Just watched man of tai chi , just wondering what people thought of the film . Some pretty cool fight seens. just wondering was that all tai chi . Just some of the stuff look like ju jitsu and taekwondo .
It's a movie. That's one thing about martial arts, movies and entertainment are the primary source of martial arts knowledge for the general public. Heck, movies are what got me interested in martial arts as a kid. A lot of people have some very wrong misconceptions about the reality of martial arts. Look at youtube real fights and movie fights, they are very different. You'd be hard pressed to even find a tai chi guy fighting a resisting opponent with strikes. There are plenty of pretty intense push hands videos out there though and its a pretty cool application of tai chi. If you want to see tai chi in action push hands comps are probably the closest you'll get to a real fight.
I think somebody posted some old films from the 70s in New York of ring fights w/TC guys . I'd like to see films from Hong Kong,Malaysia,and Taiwan which all have a tradition of TC guys getting in the ring dating from the 1950s to the present. Actually ph isn't application. Which is about a million light years away from a fight.
Try watching jet li in tai chi master, some epic movie fu in that and all sped up to the point of uncomfortable to watch. Tai chi may we'll have practical combat applications (I don't study tai chi so cannot say) but I don't think they have or will ever be accuratly portrayed in cinema. It's not just tai chi but almost all cinematic examples of martial arts are rediculous. Some can be quite watchable but none are realistic.
