Thanks J!
The Action Elite interviewed Jimmy Lui, a stunt coordinator, fight choreographer, stuntman and writer. During the course of the interview we learn what Mr. Lui’s involvement was on Man of Tai Chi and we learn about how the fight scenes were developed and written.
Mr. Lui is a friend of Tiger Hu Chen and worked on Kung Fu Man with him. When asked how he became involved with MOTC, he said:
Tiger and Keanu had been working with the writer on Man of Tai Chi for five years and they had burned through over twelve drafts of the script. At this point, Keanu was only attached as the villain, not as the director. He wasn’t happy with the script, which was very plot driven like a B-movie. Tiger and his manager brought me in to help rework the script. Working with Keanu and Tiger and their writer for three months, I helped them to elevate the story by focusing on the characters, themes and the martial arts philosophy.
When asked about how fight scenes were written in a script, Mr. Lui says:
On Man of Tai Chi, we worked hard to find the story of each fight. I haven’t seen a cut of the movie yet, but at least in the scripting stage, we made sure that each fight told a story and gave insight in to where Tiger’s character was in his journey to the dark side of Tai Chi. We didn’t describe each move; rather we focused on the feel and story of the fights.
The interview is here.