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[[quoteright:325:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tai_chi_master_dvd.png]]

''Tai Chi Master'' (also known as ''Twin Warriors'') is a 1993 martial arts films starring Creator/JetLi and Creator/MichelleYeoh. It tells the story of two childhood friends, the [[NiceGuy nice if somewhat slow Junbao]] (Li) and the more hot-tempered Tienbo, who grew up in a Shaolin Temple. They would often get in trouble either because of Tienbo's temper or for being bullied by other students. [[EccentricMentor Only one Master in particular liked them, though he pretended not to]].

Eventually, as adults, both are thrown out of the temple after Tienbo nearly kills another student who cheated during a fight.(This despite proving themselves incredibly formidable against an army of monks.) Their old teacher gives them as a parting gift a kind of wooden scroll that they are not supposed to read until they find themselves at a crossroad in their lives.

The two of them try to earn a living at a small town but end up [[ChronicHeroSyndrome involving themselves in other people's problems]]; first they help a female warrior called Miss Li when she tries to protect a man being harassed with unfair taxes by the army. Later they save another woman, Siu Lin (Yeoh) when she comes looking for her missing husband and finds him married to the governor's niece. [[HilarityEnsues Hilarity (and lots of fights) ensue]].

Tienbo, fascinated by the power of the army, joins it, but Junbao refuses, so they finally go their separate ways. Tienbo soon rises up the ranks, while Junbao works at a pub and becomes close to Siu. It turns out however that the pub is the headquarters of the rebellion against the corrupt government, so the two friends are now on opposite sides.

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!!''Tai Chi Master'' provides examples of the following tropes:

