The Man of Tai Chi ( 2013)

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Star – Keanu Reeves

Genre – Action/Martial Arts

Run Time – 1 hr 45 minutes

Certificate – 18

Country – Hong Kong/USA

Awards – Wins & Nominations

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So what Happened to Keanu Reeves? He hit rock bottom with Ronin 47 (2013), a dreadful CGI mess, and the rather convoluted Constatine (2005) the last time he was notable since The Matrix trilogy. But he shot back to the top recently with John Wick and its cracking sequel, some surprisingly cool and slick action moves in the hitman genre not everyone knows about. If you haven’t seen them you really should. They are really good.

Man of Tai Chi (2013), which he also directs, was the first sign he was back in shape to do a decent movie and looks great on screen dressed in black again, lean and as cool as ice. He had been running his superbike company between making movies and looked like he was making films just to subsides that companies development. It looks like he is back. He will need to be if they are to get away with another- and planned – Bill & Ted movie.

===Plot===

Tiger Chen Lin Hu (Tiger Hu Chen) is a martial arts expert in his spare time and a motorbike courier by day. His boss is tough and mean although he has a crush on one of the girls at the offices he delivers to and, Ching Sha (Qing ye), so sticks with it

His passion is tournament fighting, some televised, using his unique Tai Chi defensive style to beat opponents, building a name for himself in Taiwan.

Watching on from a far is the rather mysterious and devious Donaka Mark (Keanu Reeves), a mega rich type who flies everywhere dressed in black in private jets and helicopters, who has targeted Tiger for an interview to be his security detail. This is a ruse to get the kid over to Hong Kong and into his private fight club, no rules but big bucks.

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The kid takes up the offer after a battle with his conscious and the illegal fights begin, impressing Mark, the money coming just in time as the temple he trains in with Master Yang (Hai Yu) needs urgent repairs or will be closed down by the city.

The Hong Kong police have been after Donaka for a while and desperate to break up the fight club as the body count rises, losing one of their undercover agents recently trying to take down Mark. Inspector Suen jing si (Karen Mok) heads the team and closing in. But when Tiger gets in too deep the Detective seizes her chance to take down the bad guys.

===Results===

There has been a few of these hybrid subtitled films around in recent years as Hollywood attempts to blend with foreign films in a way both audiences will buy into it, especially South East Asian ones. The Chinese film market potential is huge, why you see a lot of big actors from that part of the world in Hollywood blockbusters now. That’s why the Indian guy was in the recent Jurassic Park film. The subtitles remain a big issue to work against that though. I went into this one thinking it would by English as Keanu is in it but he is the only one, who does speak English. This is the films biggest issue.

Tiger Hu Chen worked with Keanu in the Matrix Reloaded and good to see them back together again. Happily there is no one of that now comical wire work here and no super slow motion. It’s a traditional martial arts movie with the innocent hero taking on the man in black, good versus evil, one martial art versus the other.

It’s surprisingly OK as a film and perfectly fine as a martial arts film in its own right. It’s not must see in anyway but enjoyable because it’s not as naff as the title suggests. There are no twists or surprises and clearly a film aimed at a simple South Asian audience. The fight scenes are solid as solid as Reeves jaw-line and the dialogue as clean and uncomplicated as a fresh tissue. Worth a watch if it pops up on TV guys, Keanu still a great looking dude and very average actor we like because of those traits.