Tuesday 17 April 2012

Once upon a time in China 3 (4 Stars)


Wong Fei-Hung travels to Beijing to visit his father to inform him that he intends to get married. While there he learns of a plot by Russian diplomats to assassinate the governor because of his pro-Japanese stance. We hear that Russia is planning to attack Japan, which actually occurred in 1904, so this film must take place between 1895 (the date of the second film in the trilogy) and the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904.

There's some confusion about the name and status of his fiancee, since the same woman appears in all three films but is named differently. I suspect that the problem lies in the English translation being inconsistent. In the first film she is called "13th Aunt", whatever that means. In the second film she is called Aunt Yee. In this film she is called Cousin Yee.

This film has a different style to the first two films. The comedy aspect is more important. I had to laugh out loud during the fight scene at the lion dance. Everyone was dressed in large Chinese lion costumes, two people per costume. It's almost impossible to see the people, but we can hear the kung fu kicks and we see people falling over. Hilarious.


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