260189/how-139-year-old-hong-kong-umbrella-maker-weathered-storms-political-instability-japanese-not-jet-li)
20. [香港影人小傳檢索：徐克, Hong Kong Film Archive](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/18995340/19057017/TSUI%2BHark_c.pdf)
21. [Once Upon a Time in China, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/once_upon_a_time_in_china)
22. [Director's commercial challenge, South China Morning Post (1998)](https://www.scmp.com/article/255958/directors-commercial-challenge)
23. [《傳播與社會學刊》(總)第七期 (2009)](https://www.cschinese.com/word/46177202016.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Action and adventure films (individual works) › Martial arts films › Released 1986 to 2026*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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