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The Tai Chi Master
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List Price: $14.95
Our Price: $12.99
Your Save: $ 1.96 ( 13% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Tai Seng
Starring: Billy Chow, Jacky Wu, Amy Fan
Directed By: Yuen Woo Ping
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0601641659543
Format: Color
Label: Tai Seng
Manufacturer: Tai Seng
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Tai Seng
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2005-06-21
Running Time: 128
Studio: Tai Seng
Theatrical Release Date: 2003
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: abridged too far
Comment: If you can get over the photography style of Chinese television, and assuming you enjoy kung fu flicks in the first place, you will likely dig this. The photography bugs the crap out of me but I think I'm in the minority. I can tolerate it. What really makes it work though is the choreography of director Yuen Woo Ping. Way less wires than he usually employs, which is a big plus in my book. If only he could merge this type of choreography with cameras that shoot movies made to be shown on the big screen instead of this videotaped look.
This is the condensed version of a TV series that has Wu Jing, in an "old-school" time frame, wanting to learn Tai Chi from a man named Chan, who cannot teach outside of his extended family. The women in his family cannot learn either. This is why Chan passes his daughter off as a dude. She helps Wu Jing learn by having him hide and watch her father practice and teach. Billy Chow then kidnaps Chan and a whole lotta fights ensue.
Wu Jing and Billy Chow are both very good. As is the older gentleman who played Chan. I have become quite a Wu Jing fan recently. Dragon Dynasty will release "Fatal Contact" later this month and I suggest you see it. Not much on plot, but the fights in that are some of the best I've seen. He's reason enough to see this one as well.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A must for Martial Arts enthusiasts
Comment: Though the movie is a patch-job of an earlier TV series, it's hugely enjoyable. I gave it 4 stars for two reasons :
1. The cut-n-paste job doesn't have the sheen of a regular production film and at a couple of points in the movie one can tell that there must have been something else to follow but has been cut.
and more importantly,
2. Some of the brilliant fight scenes have been cut. I know this because I have watched the fight sequences on you-tube and when I was expecting a certain move, I saw something else. MOVES WERE CUT. :-(
That said, for all you martial arts film buffs, I would slot this one in the same category as Master Killer (aka The 36th Chamber of Shaolin). So it's a must see movie ..... I'd even go so far as to say that it's a must have movie.
Enjoy !!
Customer Rating:
Summary: a view of T'ai Chi
Comment: This film attempts to show the development of Yang style T'ai Chi from its progenitor - Chen style. A difficult thing to do, it neverthe less succeeds fairly well. The "flying" is kept to a minimum, and the ground fighting techinques, including a lot of chin na, are shown with some clarity and realism. The film also attempts to show the use of T'ai Chi against other styles of wu shu. All in all, a good attempt.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Watch this for the fighting
Comment: If you like watching martial arts, this is a fun show. Tremendous fight choreography and lots of it. Simplistic but fun plot. A good on to pop in the DVD player when you want to see some good action without having to think too much.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One to definitely pick up for martial arts movie fans!
Comment: Wow, a real jewel! Be warned though, this is not 'a movie' per se, but a set of scenes chopped out of a chinese TV series and put together. Tai Seng has done this before for two Donnie Yen TV series but this time the commercial trick actually works: plot can be followed rather well and there is tons of action and actually some nice acting.
The coolest thing was the fighting, heck it's a series directed by seminal Yuen Woo Ping! Lots of long shots and a well made version of Game of Death pagoda fight, where Wu Jing rises floors and beats master fighters in each floor. Jackie Wu Jing is so awesome and the opponents kicked butt as well. Felt like a remake of Tai Chi 2 made in, but with fights done BETTER than most Yuen Woo ingP movies of similar style I can remember. And this comes from a big YWP fan. Even the sound effects rocked with big bass ála The Fearless spicing most impact shots. Tons of cool (and wired) stunt falls with people flying all over all the time; always entertaining to see. Camerawork was phenomenal and doubling was done very well. Insane overall quality fight scene wise, at least for me. The best fights definitely catched the notion of 'drama' in aristotelian wise.
But my points go to the damocle's sword fight (the first one with tai chi masta), which is felt one of the most exciting fights I've seen in years, perhaps ever. Tons of intricate taichi, joint locking, long shots and sword interaction. A spectacle if I've ever saw one. A diamond of a match that lacks only in that it had in a couple of reused moves and rather 'normal' ending. Iron Monkey meets, hell, Damoclee battle opera!
Wu Jing acts mostly a goofy yet a ethical boy, a role which seems to fit him exceptionally well here. Not a much of killing in the film either, reminds in that sense old Lau Kar Leung films. The mood is entertaining.
Sadly, no extras for such a brilliant chopjob. Just 5 trailers for a couple of similar films and three for similar TV series chopjobs Tai Seng seems to like doing. With this one I could't recommend this move enough. Yet I'd still would like to see the original series, the plot wasn't a bad one at all. Yet the fighting was absolutely phenomenal and a tribute to people like actors Billy Chow and Wu Jing and of course, the mastermind Yuen Woo Ping. Pick this one now, as local Hong Kong films like Fatal Contact are starting to make Jackie Wu Jing the next major martial arts movie star.
Oh and in case you were wondering, Tai Chi looks absolutely brilliant on the screen when it's done as well as this. Which I think is not going to happen anytime soon.
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