Lua Phat

I did not love Once Upon a Time in Vietnam, but I did like it and really respected the film. I saw a lot in it that impressed me about the Vietnamese film industry, as the film was every bit as cinematic and lovely as anything you'll find anywhere today. So, despite coming from a relatively small nation, the quality of the production itself was top- notch.

Dustin Nguyen wrote, directed and starred in this film. He plays Master Dao—a guy with super-amazing martial arts skills that seem to be fused with the supernatural. He is one tough and bad guy! This is one of the big strengths of the film, as the martial arts sequences are great—very high speed and appearing as if the actors are really beating the stuffing out of each other! This is not like the old films from Hong Kong with loud celery stalk sound effects and punches and kicks that clearly do not connect! But, in addition to being extremely intense, the Master and the other Masters in the film are able to do some extraordinary feats!

Dao lives in a bizarre futuristic dystopian world. While he drives a motorcycle and there is SOME technology, the towns look pretty much like American western towns of the 19th century and folks battle with swords, not guns. I have NO IDEA why this is the case, as even if the future is amazingly awful, there should be a few guns lying about and there won't be a need for these servants of the Emperor to use swords! But no matter—with this sort of Road Warrior sort of world, it's best not to think out all these story elements! Dao's job is to track down runaways from the military, as the term of service is life—and anyone who tries to leave with be killed—and Dao will do it! However, when he comes to one particular town, who he has come to kill comes as a bit of a surprise—as does what happens next. What exactly do I mean? See the film.

Although I liked the camera-work, music and action sequences, the film is not perfect. I found the story a bit confusing at points (mostly because WHY folks behaved the way they did didn't always seem consistent or understandable). There also seemed to be some dangling story elements that never really did get resolved. However, if you can just turn off your brain and enjoy the film for what it is, it is pretty spectacular. Worth seeing—particularly if you love martial arts films.

The story line is bad.

After all this Movie is not recomended to watch!

On the surface Once Upon A Time In Vietnam is a big milestone in Vietnam for the post apocalyptic genre but on the technical aspect like directing and writing it a incredibly shallow movie to the point that I don't think no one will want to watch again. Both Dustin Nguyen and Veronica Ngo are two of the best action star from Vietnam and to see them on the same movie after The Rebel sound like a match make in heaven so at first I'm very forgiving with the cliché story " A nobody bring piece back to town" but as soon as it shift into a boring love triangle story and later on a complete mess with another guy who want a piece of Thanh Van ass all my hope for this movie to be just a fun and mindless action movie is gone. The action is actually very good if you got cat eyes because honestly for a movie with the only redeeming quality is the action like Once Upon A Time In Vietnam when something exciting happened the movie look so badly lit that you can't even see what going on and that maybe the biggest flaw that I can find out of this movie

Even though THE REBEL placed Vietnam on the map as a supplier of martial arts fare, the country's relatively meager output makes it easy to forget about that over time. With Vietnamese action flicks finding international release at a rate of maybe one every two years, the need for quality among these films is extra important, and disappointingly, the 2013 entry – ONCE UPON A TIME INVIETNAM - falls short. Exceling on some fronts, floundering on others, and simply overdoing it otherwise, this minor epic scrapes an average but unenthusiastic rating from me. It's easy to imagine how cool this could have been had it a bit more sense when it came to some important aspects.

The story: In a time when Vietnam is protected by an army of elite warrior-monks, one of their number (Dustin Nguyen) arrives in a rural town on a mission and is forced to confront his past in the form of a forbidden lover (Veronica Ngo).

The movie looks great, with a striking art design. A mixture of steampunk and video game-style fantasy makes for a visual tone that's simultaneously unique and familiar. I've never seen its likes on film before, and the producers keep this look consistent, with even the being CGI well-integrated. The story, on the other hand, is less consistent. The plot starts out as director Dustin Nguyen's take on YOJIMBO, but levels off into a family drama and a love angle between Nguyen and Ngo. The characters have their entertaining moments, especially Thai Hoa in his role as Ngo's husband, but they're not so intriguing that I'm on the edge of my seat to see how they work out their problems. Quite the opposite – I'm slumped in my chair, waiting for the matter of Ngo's son's paternity be solved so I can get back to the action scenes.

These action scenes are also a mixed bag. Nguyen can be one of the best kickers in the business if offered the opportunity, Ngo is still among our brightest hopes for a new female action lead, and B-movie dragon Roger Yuan – showing up in the last half-hour as the villain – always has something good to add, but their fights just aren't up to the standard karate junkies are looking for. For the most part, the brawls are modeled after modern Hong Kong output, which means that there's some wirework and a lot of unnecessary slow motion. These eyesores aren't omnipresent, and occasionally the choreography and pacing of a fight are good enough to power through these unwanted excesses, but unless you're a fan of overly-artistic kung fu, you won't find maximum enjoyment. Most action fans have seen these kinds of matches before, performed a lot better.

I'd love to see Dustin refine his style of action filmmaking, but if this is the kind of work he intends to produce in the future, I will be a lot less eager to see subsequent directorial efforts. Rent this as a take-it-or-leave-it adventure, but do not expect to find a new favorite.