Tai Chi 2

One of the upsides of being home sick is that it gave me the opportunity a chance to finally sit down and finish watching a DVD I started a few weeks back...  'Tai Chi 2'....

For those who aren't familiar with it,  'Tai Chi 2' was actually former Beijing Wushu Team member Wu Jing's first stab at a feature film.    The powers that be managed to get him a pretty opportunity too -  Yuan Woo Ping directing,  costarring Martial Arts cinema legends like Yu Hai and  Ji Chun-hua (both veterans of 'Shaolin Temple') and HK's King of Kicks, Billy Chow(aka the bad guy in 'Fist of Legend', 'Dr. Wai' and 'High Risk' to name but a few).  They also got some recognizable HK faces,  including Christy Cheung and Sibelle Hu (you probably recognize her from 'Fong Sai Yuk').

Despite that,  it didn't do so well and it was 5 more years before Wu Jing went on to do another feature film (he did make a name for himself in Mainland Wu Xia TV series though).    But it wasn't until 2004's SPL that he really 'broke through' to HK's market.

I haven't watched this since the Laser Disc (yes laser disc) came out in 96...  and I was a bit shocked how dated it seems...  the colors and picture quality on my DVD were pretty faded...    but none the less I enjoyed revisiting the movie and I think it stands the test of time pretty well. 

Its not a masterpiece,  doesn't stand out too much compared to other films from the same genre made at that time...  and the bad guy is not so scary, the final fight scene is a bit of a recycle of 'Wong Fei Hong',  but despite all that, its entertaining and there's actually a good deal of comedy (thanks in part to Sibelle Hu as Wu Jing's mom). 

The martial arts are pretty good too of course:

On its own this movie should get a 4 or 5/10,  but I think looking back at it 12 years later, and considering the cast,  I think it deserves at least a few extra points... 6/10!