Tai ji quan

After seeing it a few times, this is my conclusion. First, there seems to be two plots: one is that some English tuxedo-wearing guys are smuggling opium to China, the other is a boy-wants-girl love story.

One reviewer said it takes place about the year 1900 -- I couldn't have guessed from just watching the movie. Other flaws seems to be that it is unclear where it takes place. "In a village, somewhere in China." Yet there is a nearby town or village where they, unknown to all main characters, are sacrificing children (!) in a seemingly recurrent ritual. How can they not know about this? Later, this incident is never talked of again, and this and several other incidents make me wonder, why there are so many subplots.

Quite a few things don't make sense in the film... Don't understand why it even called "tai chi 2". It doesn't have anything in common with Tai Chi 1 (tai chi master). And the officer to which Rose was engaged is also an enigma: is he good or bad? I felt sorry for him anyways -- he was just trying to do his job and start a family, but everyone seemed to dislike him.

The acting is overall like the others said: decent, but not very spectacular. All though they could have mentioned the mother and father are very enjoyable to watch. Maybe a good thing would be if the story was focused more on the family life. Or focused on, well, *anything*, instead of diverse itself like it did.

Note that the first scene takes place 10 years before the rest of the film. They could have mentioned this. And why why couldn't they have bothered making a decent ending....

Enjoyable little thing though, thanks to its action and humour!! Recommendable!! 7 / 10.

In the grand scheme of martial arts movies,"Tai Chi II" (not a sequel) is junk. However, for martial arts enthusiasts it might qualify as a B-flick. A sort of dramady about a young Chinese puritan student who wants to win the affections of a hottie while ridding his land of the evils of opium, this flick breaks no new ground as it finds one excuse after another for Wu to do all the same old tired Kung Fu moves we seen a gazillion times before...with the exception using his braid like a whip (yeah, right). Save some pretty scenery including Chung and identifying some of the Tai Chi position used during the fight (eg: leaping lizard, holy cow, etc.), this flick is pure cornball Kung Fu with the same sound effect used for every punch, missed-by-a-mile choreography, and lame wire fu. Lacking the grit of Bruce Lee, the inventiveness and personality of Jackie Chan, and the elegance of "Crouching Tiger...", "Tai Chi II" is just more junk food for martial art film freaks. (C)

Tai Chi 2 stars a great martial artist, Jackie Wu. He looks like a young Jet Li! His martial arts are fast, crisp and smooth. This movie is filled with action and martial arts! Jackie wu does some great Wu Shu and Tai Chi here. Yuen Woo Ping directed it and it shows. It includes the villain in Fong Sai Yuk (the bald guy, Chuen-Hua Chi) and the pimp ass Tai Chi master in all of the Shaolin Temple movies and in Tai Chi Master (Yu Hai), and the badass general in Fist of Legend and many other movies (Billy Chow).

His character is a bit of a smartass, but it works well within the story. Its a cute story and every five minutes of so...boom great martial arts sequences! :) This is one of my personal favez, because of the fresh new Jackie Wu, who later went on to star in the Hong Kong TV Series Shaolin Temple directed by none other than Yuen Woo Ping.

It's a Jackie Chan-ish martial arts movie with dangerous stunts, hair attacks, and peculiar meditations (among other things). The movie is sly yet undemanding, but it's not very well made. Then again, we don't watch this kind of movie to see lavish sets or high acting talent.

Most Westerners will probably be drawn to "Tai Chi Boxer" by Yuen Woo Ping's name, but I think it is a movie targeted primarily at Chinese audiences, who will probably respond more to its themes and period setting. The story is uncompelling, but the martial arts action choreography is spectacular and fascinating. Although Yuen Woo Ping sometimes resorts to wires, he lets the action stay on the ground long enough to let you appreciate the skills of the several martial artists who appear in the film. Jackie Wu, in his film debut, has graceful moves, and the fact that he is not very muscular makes his victories even more impressive; he really does make you believe that Tai Chi is the most powerful form of kung fu (especially when you add a mean ponytail to it). The guy who plays the main villain is fantastic - he seemed REALLY angry at all times. It is also a pleasure to see Sibelle Hu (one of the sexiest and most expressive actresses of Hong Kong cinema, in my opinion) in what is, according to IMDb, her last film role to date. (**1/2)