Not to be confused with the excellent Jet Li film of the same name from 1993, this Tai Chi Master DVD from Tai Seng Distribution is in effect an edited down version of a Chinese television series starring Jacky Wu titled The Master Of Tai Chi directed by master martial arts choreographer, Yuen Wo-ping. As far as how many episodes were used to compile this two hour version, I can't say but the original series was supposed to have been twenty five episodes.

The storyline follows a young man named Yang (Jacky Wu) who leaves his family and his happy home to go off and study the art of Tai Chi. Wang has been fascinated by the martial arts and an aspiring Tai Chi aficionado for his entire life and when the chance comes to go off and learn more about his passion, he jumps at it. When Yang meets up with his would be instructor, Chan, things take a turn towards disappointment-ville for Yang as Chan refuses to teach him Tai Chi as he had hoped. His reasoning behind such a decision? Well, Yang isn't a member of his family and he only teaches Tai Chi to family members.

Not too much time passes before Chan is kidnapped and held hostage by a dastardly criminal named Lord Tun (played extremely well by Billy Chow) who has a grudge against Chan and his family. Luckily for Chan, his lovely daughter decides to teach Yang Tai Chi after all so that he can fight his way through Lord Tun and his seven Kung Fu masters who serve as his protectors, to save her father and return everything back to normal. As Yang trains, so do his opponents and it all leads up to a showdown that will test Yang on all the techniques that he has learned, and serve to teach Chan a lesson as well.

Mainland martial arts star Jacky Wu is a bit of a Yuen Wo-ping protégé in that he was discovered by him and subsequently cast as the lead in Tai Chi Boxer. While his career hasn't skyrocketed the way more internationally known martial arts stars like Jackie Chan and Jet Li's work has, Wu is still an admirable fighter who brings his experience and grace to this project. Like Jackie Chan, Wu has a knack for comedic timing but his fighting still and Wushu background gives his films a flavor, at least in terms of fighting and choreography, closer to the early works of Jet Li. He's kind of a combination of the two of them, and he's well cast in this feature.

Though Wu is good in the lead, we still have a story that is, at least in this edited down form, rather pedestrian and quite predictable. Thankfully, the excellent action scenes make up for this in spades and this is where the movie really excels. Wu's style looks great against Chow's and the final showdown is pretty solid stuff. Yuen Wo-ping obviously knows a thing or two about how to make a martial arts fight look as good as it can on the screen and even though this was a low budget television production, his work shines through and looks excellent.

It might take a while to get used to the idea of watching a martial arts period story unfold in a format that doesn't really do the splendor of the sets and costumes justice (the shot on video feel does hurt the visuals a bit) but the end result is an entertaining and moderately humorous fight fest that makes for a good time killer.

Video:

Well considering that this was originally a television series, it shouldn't surprise anyone to see that the picture is presented fullframe. What was surprising though was that it looks like it was shot on video and because of that, some of the colors look a little flatter than normal and the level of detail present in the image isn't as high as one might hope for. Overall though, the image is perfectly sufficient in that there aren't any compression problems or serious edge enhancement issues. There is some mild shimmering here and there throughout playback but it isn't overwhelming. I expected the image to look a little better than it did on this DVD, but what we're left with isn't bad.