Tai Chi 2
Review
Format: Dubbed VHS
Stars: Jackie Wu, Billy Chow, Sibelle Hu, Hung Yan Yan, Mark Cheng, others

Another opium movie, evil Brits, good Chinese. god I'm getting tired of this plot. Nothing really new here, except for Tai Chi, which I felt was the only good part of the whole movie. But I might as well tell the plot. Brits are coming in, bring Opium, and Jackie Wu (plays a character named Jackie) feels obligated to stop them. That's basically all of it. Oh and he wants to marry Christy Cheung, who is the fiancee of Prince (played by Mark Cheng), so there's some more conflict.

Anyways, Jackie Wu's character's father was impressive. He moved like he was 20 years old, yet he must have been at LEAST 50. When he geared up in the beginning against Billy Chow (a stupid fight actually, they put Chow on wires) to use his Tai Chi, he really looked good. Very smooth movements.

Jackie Wu also did a good job with Tai Chi movements. He and his father looked very experienced in martial arts and I was impressed with them. They also both used the mantis style on eachother in the middle of the movie, which I thought was so good that I put it up on the Fight Choreography Page. So you should download that to see what I mean. There's some tai chi in that fight as well that I didn't include, but they put it into slow motion so you could see every move, and, surprisingly, it worked really well. Billy Chow, like I said, was on wires most of the time, and he did a few kicks that looked good, as usual, but, well, he was on wires and I didn't like that at all. Hung Yan Yan had a few scenes in it, and I thought he moved even better than Jackie Wu, so that was a pleasant surprise.

But as soon as the final scene came around, I knew it was going to be bad. I was right. It's like the last fight from OUATIC1 gone bad, or I should say, gone BAD WIRE. Wirework abounds so much in the scene, more than many MANY other movies. Plus, you can see the wire almost every time too. And this isn't some clear wire that you have to look for, but it's like a white rope that sits in the middle of the picture. Jackie Wu fights an American in this part and, really, I think that this American ruined most of the movie for me. He tries WAY WAY WAY WAY WAAAYYYYYY TOOOOOOO HARD to look tough. They have him do kicks that bat away boxes, which are clearly on wires, so he just looks like an idiot. Then when he strips off his shirt, it only gets worse. And I must mention that he moves terribly. His punches all looked like they were aimed at the opposite wall, and whenever he threw one he left his entire body open. Aweful.

Another thing. Mark Cheng can't fight, and they shouldn't have let him. They used a double for him, and forgot to put sideburns on the guy. So you see Cheng fighting, then some other guy. Not very good double work.

I didn't really like it. Not bad enough for a 5, but not enough for a 7. So,
6/10

They could have used MORE TAI CHI, I mean come on, the name of the movie is TAI CHI 2, not TAI CHI AND KICKBOXING. Better dubbing, in the Tai Seng version, would have been nice, and they should have changed the plot entirely, and taken out the American and replaced him with someone more capable of acting and fighting. Jackie Wu is capable, though, and they could have made these changes and kept him in the movie.

UPDATE - 10/1 - I don't like giving this movie a 6 because it's silly and left a bad taste in my mouth. I want it to have a
5/10 - Sorry.

UPDATE 10/9 - Rating System Change

2/5

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