Once Upon a Time in Shanghai

[Jimbo]

Watched this tonight, and it's a good film. The entire movie is shot sepia-toned to give it an old-timey look. It's basically a retelling of The Boxer from Shantung (1972), the Shaw Bros classic which starred Chen Kuan-Tai as Ma Yungzhen. Ma is a poor country bumpkin who comes to Shanghai with the hopes of making it big. In doing so, he becomes involved in the city's underworld, including an ax gang. That's about all the two films have in common.

In Once Upon a Time in Shanghai, Phillip Ng bears a resemblance to Bruce Lee's Chen Zhen in Fist of Fury, undoubtedly a nod to that film, which was also set in Shanghai. Also like Fist of Fury (and unlike The Boxer from Shantung), the main antagonists are the Japanese. I would have preferred the main antagonists remained the triad gangs, just to make it different from most other MA films coming out of China now. With the Japanese as villains, it makes things very predictable.

Possibly in a nod to The Boxer from Shantung, Chen Kuan-Tai has a role as one of the bosses competing for turf against Long Qi, well-played by Andy On. Other well-known old-school names seen include Sammo Hung (of course), Fung Hark-On, and Yuen Cheung-Yan.

The fights are nicely-done. There is some undercranking to speed up the action, interspersed with slow-mo, with some wire work and CGI, but overall it looks quite good for this film. IMO, this is probably the best choreography that Yuen Woo-Ping has done in the past few years.