Tai chi zong shi

This is my review of The Tai Chi Master, a Chinese action film from 1997. Not to be confused with the Jet Li movie from 1993, this one stars Wu Jing and is a two-hour film that was condensed from a 25-episode television series. Yes, you heard that correctly. A 25-episode television series (with each episode lasting 45 minutes each) was cut and re-edited to fit into a mere 2 hours. Such an endeavor may seem impossible, but it's emphatically successful here. Definitely one of the best martial arts movies you'll ever see, but it does have a few drawbacks.

First of all, the production values are not the best. The visuals are a bit hazy and the sound design could have been better. Not a big deal, because I find that I get used to it fairly quickly. Second, editing is a bit choppy – which is probably a consequence of editing a television series down into movie form. Third, the storyline feels a bit rushed at times. This is set during the 1800s and is basically about a young man who learns Tai Chi and clashes with a number of people, one of which is a vindictive prince. The overall story and conflicts are good enough, but its the side stories that are weakened by this condensed version. However, one positive aspect that helps to mitigate the weaknesses in story is the likability of the protagonists. There's a bit of humor that's used well, and the actors have good chemistry with one another and it's fun watching them interact.

But that's not the best aspect of this movie. The real reason to watch this is for the martial arts. I kid you not, this is one of the most action-packed martial arts movies ever made. The first hour is peppered with entertaining fights, but the truly spectacular scenes are found during the second hour, which begins with a pagoda sequence (lasting a whopping 20 minutes) that represents exactly what Bruce Lee was going for when making Game of Death. If you remember, Bruce Lee wanted his character to fight a different opponent with a different fighting style on each level of the pagoda. Now, the Game of Death that was actually released in 1978 only has about 15 minutes of Bruce Lee footage because he passed away before he got a chance to finish it. Well, the pagoda sequence in The Tai Chi Master forces our protagonist fight against a Korean kickboxer, a Mongolian wrestler, a Miao pole fighter, a master of inner chi, a Japanese lady ninja, and a drunken monk. Let me put this into perspective. It's a treat when you see one fight in any action movie that showcases opponents with completely different fighting styles. This movie gives you 6 in a row! Utterly insane.

And that's not all. Like they say in those infomercials, "But wait, there's more!" After all of this, we a three-phase duel between two practitioners of Tai Chi. So this time, you get two guys who use a very similar style, and it's just awesome. One of these fights takes place amidst hundreds of hanging swords.

These fights are so intricately choreographed, it will blow your mind. There are so many martial arts moves here that I've never seen before in any other movie. I am not an expert on martial arts, but even I feel like I have a much greater knowledge of the style of Tai Chi after watching this movie – because you see so much of it, and it's captured so well.

This movie and Kill Zone (2005) made me an instant fan of Wu Jing. I love this guy and I try to watch every action movie he's in. He's had a very inconsistent film career, with inexplicable patches of inactivity and/or quality. It's nice to see him reach some financial success in recent years. Both Wolf Warrior and SPL 2: A Time for Consequences made a lot of money in 2015, so he's on a bit of a hot streak.

For all fans of Fung Fu cinema, this is another gem. The action scenes are amazing and the Tai Chi techniques used for the fight choreography's are very impressive indeed. This is a must for you if you are a Chinese cinema collector like me. The only problem I see is the bad edition changing from one situation to another and also the fact that is too long, but on the other hand, you get so many fighting sequences that will give you enough Kung Fu for 2 months!. This is a good movie, shot on video format, something that makes me remember that wonderful TV series "The Magic Palm of Buddah" back in my child wood in Venezuela during the 80's. Buy it now, if you are a Fung Fu cinema fan, you won't be disappointed. Yuen Wo Ping co-directed, so, you already know what does that mean.

Okay , first i would like to say that i have waited for a long time to watch this movie , it was always checked out at my rental store so i finally decided i was gonna buy the DVD , it was totally worth it and i am glad i made the decision of buying it . What can i say? Its the same guy who brought us the action from The Matrix , Crouching tiger and hidden dragon , Kill Bill and more . Cant go wrong with that, it was an enjoyable movie packed with breathtaking action scenes with cutting edge special effects , although fighting scenes are well choreographed there was no need for any cgi , genuinely great. Thanks Master Yuen. Thanks

It's confusing as Yuen Woo-Ping has been involved in three productions called "Tai Chi Master". The first in 1984 (now known as "Drunken Tai Chi") was a comedy that featured Tai Chi basketball. The more famous Jet Li film was from 1993 and then there's this late 1990's TV series that was edited into a 2 hour feature in 2003. I'm not sure what Yuen's actual knowledge of Tai Chi is but this production is certainly the closest to real Tai Chi Chuan of the three.

Essentially the story of how a young man, Yang, becomes a student of the closed door Chen family Tai Chi style and defeats Master Chen's enemy, a vicious warlord. This movie claims that Yang learned much of Chen Tai Chi by disguising himself as a haystack and spying on classes or by sparring with Chen's daughter who is disguised as a boy. This is the Yang who created the famous Yang Tai Chi style that's popular around the world but don't expect to see much of it here. It's probable that the historical element is on the fanciful side. However the movie offers frequent and well done fight scenes with a lot of actual Tai Chi techniques on display. The actors are excellent athletes and can actually do lengthy takes at full speed. Much like the old school movies from the Shaw studios. After the initial fight scenes which are not wonderfully filmed, the movie takes off and everything else is very well done.

Shot in standard PAL TV, the production is good and you get used to the TV look after a while. I have an aversion to many shot for TV kung fu dramas but this one is an exception. It's as good if not better than many shot on film kung fu movies. The biggest problem is the plot which is very choppy at times but I've seen feature films that are worse.

Enjoy, it's a real old school kung fu flick

The DVD movie version of this is a little bit incoherent as one person mentioned, this is due to the fact that it actually was not originally a movie but a TV series in china. They did the best they could editing it down into a movie format. The fight scenes they left in the movie are very well done. The lighting as the one bad reviewer mentioned is weird but it's basically a Soap opera style lighting format made for TV series and not movie lighting. This is basically an imaginative version of the story of how Yang Lu Chang spied on The Chen Family village to learn their Tai Chi and was later accepted as the first non family member student of Chen Style Tai Chi then later modified it and refined certain techniques to make them his own and eventually created the Yang Style of Tai Chi and decided to teach it to many which is why it is now the most well known form of Tai Chi in the world. He was also known as Yang the Invincible supposedly taking on over 20,000 matches with zero losses. This particular movie / TV series depicts his development as he increases in ability and technique, which veers a little from the reality that he was already a very accomplished martial artist before learning tai chi and perhaps a bit older as well. But as with all films they take a few liberties. The techniques in this series and the fight philosophies and principles of tai chi are more authentic in this series than in any other I've seen so far and a few of the scenes are very entertaining as well making this an instant favorite Kung Fu movie for me. One particular concept of Tai Chi that they mentioned in the movie is a very important concept that will help any martial artist... "Light on Top... heavy on the bottom" which to me translates as be yielding but rooted... like a tree which sways in the wind if it's too rigid on the top or it's roots aren't deep enough into the ground it will be knocked over in the wind. The same goes for a martial artist if you are too unwilling to yield to an attack and would rather fight force with force you will eventually run into something too powerful for you to meet head on. It's real world concepts that they mention throughout the movie and watching stuff I have personally used before as well as a few things I never thought to use in sparring that really make this even more worthwhile for true martial artists.