I came into this film with certain expectations, and unfortunately they weren’t really met. Overall, the organization and the editing of the film were really distracting, and I think that the presentation of things that aren’t really Tai Chi related while touting it as a story about Tai Chi rather than just saying it’s the story of Cheng Man-Ching and his legacy is confusing to an audience who enters without context.
Perhaps the most frustrating part of this documentary was the way it was put together. I typically enjoy informative documentaries, but this was not put together to my personal taste. From the design of the information cards to the awkward and uninformative lower thirds during interviews, I found it hard to take the film seriously. There was little introduction to the people speaking and long unnecessary pauses that should have been edited out, like the slow reaction, pan, and zoom in to a squirrel. The narrative flow of the film was also quite confusing. For a recent production (2016), its quality as a documentary was kind of lacking.
That’s not to say it didn’t present historical and factual information. It did, but in my opinion, it was just done poorly. The documentary seemed to be more about the story of Cheng Man-Ching and the impact he had on his students, and not just about tai chi chuan, which it seems like some of the other responses were confusing. It presented a lot of other aspects of traditional Taiwanese culture that Cheng also taught his students, but those ideals are separate from the practice of tai chi chuan. The practice of calligraphy and painting and Daoism are common in Taiwan, and Cheng clearly embodied them, but those are completely separate.
One thing that was even more frustrating was their lack of complete understanding. They would participate in activities and they would begin to feel that chi, but when they tried to describe it, they used different words with skewed connotations, confirming my beliefs that they learned movements but the not the context of the practice in not only tai chi chuan, but the painting and the calligraphy as well. The students clearly embraced the traditional practices, but I find it hard that they could pass down the full meaning of tai chi chuan. The end of the documentary showed Cheng’s style practiced globally, which is great, but to me it feels like what yoga has become – something recreational, but not really cultural anymore.
Perhaps my personal experience with tai chi chuan and Taiwanese culture colored my perception of the film, but it seemed poorly put together and conflated different things because they weren’t fully understood. I think it’s not a bad look into the spread of culture because Cheng was open to teaching westerners, but I think viewers should be critical of what the film presents and not use it as a first introduction to tai chi chuan, because it doesn’t do a very good job at distinguishing Cheng’s many different teachings from the practice in general.