[7] Hong Kong police officer Sun-Jing is investigating Donaka Mark, who is hosting an illegal fighting operation.

Donaka attempts to recruit Tiger, a young working-class disciple of Tai Chi at a Wu Lin Wang Competition.

Realizing how much he has changed for the worse, Tiger declares his intention to stop fighting for Donaka and contacts officer Sun-Jing.

Donaka reveals how he engineered the temple's crisis to manipulate Tiger; he wished to transform him from innocent martial arts practitioner to ruthless killer.

When the project eventually moved into the production phase, principal photography occurred on mainland China and Hong Kong.

The site's consensus reads, "It may not be groundbreaking, but Man of Tai Chi represents an agreeably old-fashioned picture for martial arts fans – and a solid debut for first-time director Keanu Reeves.

[21] Sheila O'Malley, writing at RogerEbert.com, also praised the "thrilling immediacy" of the fight scenes: "you realize you are actually seeing these guys actually do this, as opposed to watching something pieced together later in the editing room".

[22] Dave McGinn of the Globe and Mail, in contrast, called the film "ambitious but generic" and filled with "stale conventions".