DVD Corner

Tai Chi Hero Blu-ray Review

“Tai Chi Hero” is an improvement over the abysmal “Tai Chi 0.”

Taking place where “Tai Chi 0” left off, “Tai Chi Hero” begins with Lu Chan (AKA The Freak with the powerful skin growth on his head) marrying Yu Niang in Chen Village. As you may recall from the first film, Yu Niang agreed to marry Lu Chan in order to save his life. Lu Chan faced death because he learned the Chen’s secret Tai Chi which was absolutely forbidden to outsiders. Anyway, with Lu Chan being a village hero and now a married man, things seemed to be looking up for him until Zai (a member of the Chen family) arrives. Upon Zai’s arrival, strange occurrences begin to happen which causes the villagers to believe that the prophecy of the village curse is coming true because of Lu Chan’s presence. Is the curse really coming true or is Zai somehow behind this? You’ll have to wait and see on that one.

Elsewhere in the story, we see that the vengeful Fang is rising to power after teaming up with Duke Fleming (an East India Company worker). Fang, who lost his love Claire and attempted to westernize his former home Chen Village, is working with Duke to build up an army with the hopes of ruling and seeking revenge against Chen Village.

Aside from that, the only other plotlines of significance involve Lu Chan training and proving his skills and the introduction of a new pivotal character (Prince Dun).

When I watched the steampunk infused martial arts film “Tai Chi 0,” I had no idea it was part of a planned trilogy (the third one has yet to be released). After seeing that first film, I honestly had very little interest in seeing the follow-ups as I felt ‘Zero’ was an over-the-top, chaotic, cheesy action film that represented everything wrong with modern martial arts films. While “Tai Chi Hero” is still filled with cartoony fights, rock music, an over abundance of wirework, needless comic book style credits/shots, and video game esque fights, it is thankfully mostly different in tone to its predecessor.

If you were someone that was amused and or compelled by Lu Chan whining about wanting to train as he got beat up by virtually everyone in Chen Village throughout the entirety of “Tai Chi 0,” you may be disappointed by the fact that “Tai Chi Hero” is much more serious than its predecessor. As someone who found the humor of ‘Zero’ unbearable, I found it refreshing that ‘Hero’ cut back on the jokes and instead focused more on existing and new characters. Granted, the story feels like little more than a set-up to part 3, but at least we are treated to an interesting flashback, Chen family drama, and better action set pieces (see the brawl with Fang’s troops and the ending showdown with Lu Chan).

Video/Audio:

Presented in widescreen 1080p, the transfer for “Tai Chi Hero” is crisp and clear as everything from the locals to the CGI looks first rate.

This disc contains Mandarin and English 5.1 DTS-HD MA audio tracks and Mandarin and English 2.0 Stereo tracks as well. The English dub is atrocious here so going with the Mandarin track is a no brainer.

Extras:
* Well Go USA Entertainment trailers.
* A US and original trailer for “Tai Chi Hero.”
* “From Zero To Hero- Making Of”- A standard making of that contains film clips, interviews, set footage, discussions about the sequel, etc.

July 4, 2013 - Posted by nicklyons1 | Blu-Ray review | Tai Chi 0, Tai Chi Hero Blu-ray Review