Tai Chi Master

Twin Warriors succeeds as a martial arts film because it keeps us entertained with almost a constant stream of highflying action sequences. However, due in part to poor dubbing; the drama scenes between the fights are laughable.

The story follows that of two friends, Chin Bo and Juanbo (Siu-hou Chin and Jet Li), two monks that becomes friends at, and later get thrown out of a Shaolin Temple. After this, they meet up with the leader of a group of rebels (Michele Yeoh), and Juanbo joins them, while Chin Bo goes off to join the emperor's army. Naturally, they meet up again along the way and their friendship is basically the main plot point of the film. As I mentioned, though; the dubbing is awful, and the script is no better. The characters talk as if they're from an upmarket part of London, and when they're both of Asian origin; it makes it very hard to take seriously. It's hard to tell whether the script is bad, or if it's just that it has been lost in translation. Because some of the lines of dialogue are cringe worthy, but that could be due to English translation; I don't know. It's the same story with the acting; none of the cast excels in the drama sections of the film, but their performance is masked by awful dubbing. Everyone deserves credit for their martial arts, however. The action sequences are generally imaginative, well crafted and entertaining; although they do have a tendency to go over the top at times; the prime example of this being when two characters are fighting in a dining hall, and a table falls apart and somehow manages to become stilts for one of the characters to stand on while fighting. I admit that it's entertaining...but come on.

Credit to the cinematography department; this film does look very nice. And it does keep the audience entertained for it's duration, but that's all this film is; a crowd pleaser. It's just too silly to really be taken seriously.

One of my favorite Hong Kong actors, Jet Li, does what I call his best film in "Tai Chi Master." Starring alongside Michelle Yeoh and a dozen other folks whose name I forgot, Li plays Junbao, a monk whose best friend betrays him and becomes a ruthless whacko. This leaves him only one option: grab a pole and start clubbin' baddies. While some parts are just too cheesy to mention, i.e. people flying around and some ridiculously hokey-looking effects (you can see the cable attached to a guy's back at one point), the best fights take place with just good ol' Jet Li, a pole, and an army of bad guys, where there is no room to fly around or do the ultra-powerful Buddhist Palms. Give Tai Chi Master a try. It's a love-hate thing for most people, and in my case, it's a love thing. This movie is one of the five best kung-fu flicks ever made, in my opinion.

"Twin Warriors" is one of my favorite Jet Li movies. It is about two monks who grow up together and befriend one another. After getting kicked out of their temple, they have to live in the world outside of the temple for the first time of their lives. Unfamiliar with the real world and how it works, they end up choosing different paths. In the end they end up fighting one another and throw their long friendship out the window. Also joining them is Michelle Yeoh, famous for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", and does a good job as well. The story is pretty good, and it even has some funny moments. There is no sexuality or hard language which is good for this film. The action in it is over the top and non-stop. It is definitely why you would want to see this movie, all different kinds of combat and martial arts. You have one on one fights, huge wars, hand to hand combat, weapon combat, and even the grab anything and use it as a weapon combat. The dubbing is pretty decent, and I don't think you can even find it in the States with the original voices. There are some minor flaws, like a times you can see wires, or things just look really fake, but it doesn't really take anything away from the film and is very entertaining. If you are a martial arts, Jet Li, or action fan, you should like this one. It has an R rating, but really could be PG-13 as there isn't anything very gory or sexual.

This film is really good. After seeing the end of this film on TV, I went to a video store and i brought this film. This film has a lot of action from the start of the film till the end. At the end Jet Li goes crazy!! But after that he starts training which is really impressive. And then gets ready for the best fight scene ever which was going on for like really long time. "Michelle Yeoh" is really good in this film to. Not that much action till the end but still good. If you really want to see a classic Jet Li film like "Once Upon A Time In China" and "The Legend" go see this film.

It's not Drunken Master, (not the Legend of Drunken Master, the original, noodge), but what is? It is a well made tale of an ousted Shaolin monk who through hardship and madness, learns the ultimately taoist T'ai Chi Chuan.

The thing I love about this film, (and you'd have to be a geek to go with this} but I love the fact that he learns T'ai Chi through his own hardships, not from a sifu (teacher), and the typical sifu or friend who dies is his friend, who, instead of dying, turns evil with power.

The entire movie is a great representation of Taosism (yin, yang, good and evil}. I don't agree that Michelle Yeoh (or Michelle Kahn at she time in the film) was not well used. She provided the idea of the easy path, drinking in this case, that is so lacking in gong fu movies. She and he both redeem themselves against the head bad guy (His character name escapes me at the time}, but there is no love interest between themselves. She's tough and troubled, he's tough and troubled and they actually help each other (read: she stops drinking to save him, he learns from her care and she helps cure his madness).

By the way, the head bad guy, (again, sorry about the name} was still played brilliantly even in dubbing. My friends and I still say "Hmmmmm" in his fey evil voice when thinking bad thoughts. It can be said it's typical Hong Kong fare... Good guy gets defeated, learns a new style of Gong Fu and defeats the bad guy, but then again, isn't that what Star Wars took 3 films to accomplish?

Anyway, my opinion of this film is tainted by the fact that I'm a taoist, but the action is top notch, nobody flies for no reason, all the characters (even the comic relief) are fleshed out. great film. not the greatest, but, it's a hell of a lot better than "Shaolin Drunken Monk" (aka, Plan 9 from the Shaolin Temple) lol.