Once Upon a Time in China III

A lion dance competition is organised in Beijing. The aim is to display strength to foreigners; the result is teams destroying each other. Wong Fei-hung arrives in the city with his father and sees the political calculation behind the event. At the same time the Russians are planning an assassination. Tsui Hark directed. Jet Li plays Wong Fei-hung, Rosamund Kwan plays Aunt Thirteen. It is the third film in the series and continues the political thread of the first two: China's position against foreign powers and how tradition is to be preserved. The lion dance sequences are the body of the film, combining dozens of teams, poles, fire and wirework. The final competition runs about twenty minutes. Technology such as steam engines and motor cars is deliberately foregrounded; the film presents modernisation as both threat and necessity. Jet Li did not appear in the next entry, making this the last main link with him in it. Who it is for: viewers who like wuxia and martial arts cinema. Who it is not for: anyone new to the series; the story assumes the earlier films.