The Tai Chi Choreography of Yuen Woo-ping, Part 2

“Soft” or “internal” fighting styles in the Chinese martial arts tradition have acquired a mystique among kung fu fans. How can softness be powerful? It’s difficult for an observer to determine the source of power in arts like tai chi and pakua. Practitioners speak of “emptying,” “borrowing the opponent’s energy,” and “using 4 taels (approximately equivalent to ounces) to deflect 1000 catties (pounds),” contributing to the impression of a discipline that is more about magic than real combat. But Chinese internal arts, like aikido and jiujitsu, rely on a sophisticated understanding of body mechanics and physics to create their effect. The genius of Yuen Woo-ping’s tai chi choreography lies in the fact that he has been able to show audiences just what real tai chi is all about, using actors who are not actually tai chi masters. (Jet Li, Donnie Yen, and Wu Jing are all superb martial artists, but their tai chi expertise is nowhere near the level of people like Chen Xiaowang or Bow Sim Mark.)

Part 1 of this series looked at Yuen’s choreography for SHADOW BOXER (1974) and DRUNKEN TAI CHI (1984). This part will examine both 1993’s TAI CHI MASTER and the TV series also known as THE TAI CHI MASTER from 1997. TAI CHI MASTER, starring Jet Li, allowed Yuen to capitalize on Li’s previous training in Chen style tai chi as a member of the Beijing Wushu team. At the beginning of story, Li is a Buddhist student of the Shaolin fighting style, but over the course of the fim, he “converts” to Taoism and helps to found the Wu Dang-related school of tai chi. He is given the Taoist name of San Feng, which can be translated either as “three insanities”, referring to the mental breakdown that follows his betrayal by his brother monk, or as “three riches”, referencing the legacy of the real Zhang San Feng, a legendary early pioneer in tai chi technique.

In TAI CHI MASTER, Yuen Woo-ping makes specific the dichotomy of hard vs. soft in the kung fu world. His Shaolin style in this film is not just hard, it is also mean-spirited (personified by Yu Hai’s autocratic master) and, by implication, it feeds co-star Chin Siu-hou’s ambitions and cunning duplicity. Li’s character is at first the weaker of the two brothers. By abandoning his earlier belief system and embracing the natural order, he achieves enlightenment and martial mastery. Yuen reprises the ball imagery from DRUNKEN TAI CHI as part of Li’s self-taught training. A new element in this film is the use of wind metaphors, especially swirling leaves, to show the “fa jin,” or focussed release of power. The Chen style tai chi movements demonstrated by Jet Li use rippling waist movements to indicate fa jin.

Tai chi Single Whip: Chen Xiaowang, Jet Li, Wu Jing, Laurence Fishburne (in THE MATRIX).

All of Yuen Woo-ping’s tai chi films are built around this concept of soft vs. hard. The heroes battle villains who are both tough and merciless. What sets apart the TV show THE TAI CHI MASTER (also known as MASTER OF TAI CHI) is that the hero (Wu Jing) also fights another soft stylist. His opponent, a pakua master played by Simmon Xu (aka Xu Xiangdong, Hsu Hsiang-dong, Chui Heung-tung), appears to be modeled on the real-life founder of pakua, Dong Haichuan. Wu Jing’s Yang Yuqian wants to learn the Chen family fighting style known as tai chi, but transmission of the art is limited to Chen family members. He works as a servant in the village in order to secretly learn tai chi. This is the story of Yang Luchan, who eventually modified the Chen family form to the version now known as Yang style. For the three battles between Yang and Dong, and working in the devilishly difficult idioms of tai chi and pakua, Yuen Wo-ping created some of the finest fight choreography ever seen.

 Simmon Xu (Xu Xiangdong).

The truth is, in the other fight scenes and in any other representation of tai chi combat I’ve ever seen, there is little actual tai chi technique being used. Despite an occasional press, lock, or throw that employs a recognizable tai chi move, the combatants are usually resorting to what my teacher calls “force against force.” That’s OK. It’s not easy to show real internal technique in the movies. But these three scenes exist to show what can be done when a master choreographer and highly skilled actors are given the opportunity to shine. The climactic fight (a clip can be seen here) between Yang and Dong takes place in an arena ringed by banners rippling in the wind, which provide a visual echo of the twisting, coiling movement of the fighters. Dong starts off with a Single Palm Change technique, and Yang answers with Single Whip, showing the torquing of his waist that controls the trajectory of his arms. As they engage, Yuen Woo-ping highlights the grappling moves concealed in the fluid strikes, first as single joint locks, then in the form of multiple series of countermoves, with control passing back and forth between the opponents. Late in the fight, Dong executes a wrist lock on Yang and twists, turning the move into a throw. 

 Grappling in THE TAI CHI MASTER.

One of the things that makes internal kung fu so difficult to present onscreen is the redirection that occurs, as the power of an opponent’s strike is deflected and turned back towards its origin. Yuen Woo-ping uses a combination of choreography and editing to allow the audience to follow the path of the energy, as, for instance, when Dong’s punch to Yang’s body results in Yang’s kick to Dong. Another type of redirection is Dong’s backbend and circling from the waist to avoid upper body strikes from Yang. Extreme waist flexibility, including backbends, is a hallmark of pakua, and a neat dovetailing of styles is seen in the sequence where Dong executes a typical pakua front kick, leaning back in counterbalance, and Yang responds by trapping the kicking foot and dropping into a tai chi Slide Down (or Snake Creeps Down) stance, uprooting Deng’s supporting leg. Once again, camerawork and editing direct the viewer’s eye along the path of the energy flow: from Deng’s kick to Yang’s trapping hand (hook hand), down through Yang’s body to his sliding foot, which hits Deng’s leg like a bowling ball slamming into a pin.

I could go on – about how the fighters “stick” to each other, keeping in physical contact between strikes, how they use coiling and circles to counter joint locks – but enough already. Watch the fights. Watch the feature-length re-edit of the TV series released by Tai Seng in 2005 (All the fights with minimal drama! Read Mark’s review here). See for yourself how soft stylists fight.

Tags: Jet Li, Wu Jing, Yuen Woo-ping