Customer Reviews

Tai Chi Master [Import]

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

This comment is not about the movie but rather about the brutal treatment it has been subjected to in the process of making this Blu-ray release.
The image quality is average at best. No apparent work whatsoever seems to have been done in order to "clean" the movie in any way: it is blotchy and uneven, with tons of horrible movement artifacts that makes it hardly any better than a good quality DVD. And for an encore, a bonus insult to the "Collector" if you prefer, you can see the wires(!!) used in the fight scenes to prop up the actors in the air...great.
The sound fares even worst if you can believe it. Surround sound is way to loud compared to the voices, ridiculously so, making the whole experience of watching this movie even more painful: action scenes where, per example, chairs breaking and hitting are ridiculously loud whilst you barely hear the dialogues(barely exaggerating..).
So, while I like this movie, this horrible release does not hold a light to it. Very disappointing indeed.

this movie is very good but like most of Jet Li's flicks the plot and continuity are strange. Worth owning if you are a die hard martial arts fan but, if you are selective, you might want to pass on it. And, Michelle's performance is nothing compared to what she did in Crouching Tiger.

Jet didn't seem motivated in this one. Michelle Yeoh seemed akward in her role, and Fannie Yuen didn't fit in. I'd have to say that this is one of Jet's sillier roles, even though some of the scenes were really good.

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.

=========ONE OF JET LI'S BEST, JUST LIKE FIST OF LEGEND========= THE FIGHTING, STORY, CHARACTERS, AND THE ACTING ARE VERY WELL DONE. THE FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHY IS FLAWLESS MAN WHAT ELSE CAN I SAY. THE STORY IS ABOUT TWO KIDS WHO GREW UP TOGETHER AND WERE LIKE BROTHERS. WHEN THEY GOT OLDER THEY BECAME ENEMIES.

WATCH IT!!!!!!!!!!!
WATCH IT!!!!!!!!!!!
WATCH IT!!!!!!!!!!!
WATCH IT!!!!!!!!!!!
WATCH IT!!!!!!!!!!!

I am a new Tai Chi student and I watched to observe the form. I watched the whole movie and then watched again in 1/8 of the speed to see the moves clearly. It was entertaining and informative but I could do without the string and the hollywood gratuitous violence in the movie.

Although this is a stunning film with great stunts (seeing the wires once in a while doesn't really spoil anything), I have to admit that I was fairly annoyed with the american-voice dubbing.
It makes the characters sound stupid (no offence meant) and out of place. I guess they needed to dub the film for illiterate people but a choice would have been nice. And why call it Twin Warriors? it is misleading and incorrect. I'd rather have the cantonese version without subtitles (although I couldn't understand it) than this pitiful american dubbing version. Look for The Tai Chi Master rather; as it has been said before, it is well worth it.

Featuring a cast of awesome wushu practitioners, this is a gem in the Jet Li line-up. And the Tai Chi-esque performance done at the end makes this a fun lineup.

i rented this movie and while the movie is probably pretty good, Miramax completely ruined it by DUBBING it and not offering an original Chinese track w/ Eng subtitles. Skip this and pick up an IMPORT version on EBay.

If at all possible, get the original Chinese/subtitled version of this film under the name, Tai Chi Master. The U.S. edit version, Twin Warriors, cuts out some short but apt scenes that lend extra continuity and humor to an already fine story. The dubbed dialogue also dulls the storyline, foregoes some subtle humor and stunts some of the character development. O.K., so the English subtitles often lay waste proper (English) grammar, spelling and word useage, but that's part of the charm of this type of movie. (Why don't Chinese producers hire proficient, English-as-a-first-language editors to do a final review of the subtitles? I would be willing to do it part-time, for a modest stipend and free copies of the DVDs. :)

This film plays the classic elements of revenge, loyalty, betrayal, and the clearly emerging deliniation, and struggle, between Good and Evil, quite well. Admittedly, some of the wire-work is fantastic, but it lends, not detracts from, the epic scale of the story. Jet Li portrays the "good guy" extremely well, with Michelle Yeoh in a very good supporting role and contributing one of the movie's best one-on-one fight scenes.

I saw this film at the theaters almost ten years ago, when it was first released, and it is still on my personal, "top 10" list of the best kung-fu movies I've ever seen.