Once Upon a Time in China: The Complete Films | Blu-ray (Criterion)
Today’s Deal on Fire is the Blu-ray set for Tsui Hark’s Once Upon a Time in China: The Complete Films, which will include Once Upon a Time in China, Once Upon a Time in China II, Once Upon a Time in China III, Once Upon a Time in China IV, Once Upon a Time in China V – as well as Once Upon a Time in China and America as an extra feature.
Read on for the full details:
One of the pinnacles of Hong Kong cinema’s 1990s golden age, the Once Upon a Time in China series set a new standard for martial-arts spectacle and launched action star Jet Li to international fame. It brings to vivid life the colorful world of China in the late nineteenth century, an era of immense cultural and technological change, as Western imperialism clashed with tradition and public order was upended by the threats of foreign espionage and rising nationalism. Against this turbulent backdrop, one man—the real-life martial-arts master, physician, and folk hero Wong Fei-hung—emerges as a noble protector of Chinese values as the country hurtles toward modernity.
Conceived by Hong Kong New Wave leader Tsui Hark, this epic cycle is not only a dazzling showcase for some of the most astonishing action set pieces ever committed to film but also a rousing celebration of Chinese identity, history, and culture.
Features:
- 4K digital restorations of Once Upon a Time in China and Once Upon a Time in China II and III, and new 2K digital restorations of Once Upon a Time in China IV and V, all presented with their original Cantonese theatrical-release sound mixes in uncompressed monaural or stereo
- Alternate stereo Cantonese soundtracks for Once Upon a Time in China and Once Upon a Time in China II, featuring the original theatrical sound effects, and monaural Cantonese soundtrack for Once Upon a Time in China III
- Once Upon a Time in China and America (1997) in a 2K digital transfer, featuring 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio and monaural Cantonese soundtracks, along with a stereo Mandarin track with the voice of actor Jet Li
- New interviews with director Tsui Hark, Film Workshop cofounder Nansun Shi, editor Marco Mak, and critic Tony Rayns
- Excerpts from audio interviews with Li conducted in 2004 and ’05
- Deleted scenes from Once Upon a Time in China III
- Documentary from 2004 about the real-life martial-arts hero Wong Fei-hung
- From Spikes to Spindles, a 1976 documentary about New York City’s Chinatown featuring uncredited work by Tsui
- Excerpts from a 2019 master class given by martial-arts choreographer Yuen Wo-ping
- Archival interviews featuring Tsui and actors John Wakefield, Donnie Yen, and Yen Shi-kwan
- Behind-the-scenes footage for Once Upon a Time in China and Once Upon a Time in China and America
- Making-of program from 1997 on Once Upon a Time in China and America
- Trailers
- New English subtitle translations
- PLUS: An essay on the films by critic Maggie Lee and an essay on the cinematic depictions of Wong by novelist Grady Hendrix
Order from Amazon.com today!
Wow! I thought Eureka would be the only release, but they came through to the Region A fans!
This is exactly what I wanted! All of the films looking great with awesome extras and China and America featuring the original sync sound track! I’m gonna buy!
Yeah I’ve been waiting for this one for a long time! Also I don’t think the Eureka box set has the Vincent Zhao ones, but this does!
I don’t know what the deal is, but looks like we’ve been getting loads of new releases for old HK movies recently from all the labels when they’ve been ignored for years. Hopefully they’ll dive into some of the more obscure stuff that’s been stuck with 7.1 remix only 480p upscale Fortune Star crap releases for years now.
So the Criterion set has 2 movies (IV and V) the Eureka set does not?
That’s what it looks like. But the Eureka does have commentary and different extras)
The Criterion set also doesn’t include the English dubs for the entries the Eureka! set has.
Thanks for that info! So it will be worth having both versions!
You have to feel sorry for ‘Once Upon a Time in China and America’ – both in the Eureka! set and now this one it’s included as an ‘extra feature’, almost as if both sets are embarrassed to call it an official part of the line-up. Where’s the love?
Lol that’s what I was saying! Even if it’s just a 2K REMASTER, it still doesn’t make sense!
Is China and America the black sheep of the series? Non-cannon? I personally enjoyed it!
