6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
In legendary Chen Village, everyone is a martial arts master, and uses a powerful form of Tai Chi in all aspects of their life. Yang has arrived to try and learn it, only to find that it's forbidden for the villagers to teach their secret style to an outsider. But when a mysterious man comes to town with a frightening steam-powered machine and plans to build a railroad through a village, the villagers realize they may have no choice but to put their faith in Yang, who has a secret power of his own.
Starring: Jayden Yuan, Tony Ka Fai Leung, Angelababy, Eddie Peng, Shaofeng FengAction | 100% |
Foreign | 89% |
Martial arts | 74% |
Adventure | 17% |
Period | 6% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Mandarin: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Mandarin: Dolby Digital 2.0
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
English, Mandarin (Traditional)
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Sometimes it’s best to trust your first impression. As soon as Tai Chi Zero started up with a flurry of interlocking gears through which the camera tracked (more than a bit reminiscent of a certain film called Hugo), I mused that it would have been a fantastic 3D effect. A bit of internet sleuthing then revealed that Tai Chi Zero was in fact released theatrically as a 3D feature, which then begs the question why this new Blu-ray only offers a 2D version. It’s especially unfortunate, because visual flair is by far the best thing about Tai Chi Zero, a film which is agreeable enough on its own terms, but which is dramatically (or even comedically) about as flat as a veritable pancake. There have been lots of comic books which have been made into films, but Tai Chi Zero takes the opposite tack, attempting to invest a more or less traditional martial arts film with a comic book (or videogame) ethos, replete with too cute for their own good textual introductions to most of the major cast (introductions that last virtually the entire running length of the film), lots of supertitles offering “meta” commentary (including some elements that verge perilously close to being “thought bubbles”), and an overall cartoonish ambience in everything from the credits sequence (which is animated) to the general tenor of much of the film. Though the film was marketed as a “steampunk” take on the martial arts idiom, and there is that kind of Wild, Wild West late 19th century mechanized element at play (something that’s part of the central conflict with the more agrarian lifestyle of the “simple” Chinese villagers), Tai Chi Zero is pretty rote in its storytelling, if not in its actual presentation.
Tai Chi Zero is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. This is a largely flawless transfer that is easily able to handle everything from minute grains of sand in one of the opening battle sequences to large vistas of Chinese forests with only very, very minor stability problems cropping up occasionally. Colors are beautifully saturated and fine detail is often exceptional, especially in extreme close-ups (take a look at the third screenshot accompanying this review for a sterling example). Both exterior and interior scenes boast excellent contrast, solid black levels and fulsome shadow detail.
Tai Chi Zero features lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks in Mandarin (for the most part) and English. Some of even the original language track is spoken in halting English, with some character names like "Claire" getting multi-syllabic remakes that are fascinating to hear. The English dub only compounds the lunacy at time, and may provide at least some unintentional laughs. The original language track is quite aggressive in terms of overall mix, with a lot of noisy sound effects winging around and through the surrounds during various battle scenes. Dialogue is occasionally nicely directional as well, but tends to be anchored fairly securely in the front channels. The huge steam driven beast provides some great sounding (if a tad unusual) LFE, and there's one climactic explosion that is actually kind of strangely muted. Fidelity remains excellent and dynamic range is wide.
Tai Chi Zero already has a sequel in the can, one which is set up rather nicely in a brief sequence that plays out after the credits almost begin to roll (as with so much else in this film, even the credits are fodder for playtime by the graphics team). Hopefully the second film, apparently titled Tai Chi Hero, will try to deliver a more compelling story, whether that be played strictly for laughs or taken more seriously, than this film's half hearted approach. There really is a lot to like about Tai Chi Zero, including a winning performance by Yuan, despite the fact that his character is an unadulterated dolt for most of the film. The fight sequences are well staged and from a visual standpoint alone, the film is quite winning. The good news about a sequel is, when you're starting out from zero, there's nowhere to go but up.
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