Once Upon a Time in China and America is best thought of as a further adventure of Wong Fei-hung in pulp fashion. In fact, a better title might have been Wong Fei-hung vs. the Savages or Wong Fei-hung Meets Billy the Kid. Sammo's choreography is very good, but it mostly rehashes typical '90s wirework and gives martial abilities to characters who shouldn't have any. But it really doesn't matter. Sammo and Tsui aren't taking the matter too seriously and viewers shouldn't either. This movie is all about putting Hong Kong-style wire fu action into a campy Western setting and they succeed. Yet it does make one yearn for a serious attempt at putting a kung fu fighter in an authentic Western setting, perhaps as Bruce Lee had originally envisioned when he conceived of the Kung Fu television series. -- Mark Pollard