The Master of Tai Chi (2008)

Terrible, amateurish writing - Good fight choreography

This show doesn't have an original bone in its body. It reeks of the writers throwing a bunch of tropes at the wall to see what sticks. Massive shame because the martial arts scenes are very well choreographed, and the actors obviously put in a lot of training. Unfortunately the writing is incredibly amateur.

I'd recommend if you're just gonna watch fight scenes. Unfortunately, the romance stuff is so long-winded that the tai chi plot is sidelined. Characters are soooo inconsistent. Most of them do not have half a brain, making everyone unlikeable except for Melissa Ng who is the only consistent character.

One moment someone's angry, next moment they're laughing. (Examples: Kenneth abandons Melissa for Selena, then later accuses Vincent of stealing Melissa from him. Kenneth accuses Selena of seducing him. Selena breaks down. She finds out she's pregnant. Kenneth becomes accepting of Vincent and Melissa's relationship. And nothing is ever acknowledged between Kenneth and Selena. What??? Where is the flow?) That is just ONE instance.

(There's the whole mess of Vincent's shifu lying to him that he killed his father to improve Vincent's "martial arts" just for Vincent's immediate go-to is try to poison him instead of a 1v1 confrontation LOL). That part was laughable.

There is absolutely no flow or subtlety in anything. If you care for angst at a very very surface level, well this series if FULL of angst. I love angst if it makes sense, not when it's inconsistent at the expense of the characters.

Other things that don't make sense:

Sorry, but Myolie is not pretty enough to play a character where Raymond is unreasonably infatuated with her. It's not like she's unique or impressively intelligent/ambitious as a woman in the Chinese Republican times. She just showed up out of nowhere and he's head over heels. She doesn't have enough charisma and charm to play this role. I understand her character isn't supposed to be redeeming until the end, but this was a terrible miscast. I believe Selena could've pulled off this role a little better.

Kenneth and Selena have no chemistry. That's when you know the script is bad because these two have played a very successful pair in other shows but here, both are equally annoying. I still question if Kenneth ever truly loved Selena and why in the world does an independent and clever character like Selena would fall for a bumpkin like Kenneth so easily.

There are several deaths that are absolutely terrible I laughed at my TV screen. The writers were like "We're near the end. We need someone to die to create some tension. Oh, her. She's important but not important enough. Let's just have her throw her nimble self in the midst of a random fight and get one-punched to death."

Thugs show up at the most convenient times.

Just a few tropes I can think of at the top of my head:
Love triangles (every romantic storyline is a love triangle!!!)
Memory loss
Forced marriage causes girl to runaway
Drugged & slept with the wrong person
Failed wedding
Dirty cop
Fake deaths
Lost child reuniting with parent
Tense mother & daughter in law relationship
Avenging father's death
Falling for the daughter of your father's killer
The shifu sacrifices himself for student
Scornful one-sided lover
Very convenient pregnancy
Shunning one away for their "safety"
Misunderstandings because of poor communication

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This series has some of the best kung fu sequences out there. Vincent Zhao himself is a martial artist and a perfectionist when it came to choreography. There was no CGIs, just hand-to-hand combat that was crisp, fast-paced, and fun to watch. They even showed distinctive fighting styles for each of the major “school.” Best of all, it was filmed well so that you don’t miss the actors’ facial expressions. No slo-mo needed.

It was smart of the writers to incorporate tai chi philosophy into the development of the main character, Mo Ma. Other than that, the plot was pretty generic, recycled from parts of older TVB series. This is usually ok, if there’s actually good acting to make up for it.

Vincent was a surprisingly capable actor. He had an expressive face and was especially effective at the hurt puppy dog look. I think he once said he liked playing a romantic hero, and it showed in the yearning way his Mo Ma looked at Melissa Ng’s Song Ching. Sadly, Melissa was out of her range here. Her porcelain doll face was perfect for those elegant ice queen roles, but she was missing the warmth of a homespun country girl. The bad hair style didn’t help her, either. She basically killed any chemistry there might have been with Vincent. All their scenes together were boring.

Raymond Lam had both the good looks and the acting chops to play Hiu Sing, the golden boy who fell from grace but managed to redeem himself later. These type of roles were tricky in that he had to be pathetic, yet still likeable. You will feel for Siu Hing over many things, except his obsession with Myolie’s Chi Kwai. Now this woman had to be the most selfish, unreasonable, self-entitled brat. Worse, people around her enabled her dysfunctional and destructive behavior. She acted like Mo Ma belonged to her, although it was clear he couldn’t care less. She did eventually fall for Siu Hing and changed near the end. But it was all very abrupt and way too convenient. By that time, I was so sick and tired of Chi Kwai that I just threw up my hands and said “whatever.”

Derek Kwok looked cool here as a villain with a heart. In fact, many of the veteran actors brought their A game. It was the actresses who let the story down.

Watch this only if you’re an avid action/martial arts fan, or if you want to see fight scenes done right.

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