Jet Li and Michelle
Yeoh in a wuxia film directed by Yuen Woo-Ping.
If you’re me, those
words were all it took to get Tai Chi
Master (1993) in your queue.
If you aren’t me and those names don’t ring a bell, let me explain. Jet Li is a former Chinese national
wushu champion and a no-kidding master of two styles of northern Chinese kung
fu. He made his first film in
1982, at the age of 19, and has been working steadily ever since. His best film, Fearless (2006), combines first-rate action with a retelling of the
Buddha’s journey in a manner both ambitious and profoundly successful. Michelle Yeoh’s background is in ballet
and choreography, and she's applied her training to a string of successful
martial arts and action films dating from 1984. While best known in the West for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, she’s best known to me for jumping
a motorcycle onto the roof of a moving train in Police Story III (alternately titled Supercop), thus making her the only stuntperson in history to
upstage Jackie Chan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTv7HXqqqXA
Yuen Woo-ping, the
film’s director, has directed and/or choreographed some of the most memorable
martial arts films ever made, including Drunkenmaster,
the Kill Bill movies, and Kung Fu Hustle. Folks, this is the A Team.
And the A Team
delivers. With Tai Chi Master, they create not just an
action film, but a testament to the remarkable athletic feats we humans are
capable of achieving. Yes, the
film relies on wires and hidden trampolines and creative editing to make its
characters appear superhuman, but those wires are attached to real people
bouncing off real trampolines and making it all look, if not exactly natural,
then credible. I marveled at these
performers’ flexibility, speed, endurance, and grace. I loved how Yuen shot them, I enjoyed the complexity of
their choreographed fights, and I lost track of time for the hour and a half it
took for Tai Chi Master to tell its
story of medieval China.
Jet Li. Michelle Yeoh. Yuen Woo-ping. They’re as good as human beings can be
at what they do, and Tai Chi Master
showcases them beautifully. Enjoy.
