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Tai Chi Master: Special Collector's Edition
R1 - America - Genius Products / Dragon Dynasty Review written by and copyright: Jeremiah Chin (4th September 2008). |
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The Film
 Usually re-releases magically appear at anniversaries or when actors hit a major jump in fame and popularity making all their old films suddenly re-emerge onto DVD. But this almost makes the recent release of Jet Li’s 1993 “Tai Chi Master” a puzzle as this edition seems more of a proper restoration than any kind of attempt to capitalize on a new market as Jet Li has dominated a good portion of the Martial Arts market in the United States for a while now. Originally released in the states as “Twin Warriors,” “Tai Chi Master” follows two best friends who grow up in a monastery and become well trained fighters. One day in a kung fu competition within their monastery Tienbo (Chin Siu Ho) gets too rough with his opponent after they tried to cheat in the fight. After Junbao ( Jet Li) rushes to Tienbo’s aid, both men have to fight off the monks in their temple and are eventually kicked out into the real world where Tienbo becomes obsessed with money and power while Junbao holds tighter to traditions and the ideas he held while at the monastery. Tienbo joins the governor’s army in the hope of becoming rich and powerful while Junbao becomes a part of a small rebel movement. Even though it has the look of a very cliché 'friends-become-enemies, enemies-become-friends' tale, but has very much the feel and style of old grindhouse style kung fu movies with really absurd fights, without being too deep into the flying on wires ‘wu xia’ style that became so popular in the past 5 or so years. The fact that you can often see the wires makes the experience all the more enjoyable as the fights are all still well done and entertaining. Yuen Wo-Ping’s style knows how to make a fight stay entertaining without resorting to shaky-cam and cutting tactics allowing the fiewer to just watch the action happen, wires and all. Yuen may be better known for his role as fight choreographer on “The Matrix” trilogy (1999-2003) and “Kill Bill” movies (2003-2004) but his directing follows well from the fight’s he’s created, he also was fight choreographer on this film. Visually his style is good to watch and surprising that he hasn’t made more major films. Mixed in with the cheesy dramatic moments are moments of comedy genius from Jet Li, at times foreshadowing his really under-appreciated comedic/dramatic role in “Unleashed” (2005). The whole movie is fairly funny in its own right even when it’s trying to be dramatic. It takes a bit to get going and get to grown up Jet Li and some good kung fu, but once it’s there it’s really fun to watch. The film feels a lot older than it really is, I would probably guess it’s from the late 70’s to 80’s based on the sound and film quality, but that almost makes it more entertaining as the visible wires or poles holding actors up add to the experience. In no way is there the same amount of ridiculousness in terms of gore or structure, meaning the movie doesn’t suddenly end on a freeze frame, but feels in the same vein as the as the older movies, just with more Jet Li. There’s also good chemistry and moments between Michelle Yeoh and Li, Yeoh is actually at the very beginning of becoming a dominant kung fu movie actor at this point and she does a great job of moving with the fight choreography even though she doesn’t come from a martial arts background (which is hard to believe today after she has become fairly iconic, especially through the wu xia films). Overall this is a quality kung fu film, Dragon Dynasty has made a good choice in selecting it’s title especially drawing from (sort-of) older films like “Tai Chi Master” for the sake of properly bringing them to DVD. Jet Li is fantastic in this movie and brings out some great comedy, Yeoh is also really good, and the film features some good fights along with some genuine entertainment. It lags a bit in the beginning, but once it gets going and Li gets to have full reign in the film it gets great.
Video
The 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen presentation looks fine, like I said it has more of an older feel in terms of film quality, but that may be an issue of preservation more than transfer. The actual directing by Yuen Wo-Ping works really well with the lighting and design of the film in feudal china. Overall it looks like a well restored grind house movie, I’m glad they didn’t try to overly post-produce it though and take out the wires today or else it would have seemed even more fake and take away some of the enjoyment.
Audio
“Tai Chi Master’s” Dragon Dynasty release features a restoration of the original Cantonese audio track in the film, which is presented in both Dolby Digital 5.1 as well as the original Mono 2.0 soundtrack. For this kind of movie I feel it’s better to watch it with the mono track, even though it’s the lowest quality if it’s it’s original form it adds to the experience. Like any kung fu movie all of the sword swishes and clashes and sound effects are crucial, beautifully loud in key points, never subtle. There’s an optional English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track, which is terribly bad in terms of dubs, but really fun to listen to in its own right. Optional subtitles are included in English, English for the hearing impaired and Spanish.
Extras
Genius Products has released this Dragon Dynasty DVD loaded with some extras including an audio commentary track, an interview, featurettes and a theatrical trailer, all of which are discussed below. The audio commentary track features Hong Kong Cinema Expert Bey Logan, who provides a great retrospective on the film, the actors and, to a degree, the genre itself. Logan has appeared on a good deal of Dragon Dynasty discs doing this kind of commentary and for “Tai Chi Masters” the commentary is incredibly strong, with some great nuggets of information especially hearing about how Yeoh can apparently hold her liquor like Marion Ravenwood and drink anyone under the table or that Donnie Yen was originally supposed to be in the film. This is a solid commentary track that keeps the flow. “Nemesis: An Exclusive Interview with star Chin Siu Ho” runs for 20 minutes and 14 seconds. This fairly lengthy interview is current and talks with Chin about his kung fu history, acting with Li through the movie and how he became involved in the film and film in general. A great special feature in terms of revisiting actors, there’s a good discussion of the art of kung fu and action movies, pretty interesting and well paced as it splices in film footage to keep things moving and break up the long interview. “The Birthplace of Tai Chi: On Location in Chen Village” runs for 14 minutes and 55 seconds, this featurette shows Chen Village, the apparent home of Tai Chi, speaking with a Tai Chi master from Chen Village about the origins of Tai chi and going through the temples in the area that hold some of the original artifacts. Another really cool special feature, the conversation about the origins of Tai Chi and how it has been passed through the generations, definitely worth watching for all the kung fu fans. “Meditations on the Master: Brett Ratner and Elvis Mitchell Discuss Yuen Wo-Ping” featurette runs for 13 minutes and 40 seconds. Ratner talks about how in love he is with “Tai Chi Master” and how much in love he is with Yuen’s choreography, going so far as to call Yuen the greatest martial arts director of all time. Another good discussion of the movie, a good companion to Logan’s commentary, it’s interesting that they got Ratner on the disc and not Yuen himself since Ratner seems like the bigger mainstream name considering Yuen mostly does fight choreography in the states rather than being a big name director. “Twin Warriors: Brett Ratner and Elvis Mitchell Discuss Jet Li andMichelle Yeoh” featurette runs for 14 minutes and 32 seconds and Mitchell does a great job of dissecting Li’s career and the discussion of Yeoh is very good, they do a good amount of discussing the characters as well. Ratner also discusses “Tai Chi Master’s” impact on the "Rush Hour" movies (1998-2007) which is interesting to hear. The final featurette rounds out the disc well, a little sad that they couldn’t get Li and Yeoh but Mitchell and Ratner do a great discussion of Yeoh and Li’s styles and careers, even comparing them to Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire at one point. The Original Home Video trailer is also included in the film, ripped straight from VHS, runs for 50 seconds. As a general note, it’s really impressive that all the featurettes and interviews are presented in the same 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen as the feature, except for the trailer which was made for fullscreen VHS, almost as if it knows it’s audience is going to watch the special features and wants to see quality features.
Overall
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