Asian Movie Review: Tai Chi Zero (太極1從零開始, 2012)

I just watched "Tai Chi Zero" the first release from "Diversion Pictures",  directed by Stephen Fung and starring Yuan Xiaochao, Angelababy, Tony Leung and featuring supporting roles by Wu Di and Huihui Xu.

They bill this as a 'Steam Punk kungfu' film... and it does have a 'steam punk' element to it, but to me, it felt more like a throw back kungfu movie set in the 1800's as China is going through a period of foreign induced modernization.   Underlying it is actually more of a traditional martial arts period piece, where a young martial arts phenom (Yuan) goes on a quest to learn Taiji at the Chen village,  otherwise his over abundant internal energies will cause a brain hemorrhage.   

Then foreigners trying to destroy the Chen village with their new fangled trains part comes in and gives everyone something to unify against and cue some of the steam punk stuff mixed in with the fight scenes...     To me it this part felt a bit like a reheated version of the Will Smith "Wild Wild West" film... but with a lower budget... :-P

Overall  it pleasantly reminded me a bit of an early 90's Tsui Hark Wong Fei Hong movie... (or Wu Jing's "Tai Chi 2", no relation to this film of course),  where you're crossing an old world kungfu master from the countryside with "modern" imports from the western world up to a nefarious scheme. 

One negative is the films gimmicky approach and style... I'm not just talking about the fast cuts and choppy editing, there's more.  For example,   whenever a major character comes on screen for the first time they get an identifying title (which i guess is a traditional chinese film thing to do,  you see it in some cameo laden films still like "Founding of the Republic", etc. )  

It gets a bit distracting because in this case its more to introduce the actor than it is to introduce the character.... so 45 minutes into the movie, its you have info graphics popping up on screen explaining that someone is a 2009 wushu champion of China or founding member of Jackie Chan's stunt team, etc etc.    And then there's the on screen labels and info graphics and weird popups that come up...  i felt like I was watching 'Pop Up Video' on VH1...   is it a distraction or a feature?  I'm on the 'Too over the top' side of the fence I think...

But at least its trying to be unique and a change of pace.  Some kudos for being both a throwback and still cutting edge (even if its too cutting edge...)

Performances overall are not bad.  I didn't like Eddie Pang as the bad guy....   Angelababy is as always a wonderful sight to behold....  and somehow they manage to use enough stunt doubles and camera angles (and good training) to make her look like she can actually fight.   ;-)

Its important to note that this is part 1 of a two parter, (and uniquely, the 2nd part comes out in only a few more weeks...)   so  expect a cliff hanger ending.

I'll give it a 6/10... i may revise that upwards or downwards depending on how the second part turns out!