20140131: Action Review--Man of Tai Chi

Man of Tai Chi

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American/Chinese/Hong Kong live action feature length film, 2013, rated R, 105 minutes, action, drama. Spoken word is Cantonese, English, and Mandarin.
2. IMDB: 6.1/10.0 from 12,640 audience ratings. Estimated budget, 25 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 71% on the meter; 50% liked it from 8,679 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.6/5.0 from 46,686 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Keanu Reeves.  Screenplay as Michael G. Coney.
6. Starring: Keanu Reeves as Donaka Mark, Chen Lin-Hu as Tiger Hu Chen, Karen Mok as Sun Jingshi, Simon Yam as Superintendent Wong, Qing Ye as Qingsha.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Donaka runs an ongoing illegal fight-to-the-death contest with high stakes.  He's on the lookout for new talent a fair amount of the time.


2. Tiger is an advanced Tai Chi student.  He participates in some martial arts contests to show that Tai Chi can be used to express power.  Donaka views one of his matches, and sends Tiger an invitation to meet.  Tiger puts on his best suit and goes to the meeting.


3. He soon finds himself alone in a room designed for fights.  Fighting he does.  Donaka encourages him to fight for pay, but Tiger demurs...it's not the Tai Chi way.  Tiger gets outside pressure.  The dojo he has been with for years, which has stood for six centuries, is to be torn down unless monies are produced to effect repairs to keep developers away.


4. So Tiger starts fighting for money.  He also starts enjoying it, perhaps a bit too much.  His efforts get the dojo a temporary reprieve.  However, the developers telegraph that they will continue to pursue the property in order to demolish the dojo and rebuild expensive structures.


5. A police woman (Chief Inspector Jing Si) has been after Donaka from the beginning of the film.  Will Tiger be the weak link that brings Donaka down?


6. By the time Donaka brings in Tiger for a professional fight against two opponents in front of a select upscale crowd, Tiger is ready to perform no matter what.  He does not do all that well at first, but rises to the occasion, defeating two experienced fighters at once.


7. In his next public fight, he breaks some bones, and is disqualified.  Donaka is pleased.  Tiger goes back to the dojo and attempts to overpower his master.  Tiger has grown quite a bit in fighting skill, so his master no longer can overpower him, but neither can Tiger defeat his master.  Also, his master's attacks have effects after the fact, and leave Tiger with bruises.  His master warns him to meditate; otherwise he path will lead to destruction.


8. The agency in charge of development changes their mind again, and recommends development over the demolished dojo.  Their excuse is that Tiger was disqualified from his last legitimate fight.  Oi.  Tiger asks Donaka for a fight; he gets one against Yuri Romanov, a mercenary 'killing machine.'  Tiger defeats him and barely restrains himself from killing him.  Donaka encourages him to finish the job.  Tiger does not.  Oh, my.  Donaka enters the battle room and breaks Yuri's neck.


9. Jing Si finds the location of the fight, but is about 20 minutes too late.  Tiger contacts her, but his telephone was bugged.  Donaka knows, and will have surprises.


10. So, who comes out well in this one?  Anyone?  Does Tiger survive?  Do we care?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: The two miscast lead actors render the film's value inert.
2. One star of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 Well shot for the most part.  The colour palettes are a bit off now and then.


2. Sound: 2/10 Be sure to view this film on a device that allows subtitles.  Much of the film is in Mandarin and Cantonese.


3. Acting: 0/10 The performance of Chen Lin-Hu as Tiger was just as unbelievable as Keanu Reeves as Donaka.  Those two casting choices were just ridiculous.  The fake fights did indeed look fake.  In a Jackie Chan film, it's the same, but the fake fights accentuate Jackie's warmth and humour.  This deadly bore of a film is not a comedy, and the fake look of the fighting is a terminal detriment.  One is reminded of the terminal mistake of casting Jaden Smith and Keanu Reeves in the hideous remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still.


4. Screenplay: 2/10 This is a fairly straightforward plot, nothing new, with good production values.  Unfortunately, the two leads just cannot execute it.  The end fight was just absolute bovine scatology, ludicrous and insulting to the viewer.  Telekinesis?  You've jumped the shark, fellows. Unless this was meant to be Dragonball Z, of course.