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Reviews
Tai chi zong shi (2003)
TV series chopped into The Tai Chi Master DVD movie.
I first saw the full TV series in Chinese (that series doesn't have subtitles nor is it dubbed) and despite the many slow sections loved the whole thing, especially the fight and duelling scenes. This 128 min film version has a lot of the personal drama cut out leaving the action scenes, so scene changes can sometimes be a little mystifying. The full story development is missing in this film version. If you understand Chinese and you've enjoyed this and want more, find the full TV series.
-little spoiler alert from here-
The overall story is cutesy: a bit of a love story (cross-dressing, combat-ready Amy Fan), and, in a nutshell, is about a young guy (Wu Jing (Jacky Wu-English name)) determined to learn Taijiquan so spies on classes forbidden to village outsiders of which he is one. He's caught but is allowed to continue and becomes an incredible fighter yet retains humility, honour, and the virtues and ethics of true martial arts. No boorish egotistical attitude from him. This is the story of how Yang of Yang style TaiJiChuan started on his martial arts journey.
You have Baguaquan, Staff fighting and more; and especially the incredible "flexible steel rod wrapped in cotton wool" qualities of Taijiquan (Chen style here) displayed at their best. Truly superb action sequences in especially 1. the pagoda fight, 2. the duel vs an honourable but no-holds-barred Baquaquan fighter (Xu Xiang-Dong), and 3. the final one vs. Billy Chow.
Billy Chow is a great bad guy, and as for Yu Hai, it's wonderful to see him back in kick-butt action here as the head of the Chen village. Both Yu Hai and Wu Jing have worked together before in the Shaolin series and are very comfortable together here and bring a bit of comedic lightness to the production. The actors are real trained martial artists not actors trained in martial arts moves.
If you want to see possibly the best "internal" style martial arts on screen: 1. get this; 2. do a set of Taijiquan to put you in the mood; 3. now watch it and weep with joy at the effective, deadly, beautiful moves of Wu Jing, Yu Hai, Xu Xiang-Dong and the rest of the cast.
8 for the holes and missing plot from the cutting but 10 for the beautiful fights and the phenomenal Wu Jing.
(this is a rewrite of my own review i posted on HKFLIX)