Tai Chi Zero

2012 "See the extraordinary life of founder of the Yang style Tai Chi."
Tai Chi Zero
6| 1h40m| PG-13| en| More Info
Released: 19 October 2012 Released
Producted By: Huayi Brothers Pictures
Country: China
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

In legendary Chen Village, everyone is a martial arts master, using their powerful Chen Style Tai Chi in all aspects of their lives. Lu Chan has arrived to train, but the villagers are forbidden to teach Chen Style to outsiders, and do their best to discourage him by challenging him to a series of fights. Everyone, from strong men to young children, defeats him using their Tai Chi moves. But when a man from the village's past returns with a frightening steampowered machine and plans to build a railroad through the village at any costs, the villagers realize they may have no choice but to put their faith in Lu Chan... who has a secret power of his own.

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grandmastersik The above just about sums it up: if you dig the film's sense of humour, you'll enjoy it so much more. Alas, most western viewers probably won't, so will brand its uniqueness simply as a "mess".To be fair, this is a very "seen it all before" story, but with warp-speed cuts, great use of SFX, above par wire-fu and superb cinematography, the flick is elevated way beyond its humble plot. I think that when film fans talk about "vision", they mean something like what the director managed to convey on screen in this very film.So, what's it all about?A kid with the mark of a born kung fu legend is exploited into fighting for a cult, until a doctor warns how such violence will lead to his death and that he needs to learn the passive art of tai chi in order to live a happy life... as opposed to plain dying. Naturally then, our somewhat dim-witted lead ventures off to Chen village to learn, only to be constantly turned away, as the art isn't taught to outsiders. And on it goes...With eye-candy galore, this film truly caters for men! I mean: a fast-paced kung fu flick full of gorgeous women? Yep, Tai Chi Zero ticks all the boxes, but again, it's that sense of humour that'll make or break the film for you, and for me, despite all its positives, there was only so much enjoyment from this that I could get.It seems obvious, but I'll nutshell anyway: others will call Tai Chi Zero "dumb" or "awesome", but the only real way to determine if you'll enjoy this film for yourself, is to watch it.
Claudio Carvalho The boy Yang Lu Chan (Jayden Yuan) was born with a little fleshy horn on his forehead and is called The Freak and is humiliated and rejected by the other boys in his village. However, when the horn is touched, he turns into an eminent kung fu warrior. When his beloved mother dies, he follows his Master Lao Zhao (Hark-On Fung) that is the leader of the Divine Truth army that fights the emperor army. However, every time that Yang fight, his horn gets darker and Master Dong (Siu-Lung Leung) tells that if it gets black, he will die. When the emperor army attacks the Divine Truth, Dong is deadly injured and he advises Yang to travel to the Chen Village to seek out Master Chen Chang Xing (Tony Leung Ka Fai) and learn the martial art Tai Chi that would provide energy to him to survive. However, the Master Chen is in a retreat and the Chen villagers refuse to teach the technique to outsiders. Yang meets Chen's daughter Chen Yu Niang (Angelababy) and she successively beats up on him trying to force Yang to give up. But a laborer suggests Yang to learn the Tai Chi movements while she beats him. Meanwhile, Yu Niang's former boyfriend Fang Zi Jing (Eddie Peng), who was born in the village but has studied in Europe, returns to Chen Village expecting to convince the locals to allow building a railroad across their land. His proposal is rejected and he returns with the railroad representative Claire Heathrow (Mandy Lieu) in a lethal machine with British soldiers to destroy the Chen Village. Yang believes that if he becomes a hero saving the village, the locals will teach him Tai Chi."Tai Chi 0" is a funny adventure that uses the ancient Chinese tradition in the format of a video game. The good thing is that despite the difference of cultures, the story is highly entertaining and is worthwhile watching this movie. The bad thing is that the movie is to be continued. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "O Mestre da Guerra" ("The Master of the War")
O Zayev Its my first review so you'll forgive me in case anything wrong... But as a long time fan of martial arts and kung fu cinema, and as a tai chi practitioner i couldn't just watch and forget. This movie along with its sequel fails in all directions. Even the touch of Sammo Hung didn't save it. Action scenes were corrupted with cgi and ridiculous wire-work. Attempted comedy failed big time. I admit i did enjoy the sequel but not until after the stupid kung fu vs canons and fire-guns. TC0 was so boring i didn't even wonder what would come first, i just hoped that it ended soon. I cant believe someone actually spared money for this kinda production. One thing is clear - it is not a kung fu movie, and if its a comedy its a bad one. Sure there were high budget explosions but i couldn't make it up for all other failures. If you plan on watching this move i advise you to pass. And only watch the sequel. You wont be missing anything and you can thank me later for sparing you 2 hours that you would've lost on this. 3/10
Jeff Lee KUNG-FU movies are a dime a dozen, what more if they are about a callow youth wanting to study it under a master and then getting a chance to impress the master's pretty daughter. Even having Sammo Hung choreographing the action scenes will have little effect.There's a little commentary in Tai Chi 0 (Tai Chi Zero) about the dangers of aping decadent Western culture and how Chinese ingenuity can resist any white invasion. By this time, however, viewers would have lost interest in the narrative and, like me, would have been fighting to stay awake.Director Stephen Fung's story about Yang Lu Chan, the founder of tai chi, uses Japanese animation and video games to up the movie's ante, but maybe he just wasn't too confident in the flick.At the start, viewers are introduced to Lu Chan (2008 wushu champion Yuan Xiaochao, which is proudly announced on the screen). He's a tiger in battle because he has a horn-like stump on his head that can be hit to escalate his anger and increase his fighting prowess, just like the Incredible Hulk. But his downtime is also considerable. .There's a flashback using black-and-white silent movies to describe his birth and childhood, including showing how far is mother (former soft porn star Shu Qi) would go to raise him.In battle, his team is cut to pieces. So he heads for the mountains to learn a special kind of kung fu from Master Chen of the Chen Village, but this village is finicky because it won't teach it to outsiders.Lu Chan is at his wits' end and fights villagers to show them his worth. These include Master Chen's pretty daughter Yu Niang (Angelababy). But he's beaten back at every step, until a labourer (Tony Leung) tells him to mimic the villagers' kung fu and use it against them.Yu Niang's fiancé is Zi Jing (Eddie Peng), who is at odds with the culture of his country with his British clothing and snobby demeanour. He wants to build a railroad that will take it across the village, but this is met by fierce resistance from the villagers.So he calls in the artillery, or a monstrous metallic ogre that's part tractor and part train. I don't know why but I thought about the metallic steam-powered spider in the desert in Wild Wild West (1999).Lu Chan and Yu Niang conspire to bring the machine to a grinding halt, but not before taking down a regiment of hopelessly dressed white soldiers and a huge white guy.A romantic subplot has Zi Jing working with a white woman whom he met in London. Her last moment on earth is to hear him tell her that he loves her, all within earshot of Yu Niang. Zi Jing should not mix business and pleasure.The movie then ends abruptly, either living viewers unsatisfied or glad the movie ended.