Jackson, an American dignitary, is a corrupt sociopath who runs a side business selling the Chinese as slaves, especially selling attractive women as prostitutes. Using the Shaho Gang as his personal army of thugs, Jackson orders an attack on the province's governor and hero Wong Fei-Hung at an opera, having his men fire into the crowd of civilians. When confronted by Fei-Hung at the end, Jackson attempts to use the Governor as a hostage while trying to kill Fei-Hung and his friends.
Once Upon a Time in China II: High Priest Kau-Kung, master of the White Lotus sect, leads a crusade against anything even vaguely Western. Having his followers burn every Western item they can find, Kau-Kung even has Western dogs burnt alive before sending his men into the streets to attack and murder those with Western items, technology or clothing. Kau-Kung has his followers attack multiple institutions, including a school for children to learn foreign languages, with Fei-Hung barely saving the lives of the children. He then has the foreign embassies besieged, intending to have every Westerner within massacred, along with any Chinese citizen seen as a "collaborator".
Contested Sequel: The Vincent Zhao films are not as well as received as the Jet Li ones, although they do have their fair share of fans. However, Once Upon a Hero in China, a mockbuster made by another director, is largely considered to be the worst movie bearing the Wong Fei-hung name, despite also starring Jet Li.
Even Better Sequel: Many fans consider the second movie to be just as good as the first, if not better, largely due to the presence of Donnie Yen as the main villain and delivery of the message that not all Westerners are bad. While the first movie did display some moral nuance by having the European priest try to help Wong Fei-hung and showing how not all Chinese were good through the actions of Tong and his gang, the second film is still seen as doing a much better job of delivering a message of universal reconciliation.
First Installment Wins: A mild subversion in that both the first and second films in the series are loved and highly praised. It's every film after the first two that receive more and more criticisms and accusations of Sequelitis.
Magnificent Bastard: Once Upon a Time in China II: Nap-lan Yun-seut is a military officer hunting down members of a revolutionary sect that seek to replace the Qing dynasty with a republic. Gaining a respect for Wong Fei-hung in a sparring match, Nap-lan later fakes an attack by the fanatic White Lotus cultists to give himself an excuse to search the British consulate for rebels, murdering the consul when he sees through the ruse. Infiltrating the White Lotus to engage Fei-hung, Nap-lan even succeeds in eliminating his friend before attempting to steal a book of revolutionary names to clandestinely eliminate them.
Vincent Zhao's turn as Wong Fei-hung in the fourth and fifth was not well received by audiences, despite giving a decent performance. Jet Li was brought back in the sixth and final film as a result.
To a lesser extent, Aunt 14 who replaced Aunt 13 in the fourth movie. Aunt 13 returned in the fifth film however.
Averted by Max Mok who replaced Yuen Biao as Leung Fu after the first film.
Retroactive Recognition: Marvelous as Donnie Yen's performance as Anti-Villain General Nap-lan Yun-seut was in the second film (in which he actually won the Best Supporting Actor Trophy of the Hong Kong Oscars in 1993), nobody expected him to rise to the success of portraying another famous martial artist, Wing-Chun master in the Ip Man series almost 15 years later.....
For those who liked Vincent Zhao's performance as Wong Fei-hung, the fifth film is arguably better than the fourth due to the return of Rosamund Kwan as Aunt 13 and Tsui Hark in the director's chair.
For Jet Li fans, the sixth film in which he returned and took the film into a new direction. The fact it was directed by martial arts legend Sammo Hung, who also choreographed the fights, also helped.
Unconventional Learning Experience: Even if the series runs on Rule of Cool and Artistic License – History, it still neatly covers the final years of Imperial China. Never heard about unequal treaties? Or maybe the fact that China was ruled by Manchus? Or how Western powers tried to carve pieces of China for themselves? Then please, take a seat.
based on the traditional Chinese Ballad Jiang Jun Ling (General's Orders). A hot-blooded song that tells you to "shine brighter than the sun!" It is also known as "男兒當自強" - A Man Should Strengthen Himself