Dread Pirate (Tom) RobertsSo on ‘Once Upon A Time In China II’ I only have vague memories of it.
I have strong memories of the first film, but not this.
But it’s Jet Li and Donnie Yen, so expectations are moderate.
Also, the “Once Upon A Time…” moniker is (as I understand) totally invented for the translation.
I like to think there’s a lineage between “One Upon A Time In…”
- The West
- China
- America
- Hollywood
… but I guess it’s not there. Though Tarantino probably had his reasons.
Edit: So ‘The West’ and ‘America’ are both Leone films.
Ross Floate@troberts There’s also “Once upon a time … the Revolution” by Leone which is nominally between West and America. It’s also variously called “Fistful of dynamite” or “Duck You Sucker”.
@troberts I’ve watched “The West dozens of times. If you can get your hands on the dvd or bluray, the commentary track is basically western film school.
@troberts when the recent-ish tv WestWorld came out I was all impressed with myself about noting all the ways The Man In Black (Ed Harris) was homage to Frank/Fonda. Really thought I was clever until I realised the town in WW was called Sweetwater — same as the ranch in West.
@rossfloate I’ll track it down if I can.
I probably still prefer TGTBATU for overall cinematic wow factor. The whole end section for instance.
Cinema Kid walks in the room:
“Is this one of your crazy movies? Like the one with the three women?”
(He means ‘The Heroic Trio’ starring Michelle Yeoh, Anita Mui, and Maggie Cheung.)
Me:
“Sort of.”