Man of Tai Chi

Directed by : Keanu Reeves

Script:  Michael G Kooney

Length of movie: 105 minutes

THE PLOT: ****CONTAINS SPOILERS (JUST SKIP DOWN TO “MY VIEWS” TO AVOID SPOILERS)

The movie opens with a fight unto death going at an undisclosed location.  The fighter overpowers his opponent, but refuses to land the killer blow.  A masked man comes and kills the wounded opponent.  Simultaneously, Hong Kong Police raid the place but find no one. The dead body of the fighter who refused to kill is found.  It turns out that he had informed the police prior to coming, but turning informant had cost his life.

The masked man is Donaka Mark (Keanu Reeves).   He is running this illegal fight unto death clubs and filming & beaming it world wide.  

Enter Tiger Chen (Chen Hu), student of Lin Kong Tai Chi style.  His master manages a temple which has a lineage of 600 years.  Tai Chi is usually not considered  as a martial art and Tiger Chen is out to prove this wrong.  While practicing with his master who attacks him with a spear, Tiger after defending for quite some time, breaks the spear.  His master deplores him for this move and tells that he could have just deflected the spear instead of breaking it, but tiger says that why deflect when he has the power to break it.  Master retorts that breaking signifies power, but no control and it is control what a martial art student should strive for.  Tiger disagrees.  The master is wary of this trait of Tiger and his inability to distinguish between power and control.  He predicts that this will lead Tiger through a different path.  He needs to do more contemplation &meditation.  Tiger observes that no meditation or contemplation is needed.  He feels power will ultimately leads to control.  His master disagrees, and says, that is an illusion.

Tiger works as a delivery man and also fights in local competitions to prove that Tai Chi is no less martial than other styles.  Donaka Mark spots Tiger in a fight & sees potential in him.  They start to monitor & record all his activities, even tapping his phone.  Tiger gets a job offer from Donaka and when he goes for interview, he is told that all he has to do is fight and he will get paid for that.  Tiger refuses to fight for money, but Donaka asks him to reconsider his decision and gives him his card to call back.  Tiger’s Temple gets demolition orders due to some safety violations. Civic authorities are going to build something else there.  Tiger gets to know from his girlfriend that they can get a stay order if they let the temple be declared Heritage Property, but all the related maneuvers will cost money.  Tiger decides to fight for money and calls Donaka.  Tiger defeats the opponent, collect money and saves the temple.  But this leads to other fights and more fights.  Ultimately, Tiger becomes ruthless fighter.

The police officer, Sun Jing (Karen Mok) headed the police raid shown in the beginning is still following Donaka.  She spots Tiger with Donaka & assumes correctly that he is the new fighter.  She meets Tiger and tries to dissuade him, but he feigns ignorance & tells he is just working as security for Donaka.

Tiger’s aggressive behavior disqualifies him from a tournament & also leads to his Temple’s petition of heritage being rejected as Tiger’s action have brought disrepute to Tai Chi.  Tiger asks Donaka for a fight to quell his rage and to his own bewilderment attacks the opponent straight into the eyes, blinding him.  However, he does not kill his opponent, and this riles up Donaka.   Donaka walks in, wearing a mask and kills the opponent, but chides Tiger.  As he sits quietly with his bloodied hands, Tiger realizes that he has changed a lot and regrets.  He informs Donaka that he won’t fight anymore.  Donaka says that Tiger has no option but to fight.

Tiger informs the officer Sun Jing (Karen Mok) about the fighting going on.  As Tiger is always under surveillance, Donaka immediately knows about his betrayal.  In the next fight unto death, Tiger’s opponent is an Indonesian artist Gilang Sanjaya (Iko uwais – Pencak Silat style), but Tiger refuses to fight him and turns to Donaka and says I will fight you.  Sujoy tries to hit him, but tiger escapes and keeps on running round and round to buy time.  The police arrives and arrest everybody except Donaka.  Donaka threatens tiger before leaving saying “you owe me a life.”

Tiger goes to his temple where Donaka appears and they fight.  After being wounded by Donaka’s knife, Tiger uses a force, which he had never used before.  This force is not depending on power, it is more based on his will, and thus he realizes what his Master had told him earlier.  The move throws Donaka backwards and he starts vomiting blood.  Before dying, he tells Tiger that he knew Tiger was special.

The movie ends as the The temple gets the heritage status and Tiger telling his his girlfriend about his  plans to start a  training school for Tai Chi.

My views:  Chen Hu, who plays tiger is superb in action sequences.  Some of the moves have really got that wow factor.  Keanu Reeves as the villain is convincing, but his fight with Tiger in the Temple in the end was a bit of dampener. Karen Mok as the lady cop pursuing the case is superb. Overall, if you love watching martial arts movie, don’t forget to add this one to your “must watch list.”

Note:  This movie is inspired from the life of Keanu Reeves' stuntman friend Tiger Chen.
           This movie marks the directional debut of Keanu Reeves.