Once Upon a Time in China IV
Yuen Bun · 1993
Once Upon a Time in China IV (1993) replaces Jet Li with Vincent Zhao and Tsui Hark with Yuen Bun, shifting focus from moral authority to symbolic performance. Set in Beijing during the Boxer Rebellion, it pits Wong Fei-hung against a xenophobic cult and an international lion dance competition rigged by colonial powers. Arthur Wong’s functional cinematography and Yuen Bun’s weapon-focused choreography anchor a thin script, where political stakes remain vague but physical detail — rope, lantern smoke, masked formations — carries real weight.
