Tai-Chi Master (1993)

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Hong Kong kung fu cinema is a complicated genre to navigate for the uninitiated. People's opinions differ so wildly from movie to movie that what you consider a gem may be a relatively obscure movie. In other words, everyone has their own favorite kung fu movie, whether it's Crouching Tiger, the 36th Chamber, 5 Fingers of Death, or - in my case - this one.I just watched this movie for the second time, and I'm even more impressed. There's something about its energy that's just completely unflagging, ferocious. The meaning and the lethal glare with which Chin Siu-ho (criminally under-billed: what a performance!) lowers his hands after performing the Buddhist Palm on his superior. The impossible fight in the temple; the legions of talented extras! The endearing innocence which Jet Li brings to his character, and the fluidity of his "Taoist boxing", real or assisted (remember when he acted like the punching bag, swinging around and knocking his weight into his opponent as if he had concentrated all his weight in his feet?) The picture and sound are much lower quality than other Yuen Woo-ping movies within a year's radius (Iron Monkey, Wing Chun), but it's difficult to notice such superficial markers of quality when the pacing, emotional power and action of the movie so surpass the era's other offerings.Another of the movie's fine points is the natural flow of its few comic sections. I often find the comic relief in "serious" kung fu movies to be stilted and awkward. Slapstick can be done ingeniously (Stephen Chow movies), but when it's stuck randomly in a movie that otherwise portrays itself as serious, it can be disastrous. The humor in the Tai Chi Master is applied with a light touch, so you can laugh instead of frowning and looking uncomfortable.But what really separates the Tai Chi Master from other excellent kung fu movies with direction and energy is its firm moral compass. When was the last time you saw a movie that knew right from wrong, but didn't make a big deal out of it? Note the distinction between right/wrong and good/evil: If Hollywood made this movie, it would be a movie about good and evil. Instead, we know that Tianbao was not intrinsically evil - he was just "wrong" ("We were wrong, Master!") A movie has little to do with real life if its characters are one-dimensional incarnations of the primeval forces of good and evil. Yet in spite of all this, the Tai Chi Master is not a heavy-handed movie "about" right and wrong - it just contains the answers."My hands do not have strength and power. My heart embraces peace and calm. Resigning myself to adversity. Seeing richness out of the void. Violence be turned to peace. There are always guiding fate. Dynamic or still. Divide or multiple. Follow fate to go in and out of mortal world." The theme song is poorly translated in the subtitles, as it should be. What is verbalized knowledge but something vague and suggestive of personal revelation? In the words of a character: "I've studied Taoism all my life, but you realize its truth all in a blink. You'll be the master of masters. I should probably retire."

Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh are both very accomplished Martial Artists. Their talents are on display in this wire-guided action movie. It is important to note that this is a wire-guided movie, because that may not be to all tastes. Chinese Martial Arts movies fall into 3 categories; no wires at all (Bruce Lee movies), partial wires to make the hits seem stronger (many Jackie Chan movies), and full blown wire-guided extravaganzas (Crouching Tiger, House of Flying Daggers, and this movie). Some people find it slightly ridiculous that the fighters are running up trees, making impossible moves, and dealing out punishment which often sends the opponent slithering half a KM away. This movie is full of that, so be warned. Nonetheless, the fight scenes are sometimes incredible, and at other times somewhat ridiculous.Jet Li takes on an entire army in this movie, armed only with a length of bamboo. Naturally, he does incredibly well. Yet as enjoyable as the action scenes are, they are tied together by the most moronic filler scenes ever conceived. At one point, Jet Li thinks he is a duck and spends the next 20 minutes prancing around impersonating the animal. The "comedic" moments would have been better placed in an Ernest movie, they are that ridiculous. Also, many many people are killed in this movie, yet that doesn't stem the flow of Ernest moments. It would have been much better to take a more serious tone, something along the lines of House of Flying Daggers or Crouching Tiger. The filler is so frustratingly bad, the dialog is so stupid, and the acting so poor, that I could not give this movie a higher rating than a 5 despite the impressive fight sequences.R.

This really doesn't amount to anything much. The story of this film is merely OK, the acting is not good, the fights and some of the dialog really make no sense at times and the thing I found most confusing, was whether this was supposed to be an honest film or if it was intended to be some comedic spoof. Regardless of the way you watch Twin Warriors, the film is just not good although I must admit the bad synchronization on part of the American distributor made it worse at times. To me it just felt like a bad Spencer/Hill flick for kids between 8 and 12. Nothing seemed intentionally funny and I was not laughing at the film, but about it (if I was laughing at all).4,5 (with a 4 given upon voting and 0,5 added because the film MUST have bit better in it's original language)

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.