O Mestre da Guerra

Watching this movie reminded me to Bunraku, or Scott Pilgrim where there are comic elements fused in, but better. After a while I lost interest in watching Bunraku or Scott Pilgrim, they became boring and dull while Tai Chi 0 still has lots of things to offer till the end.

This is the 1st Stephen Fung's movie that I watched and he surely does a good jobs. The fight choreography by Sammo Hung, visual (and comical)& sound effects, scores, some camera works, the acting from Tony Leung and Angelababy (gosh, she's so fresh n pretty) are the good part of this movie.

However, the acting of both leading male and that British woman are wooden, even the village people give better performance. While Angelababy delivers decent acting but her moves as a fighter is not convincing. The pace drags a bit in the middle of the movie, the camera work inside that giant machine are dull/not creative, the story is quite thin - without any elements add in, it may only make half of a movie. I should give '8' to this movie, but considering these lacks, I can only give 6.

Kudos especially to Stephen Fung and Sammo Hung, which from this poor script and resources still can make an enjoyable flick. And I still want to see the sequel "Tai Chi Hero", hopefully it will be better.

Touted as one of the most anticipated Chinese movie blockbusters of the year, actor-director Stephen Fung's TAI CHI ZERO is a revisionist take of a classic martial-art movie with a steampunk twist. On paper, the concept sounds interesting enough. Even the trailer itself makes me believe it's a go-for-broke, martial arts comedy in the vein of KUNG FU HUSTLE (2004). But for all the colorful effort that Fung tries hard to be different than your regular martial-art movie, TAI CHI ZERO is strangely uninvolving and poorly executed in many ways.

The story centers on a martial-art prodigy named Yang Luchan (Jayden Yuan) who is born with a fleshy abnormality where he has a "horn" sprouting from his forehead. Whenever someone punches his "horn", he turns himself into a mystical warrior that able to take down a score of enemies in a short period of time.

One day, when his master, Zhao Kanping (Fung Hak On), who is a leader of the Divine Truth forces, ends up being killed by Qing army. The Divine Truth army physician Dr. Dong (Leung Siu-Lung), who also badly injured by the attack, urges Luchan to head on to Chen Village to study Master Chen's (Tony Leung Ka-Fai) unique martial arts technique that promotes internal energy. Apparently Luchan's "horn" has already turned red and he will die soon enough if it turns black.

But upon arrival, Luchan finds his presence is unwelcome by the villagers of the Chen Village. He finds out that nobody will teaches an outsider of their Chen-style martial arts. Worse, Master Chen is nowhere to be found. He only manages to locate Chen's daughter, Yuniang (Angelababy), who runs a local medicine shop. She also makes it clear that she will not teaches Luchan at any circumstances, and urges him to give up instead. But the hard-headed Luchan keeps trying to find way to learn Chen-style martial arts at all cost.

Yuniang's boyfriend, Fang Zijing (Eddie Peng), who recently returns studying from Europe, tries to convince the villagers to allow a railroad through their land and to install electricity. Unfortunately his visual presentation goes terribly wrong and ends up being an object of ridicule by the villagers. Zijing is upset about this, and subsequently joins forces with East India Company representative Claire Heathrow (Mandy Lieu) to persuade the villagers by force.

Meanwhile, Luchan befriends with an old laborer (also Tony Leung Ka-Fai) and secretly copying Chen-style martial arts from the villagers he's encounter from.

Then one day, Zijing and Claire returns to Chen Village with foreign soldiers, along with a giant destruction machine called "Troy No. 1", to teach the villagers a hard lesson.

On the surface, the movie is exceptionally busy with lots of fancy visuals. From arcade game-like screen graphics that has exclamation marks of "K.O.!", "Round 1!" to video game pop-ups (labels on people and location), as well as manga-like animated section, the movie should have been a fun-filled entertainment. Unfortunately, Fung's direction is terribly haphazard and he doesn't have sense of pacing. Despite clocking at a compact 97 minutes, the movie feels unusually overlong (as if watching a 2-hour movie) because of numerous expository-heavy scenarios that could have been trimmed short.

Another huge problem here is Chen Kuo-Fu's overcrowded screenplay that tries too hard to be everything. For a movie that supposes to concentrate on Yang Luchan's quest to learn Chen-style martial arts, his story here is more like an afterthought.

