The Keanu Reeves Project: Man of Tai Chi

 

 

 MAN OF TAI CHI (2013) - Donaka Mark

Well, I'm at my 45th Keanu Reeves movie and I've been in a bit of a glut lately.  In fact, going on my historical rankings (which will likely be revised at the conclusion of this), this appears to be the second worst string of movies I've gone through for this project.  The last big glut featured the following movies and the ratings I've given them:

Sweet November (2.5), Hardball (4), Matrix Reloaded (5), Matrix Revolutions (2.5) and Something's Gotta Give (3).

There was a second pretty big glut earlier as well when I went through:

My Own Private Idaho (4), Dracula (4), Much Ado About Nothing (N/A - I cannot sit through Shakespeare), Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (3 but will revise down), Little Buddha (4 and will also revise down).

And most recently:

The Lake House (4.5), Street Kings (4.5), The Day the Earth Stood Still (4.5), The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (4.5), Henry's Crime (4), Generation Um...(1).

Thankfully, mercifully, the current losing streak is broken with Keanu's directorial debut, "Man of Tai Chi."

Let me get a few things out of the way off the top -

First, "Man of Tai Chi" is not a great movie.  But in comparison to the above list, it's a goddamn revelation of cinema.  

It's an easy, fun watch and does a lot of things right but with that said it's definitely not one of the best martial arts movies you might come across.  The writing, and Keanu led directing, was obviously influenced by a handful of other films, which is totally fine when used the right now.  There's nothing particularly unique or creative about "Man of Tai Chi" and it's really sort of a weird combination of "The Truman Show" and "Lionheart."

This leads me to my second point - I do not profess to be an expert on martial arts movies.  I've absolutely seen my fair share and while this genre is not my favorite, I'm always down to watch a good martial arts movie.  And I will defend the movie "Bloodsport" until the day I die (which also may or may have not influenced "Man of Tai Chi").  

You're not gonna call the cops?  (That's a funny joke to all "Bloodsport" fans - both of them)

Actually, "Man of Tai Chi" is the first movie I've revisited for this project since my recent viewing of "A Scanner Darkly" and the fact that I watched "Tai Chi" in 2014 and had almost no recollection of anything that happens in it probably wasn't a positive sign of it being a great movie.

But, I had seen this one before, even if my memory of it was near non-existent.  While "Tai Chi" is a perfectly acceptable martial arts movie, it doesn't hold a candle to some of the other ones that have come out either around the same time or after it including "The Raid," "The Night Comes for Us," or any of the "John Wick" movies which may or may not qualify depending on how you might choose to define it.

Okay so here's your official spoiler warning for the entire plot of "Man of Tai Chi," a movie you probably weren't going to go out of your way to watch anyway.  

"Tai Chi" is the only movie that Keanu has both directed and co-starred in, although his on-screen time is relatively limited while Tiger Chen is the true star of this movie playing a character named...Tiger Chen.  Wait, Tiger Chen playing Tiger Chen?   Was this based on a true story?

No.  I'm going to go with no.

So Keanu Reeves apparently met Tiger Chen on the set of the "Matrix" sequels where Tiger performed stunts and it's entirely possible that he was one of the only positive parts of either of those dreadful movies.  He must have been so good that when Keanu was signed on for his directorial debut, he chose Tiger Chen to star in it and nobody bothered to change his name for the movie.  I'd love to think that early on there was some conversation about the character's name for the movie:

"What if we call him Lion Wang?  Or Jaguar Li?  Or Leopard Yang?"  

"Nope, Tiger Chen already sounds perfectly badass so let's just leave it as is."

"Great!"

So the movie opens with some sort of underground fight club and two guys beating the hell out of each other in some sort of warehouse while a SWAT team appears to be closing in.  We get a voice over a speaker (Keanu Reeves as Donaka Mark) telling one of the fighters to "FINISH HIM," although said fighter refuses to kill his opponent and the fight ends.  

