Tai ji 1: Cong ling kai shi (2012) Reviews

• Fully Flawless Parody.

  treble_head-772-6402352013-08-22

  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.

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• Casey's Movie Mania: TAI CHI ZERO (2012)

  caseymoviemania2012-10-03

  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.

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• Trying too hard to be playful and inventive, this mishmash of kungfu, comic book and steampunk ends up messy, unfocused and only borderline entertaining

  moviexclusive2012-09-29

  A lot goes on in 'Tai Chi Zero' - the first in a planned trilogy that attempts a revisionist take on the classic martial arts movie – but too little of it registers in a memorable way by the time it is over. Inspired by the life of Yang Luchuan – founder of the Yang school of taichi – this kinetic frenzy of a movie sees director Stephen Fung drawing from broad pop culture and cinematic influences to create something fresh, fun and irreverent, though the end result is probably noteworthy only for its ambition. Barely five minutes into the movie, you get the distinct sense that Fung is trying too hard. Opening with what is supposed to be an epic battle between the Imperial Forces and a band of resistance fighters, we are quickly acquainted with Yang's supposedly superhuman powers that are unleashed whenever someone hits him on a small horn-like bump on the side of his head. Not content to leave it at that, there is an unnecessary flashback that transports us to the day of Yang's birth just to unravel his tragic childhood. If what was supposed to be poignant turns up less so, it is squarely Fung's fault, employing the silent film treatment complete with a playful score and old-fashioned inter-titles to convey the characters' dialogue over the course of that flashback. That is when you also realise that Fung is serious about greeting all the famous celebs he's managed to get to cameo in his movie, using captions to tell you who and where an actor playing a particular character comes from – including Hong Kong director Andrew Lau of 'Infernal Affairs' as Yang's father and Shu Qi as his mother. When we return to present time, Yang has blacked out and is advised by a physician (look, there's legendary kungfu actor Leung Siu Hung!) to seek a new form of inner martial arts, as the brute methods he's been learning so far will only drain his physical strength and lead to quick and certain death. So Yang escapes in search of the legendary Chen village, renowned supposedly for its tai chi techniques – though he will have to spend the rest of the first half of the movie convincing the villagers to teach their fiercely guarded moves to an outsider. There's never any doubt Yang will eventually earn the respect of the villagers, so the first half instead takes a light-hearted tone as Yang faces off against the various village pugilists (one of them played by kungfu veteran Xiong Xin Xin) a la video game style. Amidst the stylised visuals that resemble Edgar Wright's 'Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World' in its pop-art, the film tries to earn some dramatic credit through Yang's unusual tutelage from a solitary labourer (Tony Leung Kar-Fai), as well as the unwelcome arrival of the East India Company on the heels of former village boy Zijing's (Eddie Peng) return. The former follows the narrative convention of a wise old master teaching a brash young kid, while the latter adopts that of a humble village standing up for itself against the forces of modernisation. Except for the fact that the latter involves a massive steam-run metal machine called 'Troy No 1' that seems ripped from the celluloid of Barry Sonnenfeld's 'Wild Wild West', both stories stick faithfully close to formula, and the emotional beats they are meant to hit seem all too perfunctory to resonate. Ditto for a subplot that fails miserably at building some sort of love triangle between Zijing, the village beauty Yuniang (Angelababy) and an 'ang-mo' officer Claire (played by some Hong Kong Caucasian model whose name is among the many we cannot remember) – the dialogue between the apparently starstruck Claire and Zijing is so stilted it is guaranteed to make you cringe. Even with a surfeit of visual distractions, it is clear that the plot is one of the movie's weak points. So too in fact are the stylistic choices that Fung settles for. It's one thing to try to be different and another when you actually succeed – 'Tai Chi 0' unfortunately only manages the former. Indeed, all the elements for a good-ol throwback to the classic martial arts movie are in place – a true to life character, an ensemble of notable kungfu actors, and the evil Western revolution (think 'Once Upon A Time in China' – but Fung overdoes the cheekiness in messing with the form, and all that animation, comic book graphics and on screen captioning just grows tired and tiresome too quickly. Still, if Fung doesn't have Stephen Chow's wacky sense of humour to make this the next 'Kung Fu Hustle', his love for the martial arts actors of the past is never in doubt. He also does his bit for the kungfu genre by unearthing a new bunch of young actors – including casting a suitably charismatic Yuan Xiaochan in the lead role of Yang Luchuan. With Sammo Hung as action director, you can be sure that the numerous action sequences in the movie do not disappoint – and the ones between Yuan and other true-blue martial arts actors like Xiong Xin Xin are especially thrilling. Thankfully, most of them do make it alive for the second-parter, which is slated to open just three weeks later. The ending is tantalising to say the least - what with two formidable swordsmen arriving at the gates of the Chen village to challenge Xiong Xin Xin and an army of Western battleships heading towards the Chinese coast loaded with big cannons promising bigger and noisier battles – demonstrating a lot of promise here for a new 'Wong Fei Hung'-type franchise. While we're not objecting to Fung's choice for a playful and inventive take on the kungfu genre, he would do well to pay heed to the oft-told martial arts adage – restraint, and not excess, is what ultimately makes one potent.

