By: Columbia/Tristar Studios

Most North American audiences are familiar with Jet Li. With movies such as Romeo Must Die and Kiss of the Dragon, he's the lastest Asian film star to crack into Hollywood.

Unfortunately, only a minority of North Americans are familiar with the real jet Li movies. Jet Li is known around the world for his pure martial arts films. Once Upon a Time in China is one of those films. Now you can own the first three Once Upon a Time in China films in a new box set.

Ah, the box set. What's so special about this one? Well, nothing. It's basically the three movies in a box. It is a nice box? Sure, but it's what's inside that counts...

If you love martial arts, you must watch these films. Jet Li plays Wong Fei Hung, a legendary hero in Chinese culture and the star of countless martial arts films. The cheoreography is spectacular. Jet Li displays martial arts in grand form, and captivates audiences with speed, power and agility. The best part is that little of the action is done with wire work, or other camera tricks. This of course means that the actors can really kick some serious ass.

The Once Upon a Time in China movies also have a perspective to them that is very interesting. Underlying them is the reaction of the characters to the growing influence of Western culture into Chinese society. This idea is the source of the morals of the films, as well as some clever comic scenes.

The picture quality is decent on the DVDs. It's a fairly clean transfer, but don't expect anything special. Although the first film is only presented in 2 channel sound, the second and third are available in 5.1 surround. The language tracks are very pleasing, with Cantonese and Mandarin. Combined with the english or french subtitles, you can watch the films as they are meant to be. For those who would rather not read all that text (or for those who are just looking for a good laugh), there's a hilarious English voice over as well.

The DVD box set is pretty thin on special features. However, the commentary track by Hong Kong film expert (self-proclaimed for sure) Ric Meyers on the first DVD is surprisingly interesting. There is a lot of information about the casting, Jet Li's career and the history of the martial arts film industry.

Although I feel the third installment isn't up to par with the first two, the Once Upon a Time in China box set in definitely worth looking into. It could the perfect way to watch people beat the crap out of each other from the comfort of your living room.