Man of Tai Chi (2013)
Directed by Keanu Reeves
In Beijing, a young martial artist's skill places him in position to experience opportunities and sacrifices.
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4 films that influenced Man of Tai Chi
What critics say influenced Man of Tai Chi
Keanu Reeves directs a kung fu movie that plays like Bruce Lee’s original vision for Game of Death.
“Airplanes are a beautiful dream,” is a mantra of Jiro’s in the film, and you could use the same phrase to describe the work of a man whose previous films include “Ponyo,” “My Neighbor Totoro” and the Oscar winning “Spirited Away.”
He won’t be mistaken for Wong Kar Wei very soon, or even Newt Arnold, of “Bloodsport” (1988), but Keanu Reeve’s directorial career gets off to a decent start with “Man of Tai Chi,” a hit-and-miss martial arts allegory about good and evil and kicking butt.
Chen is superbly athletic as a fighter but is no leading man, and nothing is made in the narrative of either his love interest – with an innocent office girl (Ye Qing) who helps save the temple from demolition – or with a potentially explosive showdown with top fighter Iko Uwais – the charismatic star of the brilliant martial arts film The Raid: Redemption.
Nothing is ridiculously over-done, like something you’d find in The Raid: Redemption – but that’s because Pencak silat is a completely different art form.
Tiger's opponents include a guy who dresses like the lead singer of Judas Priest and, in the anticlimactic last official fight, Indonesia's Iko Uwais, star of the much brawnier The Raid: Redemption.