Once Upon a Time in Shanghai

Once Upon a Time in Shanghai is a 2014 Hong Kong-Chinese martial arts film directed by Wong Ching-po and starring Sammo Hung, Philip Ng and Andy On with action choreography by Yuen Woo-ping and Yuen Cheung-yan. The film is a remake of the 1972 film Boxer from Shantung which starred Chen Kuan-tai, who also appears in a supporting role in this film. Plot Possessing unique super strength and martial arts skills since childhood, Ma Yongzhen (Philip Ng) travels from his hometown to Shanghai to seek a livelihood. There he meets a man from his hometown, Niu Sanguang, who asks the village leader, Master Tie, to feed and give housing to Ma, because he feels an obligation to take care of him. To celebrate his arrival, Niu brings Ma to the Peony night club, owned by a major gang leader and one of the four leaders of a faction called the Axe fraternity. There, he sees rising gang boss Long Qi (Andy On), whose ruthlessness and powerful martial arts skills have put the four gang leaders of Shanghai's reigning Axe fraternity on notice and pushed their territory from four even parts of Shanghai to just only half of it under the Axe fraternity and half under his own reign. Long Qi beats the rival gang leader to death, and sends another back with a message: that the club, now named Paradise Night Club, would mark the border of his and the Axe fraternity's territory, further reducing their land holdings. Ma Yongzhen tries to find a job at the pier. He arm-wrestles everyone and wins easily, proving his extreme strength. Finally, a local gangster comes and challenges Ma to an arm-wrestle. He says that if Ma can last one minute against him, he would hire him; Ma gives a counter-offer of three minutes, but if he lasts, the gangster must hire two of his friends as well. The gangster agrees, and Ma wins, earning three people jobs for eighty cents a day.