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• A Nutshell Review: Tai Chi Zero

  DICK STEEL2012-10-05

  The first thing that'll jump out at you should you watch the trailer and promotional clips, is the steampunk influences in this martial arts film. But don't let that bother you too much because it's nothing but a large red herring, and something of a gimmick, that added a fun element to the typical story of a zero to hero, only that this Stephen Fung directed film comes in two parts, splitting it down the middle to focus on its protagonist's journey from a nobody to a somebody, surrounded by a village full of highly skilled exponents out to defend their livelihood. The plot is pretty generic and derivative, but thankfully the film has its technical department to thank for, in dressing this up really beautifully, with the story focusing on its countless of different easter eggs to bring on the laughs, or the surprises, that keep on coming in fast and furious fashion. It doesn't take itself too seriously, and has many tongue in cheek moments clearly set to lull the viewer into what would be an anime inspired presentation gone life action, and it worked incredible wonders, even though it's half a story, with the promise of more to come in the sequel (which is already primed for release later this month) for this mixed-genre film. It centers around Yang Lu Chan, played by newcomer Jayden Yuan, who himself is a former world champion in Wushu, likely to follow the footsteps of Jet Li if this film takes off at the box office, given that this is quite the showreel for the young martial artist turned action actor. His character is born with a small horn at his right temple, which is indicative that his is a life blessed with natural kung fu prowess if harnessed correctly, and destined for something great. But he ended up with the rebels fighting an ailing Qing dynasty, before having to flee to the fabled Chen Village, where he is to seek the village chief in order to be imparted a set of Tai-chi inspired martial arts, in order to control and expel the inner injuries he's sustained, threatening his life. And each time he uses his skills, the shorter his lifespan becomes, during this critical stage. But things are never made easy for the protagonist of course, and he gets bullied by Master Chen's daughter Chen Yu Niang (Angelababy), and other skilled exponents all trained in the same arts, which has been decreed never to be taught to outsiders. Most of the film deals with Yang's persistence, at times comical, in wanting to pummel his way to the village and pick up the necessary skills, made easier through his innate ability to pick up skills through observation. The real adversary comes from the external and manifold. There's Eddie Peng as Fang Zijing, a western educated man who finds no love from the Chen Village where he comes from, and is the fiancé of Yu Niang, having put in a crossroads where he's heading a project for the government in building a railway cutting right through the Village. He's slimy, and he's a cad, and it'll be interesting to see how his character develops in the next film. Then there's the threat of the Qing forces combined with the British forces who now find it lucrative to come exploit the Middle Kingdom. And if that's not all, the final scene sees two strangers at the brink of infiltrating the village, primed to lead into the next film. And let's not forget about the steampunk inspired designs of a huge railway builder, which is just the tip of the iceberg on the technical strengths that this film boasts, from visual effects, to sets, to martial arts designed none other than Sammo Hung himself. Angelababy had the stunt team to thank for looking believable as the village chief's highly skilled daughter, fighting with a degree of grace, while Tony Leung Ka Fai's role also had him work with the stunt wires to lift him up the pedestal of one of the movie's greatest combatants, and then some. The playful character introductions throughout the film is something of a highlight as well, as Stephen Fung managed to assemble a variety of legendary actors, directors, and martial arts exponents to pop up as cameo and supporting characters for a scene or two, such as Shu Qi, Andrew Lau, and even Bruce Leung, amongst others, so keep your eyes peeled. Some may dislike Tai Chi Zero for being all over the place, but that is nothing but its primary appeal, and Stephen Fung has assembled a extremely unique piece of martial arts filmmaking, dabbling into the era of silent films for flashbacks, animation for the opening credits and then some, and with a general eye, and aggressive camera work to visually spice up the narrative with a playful look and feel from first person perspectives, to anime and comic book styled fonts that appear either to move the story along, or translate sound effects into a comical visual treat. I'm already all pumped up for the follow up film, since there were many sub story arcs left hanging in the balance, and am reserving my call whether this could possibly be a favourite amongst the year's selection.

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• Totally blown away

  anthony812122012-09-09

  Saw this at the Toronto International Film Festival. Actually I didn't really known what to expect when coming to this film. My friend was the one who invited me and didn't tell me much. I have to say I was rather surprised by this movie, even though I went into the movie expecting to have a good time -- I had an AWESOME time. Industrial revolution in China, mixed with kung fu and comic book elements, what more can you ask for!? One part of the story reminded me a lot of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, others of Kung Fu Hustle with hints of Wild Wild West - good movies (well, the first two :D) in my opinion that actually blend together really well! Comic book style, great art direction, funny, clever pop culture references, fast-paced (subtitles were a blur), and just overall fantastic. I am already really excited for the second and third movies in this series. Can't wait till those arrive in Canada!

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