Product Details

• Actors: Master Ren Guang-Yi, Lou Reed
• Directors: David Silver
• Format: HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: Spanish, French, Portuguese, English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Studio: YMAA Publication Center
• DVD Release Date: October 26, 2006
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000IOMZX8
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #40,732 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

From the Director

Master Ren GuangYi was born in Tongbei province, in the town of Hei Long Jiang (Black Dragon) in China. Interested in martial arts since childhood, he started learning kung fu at age 14 from a Shaolin disciple. And at age 16, he moved to Chen village, the origin of Chen Taijiquan to study with Master Chen Xiao Wang. This traditional training involved constant practice for six to fourteen hours each day for ten years. He did farm work to get by, and eventually began to teach Taiji. His plans to travel to Hong Kong and Japan to give seminars changed when his wife, a Ph.D. chemist, was awarded a scholarship in New York.

In 1991, Master Ren moved to the United States and founded the International Chen Style Taijiquan Association to promote the teaching and practice of Taijiquan. He also won the Grand Championship for Taiji and Weapons in Doc Fai Wong's annual tournament in San Francisco, CA. His reputation led to his quickly becoming one of the most sought-after instructors of Chen Taijiquan. In 1998, he won the gold medal in the 5th Haigong Cup China Wenxian International Taijiquan event, competing against some of the world's finest Taiji masters. He is the author of several videos and publications, and worked as the martial arts choreographer on the groundbreaking Darren Aronofsky film "The Fountain", a major theatrical release in 2006. Today, Ren GuangYi lives with his wife, daughter and two sons just outside New York City. Ren GuangYi teaches seminars, private lessons and group classes full-time, and has performed Taiji on tour with Lou Reed around the world since 2003, including Carnegie Hall and the prestigious ceremonies at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy.

Product Description

Master Ren, Guang-Yi beautifully demonstrates two fundamental Chen-style Taijiquan (tai chi chuan) forms: the 75-movement long form, Lao Jia Yi Lu (Old Frame 1st Road), and the 49-movement Straight Sword form. This program features an ambient electronic soundtrack and onscreen narration by Lou Reed. Captured in high-definition (HD) in New York's Central Park, each form is presented in a multiple-angle format, and showing the name of each movement. Each form is also shown in FlipperVision, a slideshow comprised of nearly 2,000 photos by famed photographer Martin von Haselberg, so you may carefully study each of Master Ren's postures in detail. Chen Style Taijiquan is a comprehensive form of exercise that promotes fitness, coordination and relaxation which remains true to its ancient martial arts origins. Chen Taijiquan is noted for its fluid, coiled movements, punctuated with quick bursts of energy, known as Fa Jing . Regular practice promotes wellness through a series of continuous, flowing movements, while providing powerful tools for self-defense. A martial artist since the 1980's and a private student of Master Ren, musician and narrator Lou Reed has experienced first-hand the health benefits and power of Master Ren's teaching, and he has done a great deal to help raise awareness of Chen Taiji, bringing Master Ren on tour to perform onstage in hundreds of shows worldwide. DVD Special Features: Two Chen Taijiquan Forms on one DVD. Demonstration of Fa Jing, emitting power , a signature of Chen Taiji. Use the Angle button on your DVD remote for Multi-Angle DVD playback. Amazing FlipperVision of each of the movements in extreme detail. Multi-Language Menus & Subtitles: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, & Italian. Multiple audio streams with choice of Lou Reed music.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best!!!!, December 22, 2006

By	Glen Mcpheat (Brighton UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Having studied Taiji now for ten years I have had the opportunity to learn with some of the top masters including Chen Xiaowang and Chen Yingjun. I have seen my fair share of videos books and dvds, however this has to be one of the best taijiquan products I have seen. Not only do you get the pureness and accuracy of Master Reng Guang Yi's transmission of laojia and sword form but also you get narration and backing track from one of rocks greatest legends Lou Reed! This is an excellent quality product which I would thoroughly recommend to beginners through to advanced students.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Real Deal, December 4, 2007

By	Lao T. Sue (Virginia) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

I'm new to Chen style but have studied Yang for 25 years. While you can't really learn taiji from a video, this one is the best I've seen. Ren Guang-yi is obviously the real deal -- and still in his prime. This makes an enormous difference -- his form isn't just technically accurate -- it crackles with energy and the flow is awesome. The "flipper vision" -- thousands of photographs taken in sequence so a practitioner can see how a transition happens, or where a body part is in a particular posture -- is unique and quite valuable. I've personally never been a fan of musical backgrounds for taiji, but the production values here are excellent and you can always turn the volume off (or up). This video shows why Chen style is the fastest growing style of taiji in America. It's a "must own" for anyone who either practices -- or wants to see what real Chen style looks like.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a tool to learn Chen style, July 16, 2008

By	Robert Hughes (Post Falls, Idaho, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This is one of my first steps in actually learning the Chen style.
(I've been practicing Yang styles --6 versions; the 12,13,24,60,88 & 108 forms --since 1993.)

I'm about ready to move to the push-hands level and really need to study the more overt applications of chi presented by the Chen styles. Madame Sana Shanti of Nelson B.C. is helping me with the basic body structure.

I do have access to a well qualified Sifu in Spokane, but from Idaho I only get to his studio once every two weeks.

So I need some daily guidance from my kitchen computer.
The FlipperVision version on this DVD helps to practice each posture in more detail.
(The regular demo of the form is just plain smooth and beautiful, but pretty hard to learn from.)

The next step I'm taking to learn the Chen form is via a Readers' Digest spiral book by the Koskubas of the U.K. (They are students of Master Chen Xiaowang). This adds a lot of basics and a very detailed word description of the first 15 (of 75) postures. Also available on Amazon.com.
But as in the case of the "Single Whip" even the detailed word description does not capture the real-life, real-time subtle flows and counter-flows revealed by Master Ren when he performs the form on this subject DVD.

Master Jou's book, "The Dao of TaijiQuan," (again purchased through Amazon.com) provides very good theory--but his diagrams of the first lu of Chen's Taijiquan is a pretty meager learning tool.

Nobody ever said it would be simple to learn the Lao Jia Yi Lu form.
I hope I have enough days left in this short life (I'm 68) to learn a chen style form.
I'm lucky that DVDs like Master Ren's are now available to the Western practitioner.