Tai Chi Zero (2012)

Yang Lu Chan did not create Taichi, he only created the Yang Family style.Someone should do a little research prior to making movie descriptions to avoid confusing viewers who may not know the truth of the subject. Taichi was actually created by Zhang San Feng at Wudang mountain & Yang was one of his students. The founder of Chen style was a third generation student also.

This movie is better than the average Asian kung fu movie for several reasons. It has young and good looking actors and actresses, good use of computer graphics, and good use of humor.Plot-wise, there seems to be some holes. For example, after the freak is kicked out by the stage masters, how come he was able to advance to the next stage? Also, the village elderly seemed a bit inhumane near the end. The guy just saved the village and the elderly wants to cripple him?!Some recent Chinese movies suffers from over use of computer graphics to the point the movie seem to be a showcase of computer graphics. This movie is able to use computer graphics perfectly to help tell the story, not distract it.

When I saw the trailer for this movie I thought it had the potential to be the next "Kung Fu Hustle". Another cool and entertaining wacky/cartoony fighting movie. While the premise is similar to "Kung Fu Hustle" the narrative and build up is just so darn boring. It just constantly just tries to rely on gimmicks instead of it being well crafted and entertaining movie. In fact there is hardly any fighting in this movie. Yeah, the main protagonist hardly has any good fight scenes. It just constantly relies on pop ups which makes references to comic books, video games and other kung fu references. Which could have worked, but felt more like a random gimmick in order to make this crappy movie hip and cool. Which isn't the case, it just comes off corny and lame. And heavily relies on the 3D aspects of this movie when it hit theaters in China. I managed to sit through the build up, because I was anxious to at least see some cool climatic fight sequences. But that doesn't even happen. Instead it goes in a "to be continued" which is fine. But just about nothing about this movie is satisfying. I think it's okay to leave room for a sequel. As long as the movie itself is satisfying but makes you crave for more. That isn't the case here, this flick is far from being satisfying. And by the end you felt cheated.3/10

First off, I would recommend Tai Chi 0-- if only I can decide whether to recommend watching in the theaters or waiting to watch it back-to-back with its sequel on DVD... Cos most of my issues with Tai Chi 0 has to do with how it tries (& fails?) to "stand alone" as an inconclusive (inconsequential?) prequel. I mean, how would you feel if you found out that the hilariously "over-sold" trailer (in English, Mandarin and various Chinese dialects) circulating for Tai Chi 0 is actually a trailer for-- and contains footage from-- both this movie and its sequel?It is also easy to see why Tai Chi 0 elicits such a wide variety of opinions-- it has something old and something new, and they are not so much "meshed together" as "layered on"... The old stuff is everything you would expect from an old-school kung-fu flick, and the new stuff is the latest fads in video-game aesthetics-- so depending on which way you lean, you might find as much "forced humor" (if you expected kung-fu drama) as "forced melodrama" (if you expected video-game hi-jinks). Nowhere as wacky and creative as Stephen Chow's Shaolin Soccer nor as elegant and nostalgic as Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, director Stephen Fung's Tai Chi is more of a new take on the "kung-fu film as comic-book fantasy" genre in the vein of the "Storm Riders/Warriors" franchise.And as someone who enjoys an old-school kung-fu flick as much as the latest video games, Tai Chi 0 literally pulled me around in different directions. On the one hand, I liked that the corny 1970's convention of kung-fu actors shouting out their styles/moves now comes with animated sur-titles and graphics; on other hand, the graphical "overlay" somewhat distracts from the sheer joy of watching Sammo Hung's seasoned fight choreography being pulled off by actors who's gone through martial arts training. So for my tastes, the core story and conflicts are presented too fluffily while the visual gimmicks are sprinkled on too liberally.Perhaps this is due to Tai Chi 0 being a prequel that sets up a main story and conflict which will only be seen in later movies-- despite a lengthy introduction of the protagonist's story arc early on, Tai Chi 0 is really about how the old master Chen and his daughter deal with the forced relocation of their village. And fortunately, veteran actor Tony Leung easily carried off the central drama of film as the old master Chen, while the newcomers simply played up their kung-fu movie stereotypes (feisty girl, dorky guy, etc). Tai Chi 0 starts hitting its stride in its 2nd half-- when this historically relevant but made-up narrative (the original Chen village, now a small town, is still around) comes to the fore-- and doesn't let up until old master Chen finally unleashes his kung-fu.I mean, for all of Tai Chi 0's "light touch", there's no disguising the fact that this is an old-school "blood-and-gluts" kung-fu story in a historical-fantasy setting-- with 3 on-screen deaths of named characters in the first 15 minutes and another in the later half of the movie-- and had it gotten much better writing and directing, I'm sure I wouldn't have missed any of post-production stylistics one bit. Cos the final and best fight in the movie for me involved nothing more than getting Tony Leung into 2 months of Tai Chi boot camp, some good old-fashioned wire-work, and a big wind machine. But in contrast, one of my favorite bits was the protagonist running around the village like a first person RPG video gamer searching for a quest reward... See what I mean about this movie tearing me apart?If I sound like I'm quibbling, I am.... Tai Chi 0 is quite enjoyable, if not really memorable, and does a good enough job setting up the sequel. But as a kung-fu film, it is just nowhere as coherent or satisfying as the classics-- cos where Stephen Chow or Ang Lee would take great care to introduce audiences to the "reality" of their kung-fu fantasies and set things up for dramatic/comic effect, Stephen Fung crams the protagonist's entire back-story into the first 15 minutes of the movie before dropping him into a side role-- and then randomly (cleverly?) adds glowing eyes, X-ray film perspectives and even a First-Person Sequence?!So in the end, pardon me for submitting this review but reserving my vote until I get to see the sequel...