Tai Chi Hero (2012/aka Tai Chi Hero 2: The
Hero Rises/Well Go USA Blu-ray)
Picture:
A- Sound: B Extras: C Film: A-
After
barely being accepted into Chen
Village, Lu Chan (A.K.A.
the Freak) and the Chen village continues to falls unto even more danger. With the railroad being force-built through
their village, Westerners invading, and Yunliang’s ex-fiancé returns with an
army and revenge on his mind, Master Chen's prodigal son returns, but is he
friend or foe? As the village continues
to resist outsiders and change some begin to believe Lu Chan is a curse more
than a blessing, but can traditional martial arts defeat modern western
weaponry? Thus is the set up in Stephen
Fung’s Tai Chi Hero (2012), which is
actually the second film in what seems to be becoming a series.
From zero
to hero continues on where the first Tai
Chi Zero (released earlier the same year from the same director) left us,
Lu Chan is a kung fu genius is trying to learn the tradition martial arts of
the Chen village. After marrying the headmaster's daughter, she teaches this
'outsider' the secrets of her family martial arts, but can she teach him in
time? With the return of not only her
scorned fiancée, but also the return of her outcast brother, questions of
following traditions and who is to inherit grand master title is called into
question by the village elders, but the past comes back to destroy the village
with steampunk power mechanisms of the East India Trading Company, can Lu Chan
step up and become hero everyone hopes?
This film
has a steam punk versus martial arts sense, filled with plenty of CG
choreographed fighting scenes, was very symbolic of the Chinese pride and
resistance against westernization as the Westerners were viewed as forces of
evil trying to destroying/steal China
and its traditions. Ironically the main
source of their problems wasn't technology, but the stubbornness to change, if
they didn't scorn or rejected all new ideas then wouldn't have had so many
jaded people wanting revenge later, change comes weather you want it or not. In all, it was a very amuse martial arts
movie, the main thing I enjoyed was all steam punk designs of the machines.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer seems to be a RED EPIC 5K HD
shoot like its predecessor and looks as good as it is going to in this format
with only very minor issues in the transfer to complain about, while the DTS-HD
MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix has a very consistent soundfield, but the
sound effects are the star of the mix, so much so that dialogue recording seems
underwhelming. Extras include a making
of featurette Zero to Hero and
trailers.
- Ricky Chiang
