Product Details

• Actors: Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, Siu-hou Chin, Fennie Yuen, Cheung-Yan Yuen
• Directors: Woo-ping Yuen
• Format: Color, Letterboxed, Import, NTSC
• Subtitles: English
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Tai Seng Video Marketing
• VHS Release Date: January 1, 2002
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (107 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304497008
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #84,779 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Jet Li teams up with Michelle Yeoh in this period martial-arts tale of revenge and retribution filmed in 1993. Directed by Yuen Woo Ping (who also directed Jackie Chan's popular Drunken Master and Yeoh's Wing Chun), Tai Chi Master matches over-the-top melodrama with fantastical fight scenes. Li and Chin Sui Hou play Junbao and Tienbao, two misfit monks who have been getting in trouble at their Shaolin temple since childhood. Tienbao's volatile temper and ego get them banished from the monastery, and the pair tries to make a new life for themselves in a nearby village. From here they take decidedly different paths. Tienbao joins the military regime of a ruthless eunuch ruler while Junbao joins a group of political rebels that includes Yeoh. Tienbao's violent quest for power erases his friendship with Junbao, his betrayal causing Junbao to go temporarily insane. During this period Junbao discovers tai chi, which prepares him for a final confrontation with Tienbao. Tai Chi Master's action scenes include a memorable matchup of Li and Chin against the entire monastery, where in the nonstop action Junbao escapes attack by riding one of his foes like a snowboard out of the fray. Yeoh's fight scenes include a complicated orchestration involving tables and chairs; her scenes are so impressive that it's a shame she wasn't given more screen time. --Shannon Gee

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars to me, an excellent movie, note the dubbing, October 30, 2004

By	Epsilon Delta (CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Twin Warriors (DVD)

To me, this is one of the best Jet Li movies. Or, may as well call it one of the best movies. It has a lot of humor and wisdom in it. However, as someone jokes that dubbing is the eighth sin, the dubbing in this movie, possibly to match the lip movement, has the script modified. The humor was lost, as well as the wisdom. I compared an Asian release with the US release: the script as well as the English subtitle are modified in the US release. I highly recommend this movie to you, except that it may be best to find the Asian release. I also checked that my Asian release has the English subtitle which is very close to what the actors and actresses say in Chinese. Also one thing about the US release is that the song is taken out from the movie. We usually accept a French song or Italian song in a foreign movie. How come we don't accept a Chinese song in a Chinese movie? The original Chinese song is very suited to the events of the movie. My advice remains: the Asian release of this movie probably can give you more enjoyment than the modified one.

105 of 120 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I am sick of this!!, December 5, 2000

By	Paris Marco Chavez (Grants Pass, Oregon, United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Twin Warriors (DVD)

This movie is good. The fights and unrealistic and stylish, and the story is good. But there is no excuse for what happened to this movie. We live in America. We are one of the most diverse nations in the world. The localizers of this movie seem to think that Americans don't know anything about, and don't care about, Chinese language and culture. As a result all the original language and music has been cut, and there is only a spoken English version. This is inexcusable, especially for a DVD release. I have no problem with a dub, but on a DVD you MUST include both. It is a good movie, but on principle I will not give it a passing grade on this element alone. I bought a DVD player so I would not have any problems getting the subtitled version of a movie, and then they pull this crap! Please do not support dub only releases. Please go to ... the auctions amazon and find a DVD of Tai Chi Master. This is the Chinese version of this film. It will have English subtitles. The image quality is worse, but to have the true language and the real voice of Jet Li, it is worth it.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Look for an earlier version., April 24, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Twin Warriors (DVD)

The Hong Kong releases of this movie are under the title "The Tai-Chi Master" and are universally better than this release. This was a wonderful movie before it was shrunk and dubbed. Disney seems doing this to all of the Hong Kong movies it can buy. Not only are they presented in a shortened version, they are not so much translated as rewritten. While I love these movies they just can't survive being dumbed down. It takes them from the sublimely ridiculous to the annoyingly stupid. Avoid any and all of these releases. The originals are well worth the trouble of digging up.