The film opens with Wong Fei Hung (Jet Li) traveling via stagecoach with Aunt Yee (Rosamund Kwan) and Clubfoot (Xin Xin Xiong) to Texas to visit Buck Tooth So, who has traveled to America to start a new branch of the Po Chi Lam school. They pick up a scruffy young gunslinger named Billy (get it?, played by a guy with a frizzy bleach blonde surfer hairdo). Fei Hung is separated from his companions during a skirmish and subsequently loses his memory and is rescued by a tribe of Native American Indians. Meanwhile, Aunt Yee and Clubfoot meet up with So and see the racist conditions the Chinese are forced into living separated and shunned from the white locals. After some bonding with the Indians, Fei Hung is reunited with Aunt Yee and friends, regains his memory, and aides the town in their fight against a gang of bank robbers lead by a deadly, dark, wolf killing fighter with razor sharp spurs.

The great Sammo Hung directed this installment, and it is a film with one or two good moments but ultimately a bore that falls prey to the price of being a sequel- not being able to live up to the original. Overall, much like the Jackie Chan film he made the same year, Mr Nice Guy, Sammo and crew have a threadbare script with dull characterizations and a story you just cannot get into despite the few brief bits of fairly good action. Its like they just thought, lets think of all the Westernlike scenes we can, stampedes, Indians, guns Vs. martial arts, bar fights, lynching, of course, throw in the standard OUATIC lion dancing scene, and build a movie around it. The film was actually a location shoot (a big deal for HK film), taking the bother to go to Texas and California to shoot instead of trying to pass off some sparse bit of Mainland China for the Wild West. There is quite a bit of English speaking and no doubt the American actors they hired either were non-professional or some bottom of the barrel dinner theater lot. I mean, I can forgive the Chinese cast for fractured English, but the English speaking actors cant spout lines in their own native language with any conviction. The fight choreography is pretty good, Sammo grounds Li and crew a tad more than Tsui Hark, only using wirework every now and then to enhance a leap or two. Xin Xin Xiong once again, like in parts 3 & 4, becomes one of the films saving graces. But, its all too dumb (and not even dumb in a good way) and ultimately uninteresting. Sure, if you are a Sammo fan, a Jet Li fan, its essential viewing. Jackie Chan gets grief for 'ripping off' OUATIC and America with Shanghai Noon, but thats only because people forget/don't know that some twenty years before Fighting Fists of Shanghai Joe was on cinema screens. For me, the only real fondness I have for OUATIC and America is that it reminds me of when I first watched it while visiting my best friend. For everyone else, it will remind them of how much better the first three Once Upon a time in China films were.

The DVD: Tai Seng. An import of the Carnival or China Star version.

Picture- Widescreen, 1.85:1. The film was shot 2.35:1, so there is some cropping which hinders the film. It is all just a tad too up close and the fight choreography, especially, is too cramped. While you have to judge HK films on a sliding scale, there is quite a bit of damage, general wear of softness and brightness, not spots or scratches. Colors are pretty good and so is the contrast, but it really could look quite a bit better, a very halfhearted but acceptable (if not for the wrong ratio) transfer.

Sound- Cantonese or Mandarin Dolby Digital 5.1 with optional Chinese or English subtitles. The subs actually have a few points were they are a good 5 seconds or so behind the dialogue. Pretty average sound. Gets the job done without any real flaws, but also without any great effect or impressive mixing.

Extras-12 Chapters--- Cast Info (Chinese Only)--- Theatrical Trailer--- 24 min 'Making Of' documentary unfortunately in Chinese only with no subtitles so all the interviews become negligible.

Conclusion: Well, really the series has teetered out at this point. By no means is has it reached Friday the 13th territory of having worn out its welcome, but certainly the Once Upon A Time In China films hit their peak with the first two. The transfer is worn and doesn't present the image in the proper ratio, the only source for that with Eng subs is the Thunder Media Taiwanese edition. But, it is cheaply priced. Probably more of a rental for most, perhaps a purchase for those die hard HK action and Jet Li fans, but its a film I'd say most could live without having in their collection.