ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA & AMERICA
(Chinatown Video)
Reviewed by Jonathan
Marshall
The Asian presence in the American West has been the
subject of countless films before Jackie Chan's recent
money-spinner Shanghai Noon. Once Upon a Time In China &
America is another in the popular Jet Li saga that began with Once
Upon A Time In China. The scathing inditement of white colonists and
their collaborators is a bit 'by-the-numbers' here, but the film is
basically consistent with the pattern of light comedy, romance and
wire-assisted, high-flying action that characterises Li's career.
We get Li reprising his confused, amnesic persona he portrayed so
well in The Tai Chi Master, together with a fast talking,
sympathetic, lackadaisical cowboy (clearly of Asian ancestry, though this
is unfortunately not developed). Otherwise, the film is pretty much the
same deal as the other movies.
This is fine if you are a die-hard Jet Li fan, but
personally I find Li's consistent and comparatively easy victories
over his foes too perfect and balletic to be emotionally satisfying. Li
is a dancer, not a struggling fighter in the mould of his constantly
smashed, cut and bruised peers Jackie Chan, Yuen Baio, Sammo
Hung or even Bruce Lee. Perhaps more importantly, the supposed
political line of the film is severely compromised by Li's almost
instant renunciation of the American Indians who nurse him back to health
as soon as his memory returns.
Unlike Afro-American Westerns, there is no suggestion that
the racial oppression of these Chinese characters parallels that of the
indigenous population. The Indians are instead portrayed as largely well
meaning but simple savages, whose cultural experience has nothing in
common with the advanced, civilised background of the Chinese. Shanghai
Noon is a better film in this respect, portraying how white Americans
can hardly tell the difference between the racial minorities they employ
for labour. Even the somewhat dodgy recent release A
Man Called Hero (also set in America and the West) is somewhat
more satisfying in terms of its action sequences and political line. Once
Upon a Time in China & America is good HK video fodder, but even
dubious films like The Bushido Blade depict a more interesting
relationship between frontier America and Asian cultures.
© 2000 Jonathan Marshall
H E R O I C * C I N E M A
http://www.heroic-cinema.com
