Rating
Summary
Man of Tai Chi is massively entertaining; Keanu has proven himself a rather adept director and I will be watching his career with great interest, to quote Emperor Palpatine.
Plot: A young martial artist’s unparalleled Tai Chi skills land him in a highly lucrative underworld fight club.
Review: Man of Tai Chi marks the directorial debut of Keanu Reeves and if this movie is anything to go by then Mr Reeves has found his true calling. It has some truly amazing martial arts and choreography, feeling like an old school kung fu flick with philosophy, amazing fight scenes and a sense of mysticism.
Tiger Chen is our main protagonist and I love the whole idea of this innocent man who is corrupted and disgraced by Keanu Reeves’ dastardly villain.
There are almost too many highlights to mention but I think my favourite moment is the scene where Tiger Chen fights two opponents and Reeves essentially tells him to turn to the dark side… which he does.
This epic choral music comes on and he decimates his opponents; watching a good man turn (nearly) evil is always a fascinating story and although the outcome is a little predictable, the journey there is pretty special.
Tiger Chen has a very expressive face which one moment can look soft and kind but then ferocious when he’s fighting.
Keanu may not be the greatest actor in the world with some wooden delivery but the man sure as hell can direct but also fight; he has a climactic fight which really shows how skilled he’s become over the past few years. He obviously caught the martial arts bug after The Matrix movies.
There’s a brief fight scene between Tiger and Iko Uwais (The Raid) but sadly it’s rather short and a bit underwhelming; I wanted it to go on for ages.
The music in general works really well; like I said the choral music in that one fight is mesmerizing and there is some nice Asian sounding themes throughout.
Overall, Man of Tai Chi is massively entertaining; Keanu has proven himself a rather adept director and I will be watching his career with great interest, to quote Emperor Palpatine.
