Il était une fois en Chine : Le Tournoi du lion

After seeing this, I realized Tsui Hark really has a knack for period films. Jet Li is Master Wong in this third part of OUATIC series. Honestly, I really enjoyed the scenes with Wong and Aunt Yee (played by always lovely Rosamund Kwan). The way they play off each other is so innocent that you can't help have a smile on your face. It's also a chance to see a jealous Jet Li which adds to the humor. You really root for him to get the girl (lucky Jet).

The action is on point as Jet Li displays his martial arts prowess as he battles a lot of enemies. Great use of a jacket to ward off a street battle and the restaurant fight scene is classic Jet Li (you gotta love that shadowless kick). The Lion dance ceremony was interesting and I enjoyed how chaotic it was as all the dragons battled to get the bait. Foon adds comic relief and Club Foot was a cool character who knows how to get his "kicks".

Overall, I had to see this one after watching part one and two. Even though I expected to see superb fighting, I really enjoyed the romance in the film as well.

In order to demonstrate a show of strength to the foreigners, the Empress decrees a Lion King competition between the various martial arts schools. Wong Fei-hung returns home at this time to visit his father's school to find that the Tai-Ping school have set out to destroy the other schools before the competition itself. Fei-hung tries to bring peace between the schools but fails to stop the contest. Meanwhile Cousin suspects something more sinister going on around the contest.

I feel like I'm under pressure here to say this isn't as good as the previous two films, simply because that seems to be the consensus of opinion on among reviewers here and also conventional wisdom says that a series will lose quality as it goes along. I settled to watch this expecting to be a drop from parts I & II (both of which I enjoyed), however I must say I found it to be every bit as enjoyable as part II (which I considered a more enjoyable film than part I). I do, however, recognise that it has weaknesses over the other two films.

First off, the plot is significantly weaker and even needs a last minute conspiratorial shot in the arm to help up the drama and give the characters something extra to do. That said I still felt the film moved along well and wasn't too bothered by the lack of a real strong structure. The fights are free flowing and enjoyable (even if they have weak reasons for occurring sometimes). There is no one fight that really competes with the climax of part I but that doesn't mean they're bad. Certainly fans of Matrix and Crouching Tiger (who think this stuff is all a new invention!) will be impressed as indeed was I. The Lion King contest has been criticised for hiding the skills of the actors but I think it made for a different show of skill that did involve their martial arts skills and showed them in a big way. There are some scenes that are too clearly wire-work (although it is all wire work) but the majority of it flows very well.

The main reason this film worked well for me was the way that it kept the humour from part II. The gentle comic touches all through are laugh-out-loud funny and really binds the whole film together. I've always felt that part II's humour made it better than part I, and part III continues that well. The romance between Fei-hung and cousin is also played well for both laughs and romance.

The main reason the comedy works so well is the cast who all show a real skill for it. Mok's Yoon is the main reason for this and his little touches are great fun to watch. Jet Li also shows a real ability in comic acting that Hollywood has spectacularly failed to utilise (thus far). His interaction with the excellent Kwan brings a real spark to the film in the quieter scenes. His real skill of course is the martial arts and he is a real presence in every action scene. The addition of Iron Foot (Xiong) works well and he is a good character who is developed past the bad guy character he is first presented as.

Overall I can understand why many would feel that this is a lesser film but I must say that I find it hard to put a wedge between any of the first three in the series (I have only seen these thus far). However, I enjoyed the action and felt that the comic touches worked very well and made this a very enjoyable film that was very easy to watch. The plot may be weaker than the previous films but it has other strengths that are used well. I can't comment on the rest of the series but this film made parts I-III a very strong and enjoyable series of films.

It's the turn of the century Beijing. China, under the rule of the Dowager Queen, is besieged by Western powers. She decides to hold a Dancing Lion competition to showcase China's physical prowess. Wong Fei-Hung (Jet Li) and sidekick Chung arrive and meet up with 13th Aunt (Rosamund Kwan). They find the Cantonese Association ransacked and his father injured by Clubfoot.

This is mostly good. I like Jet Li and Rosamund Kwan. It's a cute romance. Jet Li is doing a more traditional character. I like his jealousy over the Russian. I would rather not have the Russian turn full villain, but it is a way to amp up the drama. The final battle is rather chaotic. I couldn't tell one lion from another. I thought they would do it tournament style with Jet Li facing off against Clubfoot in the final battle. That would have been better. This has some good fun in the first half and I stayed engaged until the end.

The Empress of China decides to hold a Lion King competition as a show of strength to foreigners; rather than uniting her people, the impending event causes fights to break out between rival martial arts schools across the country. Out to ensure that as many potential winners are quashed before the contest even takes place, the nasty Chiu Tim-ba and his men attack the other competitors, including the father of the legendary Wong Fei Hung.

Wong (Jet Li) steps in to protect his old man, gets in a few scraps, and eventually becomes involved in foiling an assassination attempt on a high ranking governor, whilst at the same time trying to make sure that the ex-boyfriend of his sweetheart stays his distance.

As a big fan of Jet Li, I really have tried my utmost to enjoy the OUATIC movies, but, even with the incredible cinematography, lavish sets and costumes, powerful score, and welcome appearances from industry greats such as Yuen Baio and Donnie Yen, the series has left me rather unimpressed.

And Part 3 does nothing to change that.

This chapter moves the action from Canton to Beijing, but almost everything else stays the same. We get more xenophobia, more silly wire-work enhanced fight scenes, more playful romance between Wong and his girl (the gorgeous Rosamund Kwan), more lame comedy, and not enough memorable martial arts action from Li. And this time round we also get lion dances. Lots and lots of lion dances.

If the sight of men dancing and leaping about in brightly coloured lion costumes doesn't sound like fun to you, then I strongly suggest you do not watch this film (lion dance fetishists, however, will have a field day!).

I had always found the traditional Chinese lion dance rather interesting to watch, but this film has dampened my enthusiasm for them more than just a tad. OUATIC 3 starts with lion dances, has a few lion dances throughout, and end with lots of... you guessed it.... lion dances!!! Sure, some of the lions have booby trapped mouths which fire arrows, and another has blades attached to it, and there's a humongous lion at the end to spice things up, but there's only so much wiggling of lion bodies, jiggling of lion heads, snapping of lion mouths and fluttering of big lion eyes that I can take.

In fact, only the presence of the delightful Miss Kwan as Aunt (or is it cousin?) Yee kept me sane. Once again, she is a joy to behold and makes the whole lion-infested film worth enduring.

5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.

As far as the fighting is concerned, I thought that this one was a little unimpressive. It's pretty slow, overall. I'd really only recommend it to big fans of the first two. There are some good bits of humor and we see some actual romance between Wong Fei-Hung and Aunt 13, but I don't think that that sort of thing is the main reason we watch this sort of movie. And even if it were, there's just too little of it.

I really think that Jet Li's talents are wasted when you try to use goofy camera angles to make it look like he's doing superhuman feats. The man is practically superhuman already. I think you're better off showing off the amazing things that he can do rather than focusing on trying to make him look like a cartoon. I'm sure that his work in the movie was very demanding, but it just didn't come off as too impressive on the screen in my opinion.

And way too much lion dancing.