Then we get the old "Silence of the Lambs" switcheroo and when the cops bust in it's an entirely different location entirely and the lead inspector, Karen Mok as Inspector Jing Si, is angry the cops are at the wrong place.  Meanwhile at the real fight club location, a masked figure enters the fighting area and snaps the neck of the downed fighter.  The fighter that refused to kill his opponent waits in the locker room and is immediately visited by a visibly angry Keanu Reeves who calls him a rat, pulls out a knife and dices him up like an onion, leaving him to die on the floor.

Next, we meet Tiger Chen playing...Tiger Chen.  We get a quick sequence of him practicing Tai Chi at temple in Beijing alongside his master who explains to him (and the viewer) that Tai Chi is really all about meditation and balance and respect and not really an aggressive form of fighting.  Tiger Chen is totally cool with all of this and he goes from practicing in the temple to fighting in a real life "Karate Kid" style tournament that is broadcast to seemingly all of China.

Unfortunately for him, one of the viewers is our hero Keanu Reeves who is super impressed with Tiger as he easily defeats his first opponent in what looks like, but is definitely not, the All-Valley Tournament featured in "The Karate Kid" and the excellent TV show now available on Netflix, "Cobra Kai."  I'm not an expert but apparently Tai Chi is not a very well known or well executed fighting style as even Keanu mentions "Tai Chi - that's different."

Beijing's version of Johnny Lawrence

Oh, I should also mention that Donaka watches all of these official sanctioned fights from what can only be described as his own personal evil lair and that Tai Chi should not be confused with Tai Bo.  That's Billy Blanks.

Did someone say my name?

So in between fighting in nationally televised fighting tournaments, Tiger Chen goes about his daily life as a courier, making rounds in Beijing which is where we meet his female interest Ching Sha who works for some sort of government building or zoning entity.  

Tiger receives a letter in the mail from Keanu, as he lives in Hong Kong working as a "security specialist" even though we know his real business appears to be in shady underground fighting rings.  The letter tells Tiger that Keanu's company is interested in hiring him as a security consultant and if he's interested there will be a car waiting for him the next day to take him to a job interview.

Tiger accepts the interview and is taken by a private car to a private jet that takes him to Hong Kong where he finds himself in a big, empty room for his "interview."  On command, he poses in front of a two way mirror and get tossed into a fight where he beats the shit out of his attacker.  

I'm going to pause here to note that this fight sequence, and all of the fight sequences in this movie, are actually pretty great.  There aren't a lot of bullshit quick cuts so you can't really see what's happening, Tiger Chen is clearly a talented martial artist and the unnamed goons they toss at him from here to the conclusion of the movie are absolutely competent for what's asked of them.

After his fight, he goes to meet Keanu who basically offers him a job that only consists of Tiger going back to the empty room and fighting dudes for money.  

So Tiger, where do you see yourself in five years?

Tiger isn't particularly interested in this offer, he's specifically not supposed to use his Tai Chi prowess for monetary gain.  But when he goes back home, he discovers that his temple is being shutdown by some Chinese government baddies because it doesn't live up to a bunch of fire codes.  Thankfully, Tiger has an in with the zoning department and his lady interest explains that he can fix up the temple....but it's going to cost a lot of money.  A whole lot of money.

What's a Tai Chi master to do?

Well obviously he takes Keanu's job and we're treated to a montage of some pretty cool fight scenes back in the empty room where Tiger beats up all sorts of randos like the white guy Karate dude, a giant Chinese guy that reminded me of Bolo Yeung (but maybe just because I'm obsessed with "Bloodsport") and one dude who may or may have not been Terry Crews (it wasn't).

Tiger - left, Not Terry Crews - Right

I tore my groin just looking at this

Meanwhile, Tiger is also still competing in the official All Valley Beijing pro circuit and also kicking everyone's ass but it's clear that his underground fights have influenced his pro fights as he becomes more ruthless and reckless, which is great because that's sort of been Keanu's plan all along.  Also, we learn that Keanu has gotten goons to setup cameras all over the place and they are essentially surveilling Tiger 24/7.  Jeez, a guy needs some privacy every now and then.

