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Another martial arts classic from Jet Li finally makes its way to UK DVD, this time from the height of wire-fu – co-starring Michelle Yeoh and directed by Yuen Woo-ping…
There’s no doubt that Weinstein-owned label Dragon Dynasty has truly become the modern day equivalent of the UK’s highly regarded Hong Kong Legends label. Heck, the DVD even has a feature length commentary by Bey Logan. This latest release, licensed by Cine Asia in the UK, is one of many of Jet Li’s back catalogue that has previously languished in terrible edited and English-dubbed only release from Hollywood Pictures, misadvertised as Twin Warriors complete with a shot of Li from Fist Of Legend. (The irony being that the Weinstein’s contemporary Miramax studio was, like Hollywood Pictures, owned by Disney.)
Perhaps that’s why HKL had to settle for The Tai Chi Master’s pseudo-sequel, the Jacky Wu vehicle Tai Chi Boxer (aka Tai Chi II) and Wing Chun.
Mind you, it’s no surprise that Tai Chi Master has so often been overlooked – just look at how prolific star Jet Li and director Yuen Woo-ping were in the year it was released, 1993. Still high on the success of Swordsman II, Li’s output went from the sublime Fong Sai Yuk and sequel, Once Upon a Time in China III and two dreadful Wong Jing directed vehicles, Last Hero In China and Kung Fu Cult Master. Yuen’s work also included Iron Monkey and Beggar So (aka Fist Of The Red Dragon) both Donnie Yen vehicles, and co-directing Li on Last Hero In China. Even co-star Michelle Yeoh had her hands full, appearing in the sequel to her comeback film Police Story 3, Project S, The Heroic Trio and it’s respective sequel The Executioners, and Butterfly & Sword.
Phew. Did Jet Li even sleep that year? Did anyone?
Running on from the success of appearing as Wong Fei Hung in Once Upon A Time In China and Fong Sai Yuk, Jet Li is rather predictably cast as another legendary martial arts master. This time Zhang Sanfeng, the alleged creator of Tai Chi. At this point it wasn’t unusual, even Yuen Woo-ping’s Iron Monkey was loosely based on the childhood of Fei Hung.
Playing as fast and loose with the history of Zhang as the legends themselves, we follow young Sanfeng as he grows up in a Taoist monastery with his best friend Chin Bo (Chin Siu Ho, Mr. Vampire, The Seventh Curse). Inseparable, Chin’s impulsive nature often gets the pair in trouble, eventually getting them booted out. (Though the way these guys are ganged up on, it’s pretty obvious they never made any friends!)
With no idea how to live in the outside world, the two soon find themselves up against the corrupt forces of local Governor Liu Jin. After falling in with the local rebels at a restaurant, including a disheartened Siu Lin (Michelle Yeoh), the pair fall out with each other when Chin Bo decides he can live a far more profitable life working for the local militia, and he betrays them to the Governor.
Destroyed by Chin’s betrayal, a downcast Zhang doesn’t know how to go on, until he discovers the power of Tai Chi.
Moving swiftly between silly slapstick comedy and deadly seriousness, it’s often hard to know just how to take Tai Chi Master, but at its best it’s a showcase for some fantastic and inspired ‘wire fu’ sequences from one of the greatest action directors.
As you might expect there are similarities with the superior Iron Monkey, but Tai Chi is a lot of fun, with Yuen celebrating Hong Kong’s glorious filmmaking history with plenty of references. The major allusion being to The Shaolin Temple, the movie that launched Li’s film career back in 1982, and undoubtedly the film that it in turn referenced, the magnificent 36th Chamber Of Shaolin. (Yue Hoi, action director and star of Shaolin Temple, even appears in a similar role as Master of the Taoist pupils.)
The restaurant scenes evoke King Hu’s Come Drink With Me and Dragon Inn, as do the strong female characters and pale eunuch Liu. And the themes of betrayal hark back to Zhang Che’s classic The Blood Brothers, remade in a gritty, epic style recently by Peter Chan as The Warlords and starring Jet Li himself.
It’s in his fight scenes that director Yuen excels, combining spectacularly acrobatic wire fu with close knit, tightly edited combat. And this sure is showing off, with standout sequences including Yeoh using two broken table legs as stilts, or where the two Taoist monk exiles repeal 30 or so of their peers, spilling oil to slip them up then sliding across the floor on them. It’s when Yuen shows Sanfeng creating Tai Chi – using objects own force against them, from Weeble style Bop-bag, to the power of nature itself, the ball forced by air to float back to the top of the water – that he creates one of the most iconic scenes in Hong Kong filmmaking: when Sanfeng uses the power of Tai Chi to collect and compact fallen leaves without touching them. Outrageous it may be, but it shows a respect for all martial art styles and depicting them fairly, shared by Li and his regular action collaborator Corey Yuen.
Yet if anything, what stands out most of all about this likable gem is the strength of the female cast, including Fennie Yuen, none of whom are depicted as weak and all of whom seem to have kung fu skills just as good as their male counterparts. Not that it was uncommon at this point, with stars like Yeoh, Maggie Cheung and Brigette Lin marking a return in Hong Kong cinemas of strong women for the first time since the 60s.
Oddly it seems ironic set against both Li and Woo-ping collaborations that year with Wong Jing, a deeply old school and – okay, lets not beat around the bush – misogynist. Undoubtedly this laid the groundwork for Woo-ping’s arguably more impressive (if less successful at the Box Office) Wing Chun.
Fun fun fun… but just you wait till Cine Asia release Fong Sai Yuk!
Tai Chi Master is released on DVD by Cine Asia / Dragon Dynasty on Monday, 26 April 2010.
DVD details
Distributor: Cine Asia / Dragon Dynasty (UK)
Don't expect too much from the transfer. Quality of film stock used at this stage could be quite poor, so while this has never looked sharper, it's still not perfect. (Perhaps that’s why there’s no Blu-Ray release?)
Having said that, at certain points the transfer is far too sharp for it’s own good, not a problem with the old Hong Kong DVD. Just take Siu Lin and Governor Liu’s final showdown, which definitely puts the wire in ‘wire fu’. (You almost wish they’d done some post-production to remove them.)
Tai Chi Master comes packed with all the original US release bonus features, including that afore-mentioned feature length commentary by Bey Logan, an exclusive interview with star Chin Siu Ho, a look at the birthplace of Tai Chi: on location in Chen Village, and two featurette with Rush Hour (!) director Brett Ratner and critic Elvis Mitchell on Yuen Woo-ping and stars Li and Yeoh. So if you haven’t gotten it already, now’s your chance.
