DVDCHIMP

Hong Kong star Jet Li portrays the inventor of T’ai Chi in this entertaining if not historically accurate martial-arts movie. Junbao (Li) and Tienbao (Chin Siu-Ho) are a pair of young monks studying kung fu in a Shaolin temple. Junbao is balanced and humble, but Tienbao is competitive and eager to advance. The two are wrongfully accused of cheating during a tournament and are expelled. From there they take radically different paths. Tienbao becomes a mercenary for an evil warlord, and Junbao joins a rebel group led by Michelle Yeoh. Tienbao betrays Junbao; Junbao loses his memory in the resulting fight. While recuperating, he develops the graceful T’ai Chi fighting style. Although many may find the cartoonish, acrobatic fight sequences to be campy, they are elaborate and dazzling.