During his last fight of the montage, Tiger tosses his opponent through the two way mirror that's been there this entire time and he discovers a room full of cameras and computers and for the first time realizes that all of his fights are being filmed and watched by an untold number of people.  Keanu comes out and is basically like, "your fans love you!" because Tiger was apparently too dumb to realize that you don't get paid lots of money for fighting dudes in an empty space with no audience.  

So Tiger is pissed and he goes back home and by now the temple is fixed and has passed an inspection and they can file for some sort of "historical exemption" for the temple so they can stop worrying about the government coming and raining on their parade.  Keanu shows back up and essentially tells Tiger that he can't quit fighting and forces him into a 2 on 1 handicap match that takes place on a freighter off the coast of China because sure that's cool.  While all of this is going on, Inspector Jin Si is still actively on the case, following Keanu Reeves around and trying to crack this case open because her former "inside man" was killed at the beginning of the movie.  

Keanu's goons have also gotten more blatant in their filming of Tiger, no longer relying solely on hidden cameras but full-on interviewing him before fights to broadcast to their pay per view audience.  I also want to note here that the cameraman is one of the worst actors of this project so far.

Different kind of casting couch

This is one fancy freighter

So by now, Tiger has full blown turned into a hardened underground street fighter and when he has his next official fight at the Beijing All Valley he beats the absolute shit out of his opponent and is kicked out of the tournament for breaking like, ALL the rules.  He goes back to his temple and his master is straight pissed off that Tiger has disgraced him, Tai Chi, and the temple, and then they throw down. 

Tiger and the Master have a pretty great fight and right as it seems the fight is over and he's going to absolutely wreck the old man, the master throws what I can only describe as a "Chi Fireball" which looks a lot like this minus the actual fireball:

Ryu Street Fighter GIF from Ryu GIFs

The master tells Tiger that all this underground fighting is eventually going to lead to his destruction and Tiger goes home, reeling from the pain of the "Chi-Ball" that he was hit by.

That's gonna leave a mark!

Tiger goes back to the zoning office and learns that his historical exemption for the temple has been rejected, mainly due in part to his atrocious behavior at the All-Valley torunament and he gets pissed.  Keanu shows back up and tells Tiger his next fight is back in the empty room agains a literal mercenary, and after Tiger dispenses of him, he refuses to "FINISH HIM" as Keanu commands.  So once again, masked Keanu enters the room and does it his damn self.  

By now, Tiger is over all of this but Keanu makes it clear that he can't just quit, so Tiger, being the idiot he is, goes to the cops and tells the inspector what's going on even though by now he should know exactly what Keanu is capable of and that this really should lead to his own murder.

Anyway, Tiger is setup with one final fight, this time at some fancy mansion somewhere in Hong Kong.  As he's waiting for the fight to start back in his dressing room area, we're treated to a video package of sorts, where we learn among other things that his has all been one big reality show setup where Keanu picked an "innocent man of Tai Chi" and gave him a reason and a need to fight by putting his temple at risk of being shut down.  If you hadn't realized on your own by now as a viewer that Keanu was the reason for the foreclosure on the temple, you're an idiot.

So the fighters are introduced - it's Tiger versus some nameless dude and it's a fight to the death!  But Tiger isn't interested in any of this shit and only takes up a defensive posture, refusing to fight and shouting that he'll only fight Keanu, the man responsible for this whole fucking mess.

But Tiger doesn't end up needing to fight.  No, the Inspector closes in again with SWAT team on hand, and this time they actually show up to the correct location and arrest everyone involved.  That is, except for Keanu Reeves who manages to flee the house and swim (???) to safety because I guess this house was on some sort of private island or something.  Who knows, who cares?

Later, Tiger heads back to his temple, which is now looking pretty damn immaculate due in part to all the money he was forced to put in to clean up the place so that it would pass inspection.  But it's not over.  No, Keanu shows up, screaming that Tiger "owes me a life" and it looks like it's going to be another battle to the death, but without any cops showing up to save the day this time.

