Product Description

Superstar Jet Li shows off his legendary speed, power, and agility at the peak of his martial arts prowess in this sweeping action epic. In an age of swordsmen and rebellion, two best friends and fellow martial arts students are expelled from the storied temple of Shaolin, only to meet again on the battlefield one a power-hungry general, the other a freedom-fighting rebel, both mortal enemies. Featuring Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon s Michelle Yeoh and directed by the celebrated Yuen Woo-Ping (action choreographer of The Matrix films), Tai Chi Master is a quintessential martial arts classic.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14146 in DVD
• Brand: GENIUS PRODUCTS INC
• Released on: 2008-07-29
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Formats: Color, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: Cantonese
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Dubbed in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 96 minutes

Amazon.com essential
Tai Chi Master is the greatest "wire-fu" film from Yuen Woo-ping, best known as the martial-arts choreographer of the Matrix and Kill Bill films. "Wire-fu" films were created during the martial arts film resurgence of the late 80s and early 90s, and in terms of fight choreography, this is arguably the best of the entire genre. Tai Chi Master demonstrated Jet Li’s martial-arts abilities at their most frenetic and fluid, and Li was at the height of his athletic prowess. If that wasn’t enough, it's also one of action queen Michelle Yeoh’s finest performances in a wuxia period piece. Li and Yeoh were supported by an equally athletic cast, led by the remarkable Chin Siu-hou, who plays the nemesis to Li’s hero. Chin manages to steal every scene, even when he is being beaten to a pulp. Li and Chin play best friends Jun and Tien, who grow up in Shaolin Temple during the Manchu Dynasty. Gentle Jun is satisfied with the simple things in life, but hot-tempered Tien craves power and wealth. The film’s exposition pays homage to the 70s Shaw Brothers films (such as The 36th Chamber of Shaolin), and the closing scene in the temple is only the first of a series of spectacular martial arts set pieces. Jun and Tien’s dispositions lead them to two different paths in life; Jun joins the rebellion against the cruel Manchu regime, while Tien joins the army. Here, Yuen treads all-too familiar territory, but the actors still throw themselves into the thin material. The film’s mid-part is weighed down by the usual intrusion of feckless Hong Kong slapstick, but the story quickly recovers when Jun discovers the secrets of tai chi. When Li fires up his tai chi skills, the results are some of the best boxing scenes the genre has ever witnessed. Tai Chi Master established Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh as the best martial arts actors in the business, and Yuen the best choreographer. Though elements of the film are dated, Tai Chi Master remains a landmark in the martial arts genre. --Roberto Azula

Customer Reviews

to me, an excellent movie, note the dubbing
To me, this is one of the best Jet Li movies. Or, may as well call it one of the best movies. It has a lot of humor and wisdom in it. However, as someone jokes that dubbing is the eighth sin, the dubbing in this movie, possibly to match the lip movement, has the script modified. The humor was lost, as well as the wisdom. I compared an Asian release with the US release: the script as well as the English subtitle are modified in the US release. I highly recommend this movie to you, except that it may be best to find the Asian release. I also checked that my Asian release has the English subtitle which is very close to what the actors and actresses say in Chinese. Also one thing about the US release is that the song is taken out from the movie. We usually accept a French song or Italian song in a foreign movie. How come we don't accept a Chinese song in a Chinese movie? The original Chinese song is very suited to the events of the movie. My advice remains: the Asian release of this movie probably can give you more enjoyment than the modified one.

I am sick of this!!
This movie is good. The fights and unrealistic and stylish, and the story is good. But there is no excuse for what happened to this movie. We live in America. We are one of the most diverse nations in the world. The localizers of this movie seem to think that Americans don't know anything about, and don't care about, Chinese language and culture. As a result all the original language and music has been cut, and there is only a spoken English version. This is inexcusable, especially for a DVD release. I have no problem with a dub, but on a DVD you MUST include both. It is a good movie, but on principle I will not give it a passing grade on this element alone. I bought a DVD player so I would not have any problems getting the subtitled version of a movie, and then they pull this crap! Please do not support dub only releases. Please go to ... the auctions amazon and find a DVD of Tai Chi Master. This is the Chinese version of this film. It will have English subtitles. The image quality is worse, but to have the true language and the real voice of Jet Li, it is worth it.

Look for an earlier version.
The Hong Kong releases of this movie are under the title "The Tai-Chi Master" and are universally better than this release. This was a wonderful movie before it was shrunk and dubbed. Disney seems doing this to all of the Hong Kong movies it can buy. Not only are they presented in a shortened version, they are not so much translated as rewritten. While I love these movies they just can't survive being dumbed down. It takes them from the sublimely ridiculous to the annoyingly stupid. Avoid any and all of these releases. The originals are well worth the trouble of digging up.