* ALighterShadeOfBlack: The Eunuch Governor Liu-jin, just barely. He's still an evil and deplorable JerkAss villain, but his soldiers don't hate him like they do Tienbo. He also counts as a bit of a subversion of the trope because even though he isn't as psychotic or as unstable as Tienbo, he's still enough of a despicable HateSink character that when [[spoiler: Junbao and Siu Lin hold him hostage and when Tienbo kills him for good]], it's still a legitimate PayEvilUntoEvil moment.
* AmbitionIsEvil: Tienbo started off wanting to become number one at the Shaolin Temple. After getting expelled, he wants to make a lot of money and buy a house. His ambitions keep growing from there [[spoiler: which leads him to betray the rebels, his former best friend and his superiors.]]
* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: After [[spoiler: betraying the rebels, Tienbo]] demands Junbao join him, promising great career opportunities in the military. [[ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules He doesn't take it]] so [[spoiler: Tienbo]] decides to kill him.
* BackToBackBadasses: Junbao and Tienbo fighting off the entire monastery after Tienbo's expulsion.
* BadBoss: [[spoiler: Tienbo after his FaceHeelTurn. He applies TrainingFromHell which actually kills his soldiers and [[GrievousHarmWithABody uses them as human missiles against Junbao in their final battle.]] They eventually desert him.]]
* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: During their childhood, Junbao mentions that Tienbo burned a rat but didn't get caught.
* BareFistedMonk: Junbao and Tienbo, literally! Sometimes they'll use (often {{improvised|Weapon}}) weapons, but they mostly stick to just their fists.
* BookEnds: Jun Bao begins and ends his story at the Shaolin Temple. He leaves a naive junior monk, returns as a master to teach Tai Chi.
* ButtMonkey: The rebel Taoist fortuneteller/doctor
* ChasteHero: Junbao during the first half of the movie was actually scared of touching Siu Lin. He was raised to be a monk, so this is understandable.
* ChekhovsGun: The scroll that Junbao's master gives him, from which Junbao discovers the foundation of Tai Chi.
* CombatMedic: The rebels have one, who pretends to be a kooky fortuneteller.
%%* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: [[spoiler:Tienbo]]
* CrapsackWorld: The government is corrupt, the peasants will kill you if you beg for money... even in the temple there were bullies.
* CurbStompBattle: Junbao's fights after developing Tai Chi become this.
* DesignatedGirlFight: Between Siu Lin and the governor's niece
* DistractedByTheSexy: Junbao accidentally spills his rice when seeing Siu Lin for the first time.
* TheDogBitesBack: The army turns its back on [[spoiler: Tienbo]] when he tries to take over, slightly because [[KlingonPromotion his promotion wasn't exactly legal]] but mostly because they were sick of his treatment.
** Doubles as a case of realism in film as [[TheNeidermeyer mistreating your soldiers only results in your soldiers betraying you.]]
* DragonAscendant: [[spoiler: Tienbo]] goes from a soldier to overshadowing the man who gave him his chance, and eventually becomes the BigBad.
* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: Tienbo cannot understand why he being expelled from the monastery for nearly killing a fellow monk when everybody saw the latter cheat. The fact that he cannot comprehend that he was supposed to show restraint in the face of foul play is completely lost on him [[spoiler: and only foreshadows the majority of his actions for the remainder of the story]]
* EnemyMine: [[spoiler:The army abandons Tienbo to his fate, and after he's dead, they let Junbao and Siu Lin go without another fight.]]
* EunuchsAreEvil: The Eunuch Governor Liu-Jin. He even brags he doesn't need a woman to be successful.
* EvilDebtCollector: The government raises taxes at the drop of a hat. After Junbao and Tienbo start making money as human punching bags, the government official He-kun extorts their earnings by charging a bevy of arbitrary taxes, then invites them to join the army which Tienbo accepts.
%%* EvilFormerFriend / FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler: Tienbo]].
* {{Foreshadowing}}: One of the Taoist rebels plays with a ball using Tai chi-esque moves and philosophies.
%%* GrievousBottleyHarm
* HenpeckedHusband: The man married to the governor's niece turns out to be Siu Lin's missing ex-husband. Neither of them treat him with respect, especially after learning he abandoned Siu Lin.
* HeroicBSOD: Junbao has a BIG one lasting several days after [[spoiler: Tienbo's FaceHeelTurn.]] He refuses to eat while alternating between depression and acting childish.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Liu-Jin makes his first appearance by having his soldiers kill people in his way while "paying his respects to Buddha". [[ThouShallNotKill Not taking life]] is the first of the Five Precepts of Buddhism.
* IndirectKiss: Tienbo looks on enviously at Miss Li giving Junbao some bean-curd with her chopsticks. He perks up immediately when she hands him roast pigeon with those same chopsticks.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Tienbo. [[spoiler: Until after his FaceHeelTurn.]]
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: [[spoiler:After Tienbo betrays the rebels into a trap and becomes the lieutenant, he quickly becomes DrunkWithPower, to the point Junbao no longer recognizes his EvilFormerFriend.]]
* KlingonPromotion: [[spoiler: Tienbo after killing Liu-jin]] assumes this, however it doesn't really take since TheDogBitesBack.
%%* LaResistance
* LadyDrunk: Siu Lin repeatedly [[DrowningMySorrows drowns her sorrows]] over her ex-husband's infidelity, until Junbao [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan snaps her out of it.]]
%%* LovableCoward: The Taoist fortuneteller
* LoveInterest: The two women seem to be this for our protagonists. However [[spoiler: only Siu actually is; Li gets killed after refusing to be Tienbo's concubine. They're not specifically shown to have gotten together, though.]]
* MadeOfIron: Junbao and Tienbo. They initially use this to sell their services as human punching bags. A group of hired guards beat them up at one point. Their reaction? Pick the coins on the ground.
--> "Earning money is so easy!"
* MartialPacifist: Junbao, especially after his powerup. He easily disarms and dispatches groups of soldiers without killing them.
* MeaningfulEcho: "The past is part of your experience. It shouldn't be your burden!" said by Junbao to Siu Lin to stop her binge drinking. Later she repeats it to him after his HeroicBSOD.
* MeaningfulName: Junbao is renamed [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Sanfeng Zhang Sanfeng]] by the doctor who tries to treat his madness. Sanfeng was explained in-movie as meaning "3-times crazy". Junbao later interprets the Feng part to be prosperity.
%%* MidSeasonUpgrade: Or rather mid-movie upgrade.
* MoodWhiplash: The movie feels like a comedy for the first half; afterwards... not so much. On a smaller scale, Junbao's HeroicBSOD alternates between him seeming broken and empty and slapstick.
** Which is interspersed with scenes of Tienbo abusing his troops.
* NormalFishInATinyPond: Junbao and Tienbo were somewhat more talented than the other junior monks training at the Shaolin Temple. Outside of the temple, they're practically the strongest fighters around.
%%* OriginStory: ... of Tai Chi.
* PayEvilUntoEvil: Tienbo when he [[spoiler: kills Liu-jin]]. Up to that point, the guy had spent most of the film being a SmugSnake with plenty of his own KickTheDog moments so it's hard to sympathize with him.
* ThePollyanna: Junbao, but even he has a breaking point (specifically [[spoiler: his best friend's FaceHeelTurn]]).
* PragmaticVillainy:
** He-kun, Tienbo's former commanding officer scolds him for abusing his troops and warns that they'll turn against him.
** At one point in the movie, Liu-jin chastises Tienbo for still being attached to women and Tienbo in return [[spoiler: kills Miss Li]]. Liu-jin says that he never actually told Tienbo that [[spoiler: he ''had'' to kill Miss Li]], implying that he didn't really care if Tienbo kept her as a love slave but simply meant for him to realize he shouldn't let a woman get in the way of his ambitions.
* SweetTooth: Junbao's fondness for sweet-bean buns. Pity he never seems to get any.
* AThicketOfSpears: Tienbo's personal army are armed with spears, which they use to form an advancing spiked wall when forcing Junbo, Miss Li, and the rest of the resistance into a retreat. The final battle between Tienbo and Junbo sees them fighting amidst a row of soldiers with spears held upright, with Tienbo at one point stealing a dozen spears and trying to skewer Junbo with it; the battle ends with Junbo instead flipping his opponent so Tienbo lands [[HumanPincushion back-first]] [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice into his soldiers' spears]].
* TrainingMontage: Several times. Notably Tienbo's TrainingFromHell for his troops plays this [[BloodFromTheMouth wildly differently]] than most martial arts movies.
* WorldOfBadass: After leaving the monastery, the first thing that happens to the duo is they encounter a street mugging thwarted by an ActionGirl, then take refuge in a restaurant where a fight breaks out between a street musician and the governor's niece. That night they accidentally find out that the restaurant is a rebel base camp.
%%* TheMole: Tienbo. [[spoiler: Not]].
%%* {{Wuxia}}
%%* WireFu
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