FILM REVIEW: Man of Tai Chi

Man of Tai Chi is a 2013 martial arts film starring Tiger Hu Chen, Keanu Reeves and Karen Mok and directed by Keanu Reeves. It was released on the 5^th of July 2013 in China.

PLOT

A young martial artist's unparalleled Tai Chi skills land him in a highly lucrative underworld fight club.

WHY I WATCHED

Keanu Reeves as a director you got to at least give it a try right? There has been a lot of hype about another of Keanu’s films but this one came out first and is more my speed as I prefer unarmed combat to swords, although swords are beautiful pieces of arts.

WHAT I THOUGHT

I was really surprised by Man of Tai Chi and that surprise was pleasant. This was a nostalgic trip back to those awesome Hong Kong made films that used to play late night when I was a youngster. Those martial arts films are so different from what we get today which in my opinion are lacking and an attempt to go mainstream by combining it with other genres.

Man of Tai Chi is a barebones martial arts offering and just shuts up and gets on with it. There is only a hint of a possible future romance and nothing to detract from the story which is of a man who has come to a crossroads in his life and must choose which path to take.

The fights are excellent and pretty much stay away from the curse of modern day action films which is wire work. I only noticed the use of them in a couple of fights and fortunately it only irked me for an instant. In general the fights are expertly choreographed and feature excellent martial arts instead of just the usual brawling.

I can’t review this without talking about Keanu Reeves, I don’t know much about making films so I can’t comment on his directing other than to say I enjoyed the film. He also has a role in the film though which is something I can talk about. Donaka Mark is a seriously dark guy and his tendency to spout weird one-liners manages to work with Keanu’s unique delivery, trust me when I say he comes across as plenty sinister enough. Special mention has to go to Donaka’s 2^nd in command that came close to stealing the show away from Tiger, the man has a face stonier than Mt. Everest but I found myself staring at him even when he’s in the background of a scene.

If the story of a man battling his darker nature and solid martial arts action sounds like your idea of a fun evening then Man of Tai Chi is right up your alley. Also Hollywood take note, no panoramic views, super slo-mo or CG and this still works 50% than half the martial arts based films they are making right now.

FILM REVIEW: The Legend of Chun Li

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li Street Fighter The Legend of Chun Li is a 2009 action film based on the popular Street Fighter video game series by Capcom. It stars Kristin Kreuk as Chun Li and was released on February 2009.

PLOT 
While a teenager, Chun-Li witnesses the kidnapping of her father by wealthy crime lord M. Bison. When she grows up, she goes on a quest for vengeance and becomes the famous crime-fighter of the Street Fighter universe.

WHY DID I CHOOSE IT 
I was a pretty huge Street Fighter II fan as a kid, for me it was a great leveller when me a fat kid with asthma could own the older kids and that was when they had the game to practice on and I only came over every now and then to play it. I kept up through the various versions for awhile and I even watched the Street Fighter movie with JCVD (a crime against fandom) and the short lived animated series as well as the few anime movies.

WHAT I THOUGHT 
I only heard about this movie recently somehow I managed to miss the buzz of this film when it first came out especially in the light of knowing that I didn’t miss the film versions of King of Fighters and Tekken. Quick review on those KOF burned my eyes and made me bleed from my ears, Tekken was like a C movie with ok fight choreography.

The first thing I should probably talk about is the film compared and contrasted with the Street Fighter 2 mythos/canon. Overall it works fairly well while pertaining to the Chun Li stuff, it could have happened that way as we don’t get a lot of insight into what she was doing before the spiky wrist bands and the hair buns.

The plot is passable I would say in the top third of action films, as a person who reads a lot of books I never had a time when I shouted “What the hell are you doing?” at the screen which is something I often do in my head when reading certain books. The only question I have is the theme of the movie itself which just serves to say revenge is cool. Not a lot of films generally go that way and the ones that usually do tend to be in a foreign language.

The choreography and the fight scenes are pretty impressive, yes I’ve seen better but generally that comes with a lot of effect and special camera work, this stuff is fairly straightforward with some wire work which thankfully isn’t relied upon. Kristin Kreuk definitely impresses in this role I definitely wouldn’t wanted to be an overly aggressive paparazzo on one of her bad days.

Something you should be aware of is the level of blood and gore I watched the unrated version and if you get that one be prepared for at least some minor eww moments. So if you thought Mortal Kombat was a fine example of a video game to movie conversion then this movie is worth taking a look at.