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.
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.