They have a big fight in the temple yard and I do want to point out that Keanu has come a LONG way when it comes to fighting.  It's clear that the man put a lot of work into this and it's a night and day difference from some of his earlier work fight scenes (I'm looking at you, "Chain Reaction").

The fight ends when Tiger throw his own "Chi-Ball" at Keanu, despite the fact that we never discover exactly how Tiger learned that move in the first place but whatever, it doesn't really matter.

HADOUKEN!

The temple is saved, Tiger is saved, Keanu is dead, and Tiger gets to go on with his life where I assume he is reinstated to the All Valley, gets the girl and makes Mr. Miyagi proud.

"My pants."

Alright, I have a fair amount of scattered thoughts on this one:

*I REALLY don't like the mask that Keanu dons when he comes in as the executioner.  It reminds me far too much of the 2003 reality dating show, "Mr. Personality" which was, and this is 100% true, hosted by Monica Lewinsky.

Women like me for my sense of humor and my charm 

A real TV show that really happened, god I miss the glory days of trash dating reality shows

*If you LOVE guttural grunting, "Man of Tai Chi" is the movie for you!

*At one point, Tiger Chen throws a literal fucking spinning head scissors at one of his opponents and it's awesome.  I was pretty sure this was a move only executed in professional wrestling but I'm glad to learn that I was wrong.

*There's one really odd choice in this movie that I'd be remiss if I didn't mention it.  When Tiger goes back to the zoning office and learns from his lady friend that his temple didn't get the historical exemption, he gets PISSED.  So pissed in fact, that he breaks the 4th wall of this movie and shoves a camera out of his face.  This is really interesting because we learn later that this whole thing has essentially been a reality show using (for the most part) hidden cameras.  It's not like there was a documentary crew in the movie following him into the zoning office.  Just a really strange choice for this movie.

Weird fourth wall break that made me literally say out loud "what the fuck."

*Why is Keanu named Donaka Mark in this movie?  It's obvious he's an American living in China.  Is his real name Don Mark and they just call him Donaka in China like Daniel-son in "The Karate Kid?"  I don't know.  

*There's an entire subplot I didn't even touch on above where the inspector is told to shut down her case against Keanu Reeves by her boss because he doesn't believe any of it and refuses to go along with her.  In yet another completely predictable moment of this project, when the SWAT team busts up the mansion fight towards the end of the movie, would you believe her boss was in on the fight club the entire time?  SHOCKING!

*Keanu has an honest-to-god evil lair in this movie and I love it.

Unclear if this is a hollowed out volcano

Box Office Information: $100,000 domestic (not a wide release in the US)/$5 Million international for a total of $5.1 Million worldwide.  I'm curious why this wasn't more widely released in the US.  Much of this movie is spoken in Chinese so I'm guessing it wouldn't have had a large appeal to an American audience because we are a stupid country.

Rotten Tomatoes: 70% Critics/50% Audience.

IMDB: 6.1

My Movie Rating: 7/10.  Look, it's not a perfect movie by any stretch.  It borrows heavily from a lot of other martial arts movies and it's entirely predictable but it's also really enjoyable and features a handful of really excellent, really well shot fight sequences.  Plus, it's SO MUCH BETTER than literally all of those movies I mentioned at the top of this post.

Keanu Rating: Man, this is a tough one.  I think there's a reason that this is only the second movie so far where Keanu plays an evil person (the other being the absolutely wretched movie, "The Watcher").  He's just not a menacing guy and his efforts to appear that way on screen just fall totally flat with me.  I'm giving him a few bonus points for the training he must have gone through to film his own fight sequences so I'm going to land here at a 5.

Up Next: "47 Ronin."  I don't know much about this movie but I feel like I remember reading or hearing about this movie getting chopped to pieces in an editing room, but there's a chance I'm confusing this with something else.