Moving the action from eastern to western, director Sammo Hung downplays the serious drama of earlier episodes and ups the quota of comedy, but he does so with a care not to lose the essential dignity of the central character. Here, there's an impressive opening in which our hero and his entourage (including the always fashion-conscious Aunt Yee), ostensibly visiting the US to mark the anniversary of a friend's medical clinic, combat a raid by tomahawk-throwing Indian braves. Wong Fei-hung loses his memory, and falls in with a tepee dwelling tribe (like the similar joke in Mel Gibson vehicle, Maverick) who call him 'Yellow'. After this lengthy diversion, which parodies Native American lore just as the finale sends up gunslinger myths, the Chinese heroes get their act together just in time save a small town from its corrupt lawmen and the spaghetti-western styled outlaws the Mayor is in league with.

The film's cast of war-painted redskins and gang of surly Mexican bandits are portrayed by white actors as casually insulting stereotypes rather than with a more fitting satirical irony, but then the bigoted cowboys are also lampooned so presumably no racial offence was intended. The breathtaking action follows the 'Indiana Jones' template of just one damn thing after another, until thrills (the violence is generally of the fantasy type) segue into laughs and then, satisfyingly, back to fast-moving thrills again. This compelling effect is well sustained and so successful that the viewer is only too happy to overlook any number of defects.

If you enjoyed Jackie Chan's Shanghai Noon, this is a must see.

Wong Fei Hung (Jet Li), together with his fiancée (Rosamund Kwan) and devoted sidekick, Seven (Yueng Pan Pan), find themselves in the Wild West in search of new horizons. However, an early confrontation with Native American Indians renders Jet unconscious and parted from his group. When he comes to, he finds he has lost his memory, but the one thing that is still clear in his mind is the ability to fight with lightning speed. The warriors of the tribe are amazed at his unique abilities and offer him respect and friendship.

Unable to communicate, he manages through sign language to persuade them to help him find his true identity, leading to countless action-packed encounters on his path to be reunited with his friends.

REVIEW:
A martial arts western episode in the Once Upon a Time in China series? With Jet Li reprising the role of Wong Fei Hung? Directed by Sammo Hung? Sounds cool.... much cooler than it actually is. The setting makes for an interesting idea, but the plot and acting are absolutely horrible. Only some good fight scenes keep this movie from being immediately chucked into the dumpster.

Now, for a martial arts western gimmick, the setting is crucial. Unfortunately, this is a fairly unconvincing old west. While the physical surroundings are just right, the people and their mannerisms are not. First and most outrageous are the Native Americans in the film. I swear they just took a few white people and paid them $30 a pop to put paint on their faces and pretend to be Indians. It's actually a fairly disrespectful representation of Native Americans. With strong modern American accents and speaking constantly in English to each other, they certainly don't become convincing in their speech. The cowboys are not much better, being completely over the top and stupid. Oh, and they seem to know some martial arts, strangely enough.

The plot itself is disappointing. The first major plotline is in regards to Fei Hung losing his memory. At no point was there ever anything interesting leading up to his discovery. All I could do was sit bored and think "When will they find him?" After Fei Hung recovers his memory, the movie changes gears and focuses on the corrupt officials and treatment of Chinese workers. This part is certainly better than the memory loss plot and has some nice themes. But, unfortunately, it is lost in a wave of lame dialogue. At the very least, they would have done better to focus solely on the latter plotline. A major dialogue overhaul, though, would still be necessary to save the film. The only saving grace as it stands are the solid performances of OUATIC series veterans Li, Kwan, and Xiong.

The one thing that keeps the film afloat are some solid fight scenes. While no Iron Monkey, the fights here are quite enjoyable. There is actually significantly less wire-fu here than in earlier installments of the OUATIC series and the fights are, stylistically, fairly different. They are, however, quite fun to watch and the style is a nice change of pace. The fight between Fei Hung and Seven, as Seven tries to restore Fei Hung's memory, is most memorable and will be the part of the film you find yourself skipping to most.

