Tai Chi ZeroTai Chi Zero was a highly anticipated film released in 2012.

The story begins with Yang, a a powerful warrior and the story of his childhood.  As a child Yang is born with a small ‘Devil Horn’ on the right side of his forehead.  His mother, who sees him as destined to do great things, does what she can to support Yang in his upbringing, resorting to stealing from the family she is a servant for.

After being caught stealing Yang’s mother is killed, leaving Yang without any living parent – forcing him to live with a Kung Fu master.  Recognizing his potential, and the ability to learn and remember anything he sees, this Kung Fu master trains Yang in a hard Kung Fu style so he can be used as a weapon in war.

Once grown up, we see Yang in action taking apart many soldiers during a large scale battle.  However, when he is being looked over a by a medic he is informed that his ‘Devil Horn’ has turned purple, and if it turns black he will die.  The only way for him to cheat death is to learn a softer martial art such as Tai Chi.

Moments before the medic is killed, Yang is instructed by him to visit the Chen village and learn their Kung Fu, the only problem is they don’t teach to outsiders!

So, while Yang is trying his best to get someone to teach him, one of the villagers comes into town with Western technology and a large tank to destroy the town, in order to make way for a railway line.  Naturally there’s some resistance form the villagers and Yang.

Tank

Something a little different.

This movie is not your typical Kung Fu film.  It has a very light hearted and fun feel to it backed up by a some humorous moments. But it’s the visual style makes it  stand out.

With funny little animated icons and graphics showing up at random times (such as a ‘Round One’ and ‘KO’ symbol that resembled a Street fighter video game during one fight), this movie has stepped just outside the box a bit to deliver something a little different.

The visual style is backed up with special effects and CGI, which actually kind of works for this film, as the story line and characters are pretty standard in my opinion.  They needed the visual styling to make it stand out.

Yang attacks

The Action & Martial Arts

There are only a few fights in this movie, but enough to keep you entertained.  Decent use of wires and acrobatic kung fu make this movie pretty decent in terms to martial arts action, but nothing outstanding.

The action isn’t very driven, and it’s seems to be more of a visual spectacle than a fight which has you cheering for the main hero.  Although throughout the movie all you want to see is Yang learn some Tai Chi and start kickin’ butt.  Unfortunately, that seems to be saved for ‘Tai Chi Hero’ the second part of this film.

If there’s one thing this movie does do, it makes me very curious for the second film, with the action having a lot of potential that I believe it doesn’t reach, I’m looking forward to the next film, which hopefully takes the martial arts action up a notch.

The Verdict?

A very ‘OK’ film, with a fun visual style.  As an action movie / martial arts movie fan this film is more fun / comedy.  It’s not bad, but not a list topper.

On Blu Ray –

Region A (US & Canada)
Tai Chi Zero [Blu-ray]

Region B (UK, Australia, New Zealand, Europe etc)
Tai Chi Zero

On DVD –

Region 1 (US & Canada)
Tai Chi Zero
tai chi zero
Region 2 (UK, Europe, etc)
Yamada – Way Of The Samurai [DVD]

Region 4 (Australia, New Zealand, etc)
Tai Chi Zero

More info on Movie Regions here.

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