All the actors here are mixed bag. As the main star of the movie, real-life martial arts champion Jayden Yuan is terribly dull and wooden as a performer. Eddie Peng is unconvincing to portray the kind of character who is vengeful and filled with lots of hatred. Angelababy, who is best known for acting in romantic comedies, does quite an okay job as a strong-willed martial artist. American-Malaysian Chinese model Mandy Lieu, is all porcelain beauty but her acting skill is plain terrible, as well as her wooden English dialogues. Of all, only Tony Leung Ka-Fai is credible as the old laborer and Master Chen.

Technical credits are overall adequate at best, while Sammo Hung's action choreography is surprisingly average. The martial arts scene, which combined wirework and slow-motion, are all empty style but little substance. It's especially a shame that Jayden Yuan is given little chance to strut his stuff here.

Overall, TAI CHI ZERO is a huge disappointment for a movie that tries to expand into a planned trilogy. What's more, the sequel, TAI CHI HERO will be released in a few weeks' time on Oct 25. Hopefully we can see some significant improvement by then.

this movie is another coffin nail of how Chinese movies have already past the point of no return unsalvageable terminal disease. this movie has wasted lot of money on nothing but messy childish soul-less hollow gimmicks. the screenplay was also a milestone of the worst of worst Chinese screenplay writers who got the incurable brain damage from reading too many absurd comic books and playing too many ridiculous video games. viewers who praised this movie as an epic masterpiece should also have their heads thoroughly checked, but i doubt MRI could find how their brains were damaged since those comic books and video games are like untraceable virus. this movie also proved that the failure of the Chinese education system which only created copycatting self-claimed geniuses like guys eating too much American junk food after endless garbage-in, garbage-out digestion. all kinds of crap to these people are like most tasteful cuisines.

oh my god, what a mess of this movie has created. i don't even have appropriate words to describe how disgusting this movie is. i always wonder why those rich people would invest money on such pure garbage. by ridiculing one of the legendary Chinese martial arts masters is on the par of the Chinese communist party who claimed itself was the sole party fighting the Japanese invasion. this movie is so disgusting that i don't even know how to review it with proper words. god forgive me.

This is an exploration into the tropes of Gung Fu movies. Every single line, every move, is taking apart kung fu cinema. I have waited for a parody like this for years, and I mean all the way from Rudy Ray Moore's Shaolin Dolemite to Kung Pow: Enter the Fist. They all missed the point. This is a Tarantino film without Tarantino beating you to death with it. A movie for true kung fu fans only. It is barely accessible to outside audiences, which I think explains the negative reviews.

How does the master know how to do that? EXACTLY! Why does he gain skills for no reason? EXACTLY. It is dissecting the clichés and also telling a story.

Plus, Shu Qi is in it, and that's always a plus.

The boy Yang Lu Chan (Jayden Yuan) was born with a little fleshy horn on his forehead and is called The Freak and is humiliated and rejected by the other boys in his village. However, when the horn is touched, he turns into an eminent kung fu warrior. When his beloved mother dies, he follows his Master Lao Zhao (Hark-On Fung) that is the leader of the Divine Truth army that fights the emperor army. However, every time that Yang fight, his horn gets darker and Master Dong (Siu-Lung Leung) tells that if it gets black, he will die. When the emperor army attacks the Divine Truth, Dong is deadly injured and he advises Yang to travel to the Chen Village to seek out Master Chen Chang Xing (Tony Leung Ka Fai) and learn the martial art Tai Chi that would provide energy to him to survive. However, the Master Chen is in a retreat and the Chen villagers refuse to teach the technique to outsiders. Yang meets Chen's daughter Chen Yu Niang (Angelababy) and she successively beats up on him trying to force Yang to give up. But a laborer suggests Yang to learn the Tai Chi movements while she beats him.

Meanwhile, Yu Niang's former boyfriend Fang Zi Jing (Eddie Peng), who was born in the village but has studied in Europe, returns to Chen Village expecting to convince the locals to allow building a railroad across their land. His proposal is rejected and he returns with the railroad representative Claire Heathrow (Mandy Lieu) in a lethal machine with British soldiers to destroy the Chen Village. Yang believes that if he becomes a hero saving the village, the locals will teach him Tai Chi.

"Tai Chi 0" is a funny adventure that uses the ancient Chinese tradition in the format of a video game. The good thing is that despite the difference of cultures, the story is highly entertaining and is worthwhile watching this movie. The bad thing is that the movie is to be continued. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Mestre da Guerra" ("The Master of the War")