Watch once for the fight scenes and that's it. That is the best advice I can give on this film. The actual story and most of the acting is horrible. Unless you are a die hard collector and need to finish of your OUATIC or Jet Li collection, OUATIC&A is not a reccommended purchase.

The film opens with Wong Fei Hung (Jet Li) traveling via stagecoach with Aunt Yee (Rosamund Kwan) and Clubfoot (Xin Xin Xiong) to Texas to visit Buck Tooth So, who has traveled to America to start a new branch of the Po Chi Lam school. They pick up a scruffy young gunslinger named Billy (get it?, played by a guy with a frizzy bleach blonde surfer hairdo). Fei Hung is separated from his companions during a skirmish and subsequently loses his memory and is rescued by a tribe of Native American Indians. Meanwhile, Aunt Yee and Clubfoot meet up with So and see the racist conditions the Chinese are forced into living separated and shunned from the white locals. After some bonding with the Indians, Fei Hung is reunited with Aunt Yee and friends, regains his memory, and aides the town in their fight against a gang of bank robbers lead by a deadly, dark, wolf killing fighter with razor sharp spurs.

The great Sammo Hung directed this installment, and it is a film with one or two good moments but ultimately a bore that falls prey to the price of being a sequel- not being able to live up to the original. Overall, much like the Jackie Chan film he made the same year, Mr Nice Guy, Sammo and crew have a threadbare script with dull characterizations and a story you just cannot get into despite the few brief bits of fairly good action. Its like they just thought, lets think of all the Westernlike scenes we can, stampedes, Indians, guns Vs. martial arts, bar fights, lynching, of course, throw in the standard OUATIC lion dancing scene, and build a movie around it. The film was actually a location shoot (a big deal for HK film), taking the bother to go to Texas and California to shoot instead of trying to pass off some sparse bit of Mainland China for the Wild West. There is quite a bit of English speaking and no doubt the American actors they hired either were non-professional or some bottom of the barrel dinner theater lot. I mean, I can forgive the Chinese cast for fractured English, but the English speaking actors cant spout lines in their own native language with any conviction. The fight choreography is pretty good, Sammo grounds Li and crew a tad more than Tsui Hark, only using wirework every now and then to enhance a leap or two. Xin Xin Xiong once again, like in parts 3 & 4, becomes one of the films saving graces. But, its all too dumb (and not even dumb in a good way) and ultimately uninteresting. Sure, if you are a Sammo fan, a Jet Li fan, its essential viewing. Jackie Chan gets grief for 'ripping off' OUATIC and America with Shanghai Noon, but thats only because people forget/don't know that some twenty years before Fighting Fists of Shanghai Joe was on cinema screens. For me, the only real fondness I have for OUATIC and America is that it reminds me of when I first watched it while visiting my best friend. For everyone else, it will remind them of how much better the first three Once Upon a time in China films were.

THE DVD: Tai Seng. An import of the Carnival or China Star version.

PICTURE: Widescreen, 1.85:1. The film was shot 2.35:1, so there is some cropping which hinders the film. It is all just a tad too up close and the fight choreography, especially, is too cramped. While you have to judge HK films on a sliding scale, there is quite a bit of damage, general wear of softness and brightness, not spots or scratches. Colors are pretty good and so is the contrast, but it really could look quite a bit better, a very halfhearted but acceptable (if not for the wrong ratio) transfer.

SOUND: Cantonese or Mandarin Dolby Digital 5.1 with optional Chinese or English subtitles. The subs actually have a few points were they are a good 5 seconds or so behind the dialogue. Pretty average sound. Gets the job done without any real flaws, but also without any great effect or impressive mixing.

EXTRAS: 12 Chapters--- Cast Info (Chinese Only)--- Theatrical Trailer--- 24 min ‘Making Of’ documentary unfortunately in Chinese only with no subtitles so all the interviews become negligible.

