| Tai Chi Zero (2012) |
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| Director: | Stephen Fung |
| Writers: | Stephen Fung |
| Starring: | Yuan Xiaochao, Eddie Peng, Angelababy, Shu Qi, Feng Shaofeng, and Tony Leung Ka-Fai |
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The Plot: Lu Chan “The Freak” (played by Yuan Xiaochao) was born with a “horn” feature on his head that is known in martial art circles as “Three Blossoms on the Crown.” This growth acts as a “button” that, when pushed, instantly makes Lu Chan into a much stronger fighter. After being taken away from his parents as a child, Lu Chan was taught martial arts and eventually joined a rather violent cult of martial artists. Under the rule of this clan he was taught a very brutal and fierce style of martial arts that helped to deplete most of his internal energy. If Lu Chan is to survive, he is told by the local medic that he needs to learn “internal kung fu.” When the rest of his clan are murdered, Lu Chan decides that this is the perfect time to head out on his journey in order to learn this new style of kung fu. When he arrives at a distant mountain village that is well known for its Tai Chi, he finds that no one is willing to help him learn their art. So, being very hard to dissuade, Lu Chan sticks around begging for help. While Lu Chan sleeps on the streets, we see a great deal of drama unfolding within the village. Fang Zijing (Eddie Peng) is a young man returning to the place that he considers home. Fang, however, will always be considered an “outsider” within this village due to his ancestry, and thus he was never able to learn the martial arts of this village. Instead, he decided to seek out the wonders of technology! Unbeknownst to the village, or even Fang’s love interest Chen Yunia (Angelababy), Fang is here to try and persuade the villagers to find a new place to live so that his Western friends can direct train tracks right through the village. As one could expect, this plan won’t exactly appease the community within this small village. |
| The Review |
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Much has been made, rightfully of course, about the comic book style found in Tai Chi Zero. In many circles, it has been considered a classic case of style over substance, and indeed that seems like a decent description for the movie, but this overtly stylish direction can certainly be appreciated within the right circumstances. With Tai Chi Zero, there is a lot of “dumb fun” to be had if the audience is willing to go along with the movie. It’s one of the few Chinese films that I have seen in quite a while that doesn’t need two hours to tell its story, and it does its best to try and bring its cartoonish world to life. Indeed, Tai Chi Zero is a combination of Japanese anime and video games as well as traditional wuxia. Featuring segments that look identical to a Capcom fighting game, as well as one impeccable bit where the camera moves into a first-person-perspective that is obviously referencing the first-person-shooter genre, Tai Chi Zero is in love with video game culture. It truly seems as if every scene features some form of post-production thought bubble or cartoonish sidebar that gives levity to the movie. Granted, some of this stuff can be incredibly over-the-top, but hey, it works! The scenes that are supposed to be “cool,” they are. The humor adds a lot to the movie, and this sort of clever postmodern view of martial cinema is something that continually keeps me entertained.
| The Conclusion |
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