Product Description
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As an uncommonly gifted child, Yang Luchan had a y
abnormality that holds tremendous power growing on his forehead.
However being teased as the town fool, Yangs mother spurs him to
practice martial arts, and following her wishes, Yang travels the
distance to come to Chen Village to learn TAI CHI. At this
legendary village, everyone practices TAI CHI and uses TAI CHI in
every aspect of their lives. Nevertheless, it is forbidden for a
villager to disclose TAICHI to an outsider, and Yang learned this
the hard way. Upon arriving at the village, locals discourage
Yang by challenging him with fights. From the strong men to hold
ladies to children, everyone defeats Yang with their TAICHI
moves. After facing the toughest battle and being defeated by
Master Chens beautiful daughter Yuniang, Yang is determined to
master the art of TAICHI and he needs to find Master Chen. Little
does Yang know, the poor strange man who he befriended with is in
fact Master Chen who then saved him from the duel with Yuniang.
Master Chen realizes Yangs genius and disguises himself to
secretly guide Yang to his self realization of TAICHI. One day, a
frightening steam-powered machine came to the village, lead by
Fang Zijing, a childhood friend of Yuniang. He has bribed
government officials to permit him to build a railway that will
run straight through the village. Yang decided to join forces
with Yuniang to defeat Fang Zijing and destroy the machine. This
brave act may just win the hearts of the villagers.
.com
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Actor-turned-director Stephen Fung's Tai Chi Zero is a frenetic,
genre-bending martial arts fantasy that tips its hat to Chinese
action cinema of the past while taking a radical approach to its
future via a torrent of references to video games, animation,
American movies, and other pop culture ephemera. Olympic wushu
champion Yuan Xiaochao is top-billed as Lu Chan, an impulsive
kung fu prodigy who's loosely (make that very loosely) based on
real-life tai chi teacher Yang Luchan. The movie's Lu Chan also
sports a horn on his skull that, when pressed, substantially
boosts his powers but also drains his energy (shown on-screen as
a diminishing, Xbox-like icon). To control his talents and save
his life, Lu Chan travels to the Chen village, where the
inhabitants have mastered the art of tai chi. There, he is faced
with not only the locals' reluctance to share their secrets, but
a former resident (Eddie Peng) who threatens to bulldoze the
village with a monstrous, steampunk-influenced machine to make
way for the railroad and the 20th century. Lu Chan's fight to
save the town is depicted in a meta-flurry of information à la
Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: actors and their
characters, as well as various fighting styles, are introduced by
pop-up-styled titles, while the combat itself unfolds via
rapid-eye editing and camera angles. Stylistic references to
silent film, European westerns, and anime are also woven
liberally throughout the picture, but the manic pace and deluge
of visual information obscures not only the martial arts
choreography by Hong Kong legend Sammo Hung, but also more
affectionate touches like cameos by kung fu veterans Bruce Leung
and Xiong Xin-Xin and Infernal Affairs director Andrew Lau. Tai
Chi Zero's attention deficit disorder aesthetic even extends to
its basic structure, with the picture ending abruptly, rewinding,
and then previewing Fung's 3-D follow-up, Tai Chi Hero. Longtime
Asian-action fans may find this much media overload ado over
nothing, though the film's extraordinary popularity abroad
indicates that its approach has found favor with newer audiences.
--Paul Gaita
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Review
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A masterpiece! --io9
Playful, exciting, and hugely entertaining --Twitch
A non-stop action epic with a fresh take on the genre --Toronto
Film Scene
Playful, exciting, and hugely entertaining --Twitch
A non-stop action epic with a fresh take on the genre --Toronto
Film Scene
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