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Product Description ------------------- As an uncommonly gifted child, Yang Luchan had a y abnormality that holds tremendous power growing on his forehead. However being teased as the town fool, Yangs mother spurs him to practice martial arts, and following her wishes, Yang travels the distance to come to Chen Village to learn TAI CHI. At this legendary village, everyone practices TAI CHI and uses TAI CHI in every aspect of their lives. Nevertheless, it is forbidden for a villager to disclose TAICHI to an outsider, and Yang learned this the hard way. Upon arriving at the village, locals discourage Yang by challenging him with fights. From the strong men to hold ladies to children, everyone defeats Yang with their TAICHI moves. After facing the toughest battle and being defeated by Master Chens beautiful daughter Yuniang, Yang is determined to master the art of TAICHI and he needs to find Master Chen. Little does Yang know, the poor strange man who he befriended with is in fact Master Chen who then saved him from the duel with Yuniang. Master Chen realizes Yangs genius and disguises himself to secretly guide Yang to his self realization of TAICHI. One day, a frightening steam-powered machine came to the village, lead by Fang Zijing, a childhood friend of Yuniang. He has bribed government officials to permit him to build a railway that will run straight through the village. Yang decided to join forces with Yuniang to defeat Fang Zijing and destroy the machine. This brave act may just win the hearts of the villagers. .com ---- Actor-turned-director Stephen Fung's Tai Chi Zero is a frenetic, genre-bending martial arts fantasy that tips its hat to Chinese action cinema of the past while taking a radical approach to its future via a torrent of references to video games, animation, American movies, and other pop culture ephemera. Olympic wushu champion Yuan Xiaochao is top-billed as Lu Chan, an impulsive kung fu prodigy who's loosely (make that very loosely) based on real-life tai chi teacher Yang Luchan. The movie's Lu Chan also sports a horn on his skull that, when pressed, substantially boosts his powers but also drains his energy (shown on-screen as a diminishing, Xbox-like icon). To control his talents and save his life, Lu Chan travels to the Chen village, where the inhabitants have mastered the art of tai chi. There, he is faced with not only the locals' reluctance to share their secrets, but a former resident (Eddie Peng) who threatens to bulldoze the village with a monstrous, steampunk-influenced machine to make way for the railroad and the 20th century. Lu Chan's fight to save the town is depicted in a meta-flurry of information à la Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: actors and their characters, as well as various fighting styles, are introduced by pop-up-styled titles, while the combat itself unfolds via rapid-eye editing and camera angles. Stylistic references to silent film, European westerns, and anime are also woven liberally throughout the picture, but the manic pace and deluge of visual information obscures not only the martial arts choreography by Hong Kong legend Sammo Hung, but also more affectionate touches like cameos by kung fu veterans Bruce Leung and Xiong Xin-Xin and Infernal Affairs director Andrew Lau. Tai Chi Zero's attention deficit disorder aesthetic even extends to its basic structure, with the picture ending abruptly, rewinding, and then previewing Fung's 3-D follow-up, Tai Chi Hero. Longtime Asian-action fans may find this much media overload ado over nothing, though the film's extraordinary popularity abroad indicates that its approach has found favor with newer audiences. --Paul Gaita P.when('A').execute(function(A) { A.on('a:expander:toggle_description:toggle:collapse', function(data) { window.scroll(0, data.expander.$expander[0].offsetTop-100); }); }); Review ------ A masterpiece! --io9 Playful, exciting, and hugely entertaining --Twitch A non-stop action epic with a fresh take on the genre --Toronto Film Scene Playful, exciting, and hugely entertaining --Twitch A non-stop action epic with a fresh take on the genre --Toronto Film Scene See more ( javascript:void(0) )