Once Upon A Time In China III (1993) (Blu-ray) (4K Ultra-HD Remastered Collection) (Hong Kong Version) Blu-ray Region A

In the meantime, the Empress Dowager and President Li stage a Lion Dance competition among all the martial arts schools, hoping to throw a little fear into the foreigners crawling all over town. Their particular concern is a gang of Russian diplomats who seem to be up to something. One of them, Tomansky, is an old flame of Aunt Yee's from England and he's barely bumped into her again before he's pitching woo once more. Meanwhile, Chiu Tin-bai's martial arts school is attempting to cripple and maim all the other contestants in the Lion Dance Competition, including Fei-hung's dad, Wong Kei-ying. And it soon becomes clear that what those Russians are up to is the assasination of President Li. Whoops!

The whole movie has a loosey-goosey "we're on a vacation" feel, and it concerns itself as much with wedding plans as lion dances. Fei-hung's jealousy stirred up by the sideburned Tomansky, he's much more aggressive and proactive than he was in the first two OUTATIC films. But his aggression is nothing compared to that of Xiong Xin-xin, who makes his speaking debut playing Chiu Tin-bai's henchman, Clubfoot. Xiong was Jet Li's stunt double, and Priest Kung in OUATIC 2, and here he gives a possesed performance, as if every one of his joints were on springs, and he very nearly steals the show.

Due to salary problems with Golden Harvest, Jet Li made this his last Once Upon a Time in China movie, and his last film for Tsui's Film Workshop. The Fred Astaire of fighting was replaced by Chiu Man-cheuk and the series kept on going, but nothing will ever replicate the magic of these first three movies which will always rank as true high points of the period martial arts film.

by Grady Hendrix

The plot in Once 3 is a bit more linear than the previous movies and, as such, it may be a better movie for newbies in the genre, though some knowledge of Chinese history would still be helpful in following the political twists and turns. Visually, the film looks phenomenal and there's tons of high-flying wire-fu action. My only real complaint with the film is there's a lack of one-on-one fighting. The huge lion dances/gang fights are great, but there's nothing in the movie to match the intensity of the Jet Li/Donnie Yen battle in Once 2. The ending is also unbelievably cheesy, with Li delivering a speech that needlessly hammers in some symbolism. Overall, though, Once 3 is a fine movie and a good addition to the series.

RATING: 8

Reviewed by: Neil Koch, Hong Kong Film Net