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Tai Chi II

AKA: Tai Chi 2, Tai Chi Boxer, Tai Chi Fist

1996

Director: Yuen Woo-Ping

Stars: Wu Jing, Christy Chung, Mark Cheng, Sibelle Hu, Billy Chow, Darren Shahlavi

The early to mid-1990's saw a huge burst in the wire-fu genre, brought about by such hits as 1991's Once Upon a Time in China. Like most popular movies in Hong Kong, the film was imitated so many times that it eventually soured audiences to movies of the type, mostly due to the fact that a lot of the films were, for the most part, interchangeable with each other. There always seemed to be a plucky young hero who knew a unique style of kung fu trying to save a beautiful damsel in distress, either from an evil Manchu warlord or a nasty gweilo carpetbagger.

Tai Chi II came out towards the ends of the wire-fu fad, and has been labeled as a cheap attempt to make a last bit of cash from the genre. In fact, really the only reason a lot of gweilos might have seen it is that Tai Seng released it in the US after Yuen Woo-Ping hit it big following his work on The Matrix. Tai Chi II does have a bit of a generic vibe to it, but ultimately, it's a pretty decent wire-fu picture. The plot has Wu Jing as the resident kung fu rascal being held down by his domineering dad who eventually uses his formidable kung fu skills to impress a comely lass (Christy Chung) while stopping a group of opium smugglers led by the mandatory evil gweilo (played by Darren Shahlavi in this instance).

The basic plot is bland to say the least, and it doesn't help matters any that the particulars are lifted from other movies. There's the stern dad and wiscracking mom from Drunken Master 2, there's the love interest that's Chinese but has Western mannerisms from Once Upon a Time in China, and so on. The action also seems a bit derivative as well. In particular, once again Once Upon a Time in China is referenced in the gravity-defying finale.

But, hey, this is Yuen Woo-Ping heading the proceedings here, so the action's top-notch. The movie's low budget hurts the fights in parts, as wires are visbile in several shots during the film, but overall, this is really tight stuff. Even the gimmick of Jacky using his queue (long hair braid) as a weapon (which could have easily turned cheesy) was pulled off with some style. The action can't totally forgive the sometimes cruddy and overly-syrupy exposition scenes, but it does make them bearable.

Tai Chi II isn't the most mind-blowing movie you're likely to see. However, for die-hard fight fanatics, it's much better than yet another trip to the new release shelf at your local video store. Even a slightly above average HK action movie from this time is much better than a lot of the so-called "blockbusters" being put out nowadays.

RATING: 6.5

Note: Tai Chi II bears no direct relation to any other movie despite the Roman numerals in the title. A Hong Kong TV series was done in 1997 that is a prequel of sorts to this film, The Master of Tai Chi, which was renamed to The Tai Chi Master for a US video release. None of these projects are related to the Jet Li/Michelle Yeoh movie The Tai Chi Master, even though Yuen Woo-Ping worked on all of them -- confused yet?

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