“Once Upon A Time In China” stars Jet Li (“Fearless”, “Romeo Must Die”) as the famous Chinese folk hero, Wong Fei-Hung. It features some very enjoyable martial arts sequences but the movie also impressed me as a historical film with great set design throughout.

Wong Fei-Hung is a respected physician and martial arts, who comes to oppose the influence of foreign forces (including the British, the French and the Americans) when he sees his native China become increasing westernised as the world’s great powers profit from their activities in China. He is ultimately forced to fight as he takes on Chinese gangsters eager to make money from the suffering of their fellow Chinese.

Jet Li manages to pull off some impressive moves here and there even if this film isn’t as action oriented as many of his other movies. There is a noticeably slower pace here than in the majority of action films but that’s because this film is trying more to be a historical picture and biography film so we naturally get a more detailed portrayal of the character of Wong Fei-Hung. Yuen Biao (“Dragons Forever”) also appears in this film so martial arts fans should be happy. It’s a little disappointing that no famous European or American actors were cast as the various non-Chinese characters.

There are some very creative fight scenes in this movie so fans of the martial arts genre are going to be entertained. The movie’s pacing and style is also potentially going to make it more accessible to those that do not care so much for martial arts movies. “Once Upon A Time In China” is the first in a series of movies so I’m looking forward to watching some of the sequels and see where they go from here because this is a remarkable start.