Man of Tai Chi
                                      
Director: Keanu Reeves
Year: 2013
Rating: 6.0
Keanu Reeves began his love affair with martial arts while training for The Matrix in 1999 under the tutelage of the legendary Yuen Wo-ping from Hong Kong. Unlike many western actors who would have learned enough to look good while allowing the cameras and editing to take care of the rest, Reeves took his training very seriously. He has continued training in various forms of martial arts for his other Matrix films as well as the John Wick franchise. And then in the only film he has directed, he pays tribute to martial arts and its many forms as well as old martial arts films. But again, Reeves does the unexpected. Rather than collecting a bunch of western martial arts around him to make the film, he goes off to China and talks Mainland studios into financing the film. And shoots much of it in Mandarin. He naturally turns to Yuen Wo-ping to do the choreography and in another surprise move, he chooses Hu Chen to be the main protagonist in the film. Hu Chen? He had been working with Reeves since The Matrix as a stuntman, double and assistant choreographer. There may be something to the rumor that Reeves is the nicest man alive.



He doesn't stop there - he hires Karen Mok, Sam Lee and Simon Yam to play cops. How Hong Kong can you get. But my favorite casting is the man who plays Hu Chen's master in the film, Hai Yu. Hai Yu was a teacher of martial arts in China for years and a master of the Mantis Fist, Tai Chi and other forms. One of his students was Jet Li and so when Li was chosen to be in the Shaolin Temple Trilogy, Hai Yu was his master or father in the films. I don't know whether Reeves asked for him specifically, but I want to think so. Lastly, Reeves cast himself . . .  as the bad guy and I mean really bad. We are introduced to his character when he cold-bloodedly kills two men. He seems to have taken a cue from his role in The Devil's Advocate with Al Pacino as the devil. With all this talent, it the opened at the Beijing Film Festival before going into general release and it bombed. Badly. It sunk faster than a man in the Hong Kong Harbour with cement shoes. One would have thought just the name of Reeves being in it would have filled some seats, but practically no one went to see it. Was he accused of cultural appropriation I wonder as he was in his next acting performance after this with 47 Ronin? I don't know but perhaps having the script written by a westerner (Michael Cooney) didn't help.



It is basically an expensive B film that would have fit in fine during the 1970s. Wo-ping does some fine choreography in one fight after another. And Hu Chen in his action scenes is totally legit, but in truth who goes to see a film starring Hu Chen. Nobody, I guess. He is not the most imposing figure and acting is not his thing. Fighting is. He plays Tiger Chen a student of Master Yang in Tai Chi. Tai Chi as Master Yang tries to teach is a defensive art - one that disciplines you, echoes of the films of Lar Kar-leung. The short little sparring session they have with Tiger in a small circle avoiding the spear of his Master is excellent. Tiger wants more though and joins a tournament with fighters of various forms - and everyone is surprised that he is using Tai Chi offensively. But he beats his opponents easily and that brings him to the attention of the Devil. The Devil is a pure psychopath and wants him to fight in underground bouts for wads of money. As he continues to fight, he becomes the man that the Devil wants him to be - a killer. Not much of a plot, but on a physical level this was pretty good.