Better than Shanghai Noon, Jackie’s rip off of Sammo’s concept!
A spaghetti western with Sammo’s signature hard hitting fights, what could be better?
I might be misremembering this, but I think ‘Once Upon a Time in China & America’ is actually *Sammo’s* rip-off of Jackie Chan’s idea. Sammo knew Jackie had always wanted to make a ‘Western with martial arts’ but managed to beat Jackie to the punch. I’d heard that this was the cause of a rift between them that lasted for many years, but of course this could all be hearsay.
Hey you’re right. I should fact check better. I guess I remembered wrong. But hey, guess they all ripped off Bruce Lee who had the idea first!
I remember reading the same thing back in the day. Apparently Jackie spoke frequently both about the martial arts western, and also making a movie about a character suffering from memory loss. Sammo took both elements and beat him to the punch by throwing them together for ‘Once Upon a Time in China & America’, while Chan got to do his memory loss idea a year later with ‘Who Am I?’.
I don’t have a lot of details about who ripped who off about the idea of a western martials arts film. However, this concept was not original, its been used many times in films . There is the Lo Lieh and Lee Van Cleef ‘The Stranger and the Gunfighter 1974, John liu and Phillip Ko tried it in Dragon Blood 1982 and also ‘Red Sun’ 1972 with Toshiro Mifune and Charles Bronson. So, in my opinion its more of an updated version.
It means they couldn’t get a hold of an actual print to scan; it’s only a digital transfer of existing materials. So Criterion is traditionally very clear about these things up-front; they won’t include it as a featured entry in the set if it isn’t a scan of film print material. But it’s more confusing than it’s worth by throwing it under their Special Features description, yes. (via Michael Duffy)
How confusing! What does a “digital transfer of existing materials” mean? Is it not actually HD? Where is the transfer from then? An upscale? Or It is a legit transfer, but since Eureka did it Criterion isn’t featuring it?
My guess that Criterion is simply sourcing the movie from an old digital master, a master that’s not-so-great quality. It might technically be an HD master, but a “shitty” HD master from several years ago that’s heavily flawed or defective in a way that can’t be fixed.
The only way to “fix it” would be to create a brand new master by scanning the original camera negatives, but Criterion doesn’t have access to those. And they don’t want to sell a “main feature” that contains poor audio/video quality, so for now, they’re simply considering it a bonus feature.
Lots of Criterion discs are like this. Sometimes the bonus features will include an entire feature-length movie, like an alternative director’s cut or theater cut, but these features are not given the full Criterion “cleanup” and treatment that they normally provide for the main feature. So they are just thrown in the bonus section.
This reminds me – on the Criterion version of “Police Story 2”, in the bonus features, there’s an alternate version of the movie that’s scanned directly from an old 35mm theater print. No restoration was done to it, and all of the “film jitter”, dust, dirt, debris, scratches, and burned-in subtitles are 100% visible and intact.
It feels like you’re in an actual Hong Kong movie theater in the 80’s, watching the movie being projected on film, and I honestly love it. 😁
You just sold me on the 35mm theater print. lol
This is a set I wouldn’t mind owning, but I have become cautious with purchasing blus now. Always seem to get caught buying something like this and then not a few months later they will announce an even better 4K UHD set.
I bought the Eureka set (which is very nice) and will definitely be purchasing this set as well.
In addition to films 4 and 5, the Criterion set will have some improvements over the Eureka set as per this Bluray.com forum quote from Irongod2112 who has worked on both sets:
“You’re definitely gonna wanna double dip for I had the opportunity to fix alot things that we didn’t have time for on the Eureka set.
That includes:
Much better Cantonese mono track for the first film. Also includes a new stereo Cantonese track that is not on the Eureka set that uses the original sound effects.
Fixed both missing effects shots in the first film.
Located the original Cantonese stereo track for Part 3 and fixed missing day for night filter.
Not to mention parts 4 & 5 are included for the first time ever on bluray. ”
However, the Eureka set has special features and audio tracks not included on the Criterion set. So for me, both releases are must-haves.
I don’t hate OUATIC VI…but come on, better than the two Shanghai ones? Owen Wilson is ten times the poor blonde “actor” Sammo Hung tried to film!