CONCLUSION: Well, really the series has teetered out at this point. By no means is has it reached Friday the 13th territory of having worn out its welcome, but certainly the Once Upon A Time In China films hit their peak with the first two. The transfer is worn and doesn’t present the image in the proper ratio, the only source for that with Eng subs is the Thunder Media Taiwanese edition. But, it is cheaply priced. Probably more of a rental for most, perhaps a purchase for those die hard HK action and Jet Li fans, but its a film I’d say most could live without having in their collection.

You might think that a Sammo Hung movie featuring Jet Li would be great. But this one certainly isn't. For starters, the story just doesn't make any sense. Why would Fei-Hong travel for seven months just to visit someone? The whole film is based on the "East meets West" gimmick, but it fails to utilize it in any form except for lame jokes. The "head blow that results in amnesia" plot device is overused and stupid, and the Indian subplot seems to be just tacked on, because it's dumped very quickly. Most of the gweilo and Native American actors are just horrible. Some of them sound more like surfers than cowboys and Indians. The script is very poorly written; for instance, it's never explained why Clubfoot is now called Seven. And finally, the film just looks poor. Once Upon a Time in China and America suffered from the typical HK miniscule budget, combined with an incompetent and un-cooperative American crew. As such, there are many shots in the film that could have been great, but look almost amateurish (the lighting, in particular, looks very bad).

Despite all of this, there is still some good stuff in Once Upon a Time in China and America. Most of the action sequences and fights are well-choreographed and played out. They use a bit less wire-fu than the previous films, but there's still plenty of flying about. One particularly good sequence has Seven trying to jar Fei-Hung's memory by portraying the villains for the previous OUATIC films. Jeff Wolfe does a good job as Billy. Unlike the other white actors in the film, he actually manages to take his character out of the realm of caricature. And it was nice seeing Jet Li returning to the role of Wong Fei-Hung.

If you're a big fan of the series, then you'll probably want to check out Once Upon a Time in China and America -- otherwise, just stick with the first three films of the series instead.

Sadly this isn't up to the high standard of the first two OUATIC films although it is better than the third. If you don't concern yourself too much with realism this is still quite enjoyable. The fight scenes are all visually impressive employing plenty of wirework and fast editing although Jet Li and Hung Yan Yan are given enough scope to show off their techniques. In fact Jet is almost upstaged by Hung Yan Yan who is absolutely fantastic as Seven. One scene which particularly stands out is where Seven takes on a saloon full of cowboys singlehandedly. Another is where Jet Li and Hung Yan Yan battle it out as Seven attempts to help Wong regain his memory. This includes an excellent staff fighting sequence deliberately reminiscent of the Jet/Donnie Yen encounter. Jet does shine throughout of course, especially in the movie's climax where he has to fight the main villain, Mad Wolf. Another notable appearance comes from Rosamund Kwan who is as beguiling as ever.

As well as martial arts the film makes much use of gunplay and, like the first two movies in the series, draws on the weaknesses of martial arts when confronted with guns. In part one the Iron Skin technique proved to be no match for bullets while in part two a charlatan claiming to be impervious to gunfire was proven to be a fake. In this movie however Wong and Seven manage to outmanouvre the gunslingers with their unbelievable speed.

Apparently OUATIC&A was one of the most expensive Hong Kong movies ever made. Its a shame then that a bit more money couldn't have been spent on research. The American Indians look as if they have come from an episode of 'High Chapperall' and certainly don't seem authentic. Even less believable are the cowboys who can perform kung fu (but without this liberty the final fight scene certainly wouldn't have been possible).

The film does tackle the issue of the appalling treatment given to Chinese workers which is probably the most authentic aspect to the whole film. In fact it is this aspect that forms the basis for the second half of the film.

With this being set in the Wild West there are of course plenty of Western actors and while none of them would win Oscars for their performances, the acting isn't too bad. There have certainly been plenty of worse examples.

Ultimately this film is all about the fight scenes and on that level it certainly delivers. Its just a shame that it doesn't carry the same air of authenticity as earlier episodes in the series.