'Tai Chi' Plot Synopsis

When Vincent Zhao's character was a young child, his parents (while escaping from the pursuit of enemies) abandoned him in the wilderness. Vincent suffered hunger, loneliness, and the cold as a young child, thus leading to intense hatred in his heart. However, Lau Siu Ming’s character rescued Vincent and became his martial arts master.

Lau Siu Ming wandered the world in training his martial arts skills and took in the orphaned Vincent. But Vincent did not realize that he had already practiced taichi [with his parents] as a child, which conflicted with the martial arts form that Lau was teaching him. Due to the “yin” turbulence inside him, Vincent’s temperament became increasingly irate. As a result, Lau decided to leave Vincent, which unfortunately made Vincent feel he was once again abandoned.

When Vincent grew into adulthood, his temperament became even worse. He lived in the mountains and the local villagers saw him as a threat. There was only one villager, played by Kenneth Ma Kwok Ming, who was not afraid of Vincent and befriended him.

Vincent originally intended to live forever in the mountains, away from the rest of the world. However Vincent refused to acknowledge one of the most powerful families in town, the Ning family, which provoked Ning to send several fighters after Vincent. Although Vincent’s fighting skills were still unrefined at this point, based on his sheer energy and strength, he killed Ning’s 4 fighters.

Vincent was forced to leave his mountain residence and Kenneth tried to hide him from the pursuit [of the Ning family] by taking him home. But Melissa Ng notified Ning’s servants of Vincent’s whereabouts.

Melissa was also an abandoned orphan and was taken in as a child by Kenneth’s mother. Although Kenneth’s mother always intended to have Melissa marry her son, Melissa was treated somewhat like a servant in the household. But Melissa was still grateful for everything she had and did not want the family to be destroyed because of Vincent’s presence (since he was wanted by the Ning family). In order to protect the family, Melissa notified the Ning family of Vincent’s whereabouts.

In the chaotic chase that resulted, a guilty-ridden Kenneth also ran off with Vincent and the whereabouts of the two were unknown. Kenneth was attracted by the new environment and things that he came across, at the same time wanting to prove his heroic abilities. Vincent was forced out from his only home in the mountains and vowed to seek revenge.

At this time, Vincent and Kenneth saved sisters, Selena Li and Myolie Wu. Vincent’s fiery qualities attracted Myolie, but Vincent did not return her feelings since his heart was only filled with hatred. Kenneth also forgot about his fiancé, Melissa, at home and fell in love with Selena Li.

Selena wanted to fulfill younger sister Myolie’s revenge scheme but did not want her to risk danger, so she arranged Vincent and Kenneth to kill their enemy instead. After Vincent was implicated in the murder, he was wanted by the authorities, but his martial arts master, Lau Siu Ming rescued him.

Lau regretted leaving Vincent behind and realizing his temperament was worse than before, vowed to train Vincent once again. During the training, Melissa found them and stayed with them for some time. Vincent slowly fell in love with Melissa. Vincent also realized that his parents left him behind as a youth in order to preserve his life. His father was once a high officer in [the Qing court] and was responsible for guarding the teachings of powerful martial arts technique books. Lau Siu Ming was good friends with Vincent’s father and after the downfall of the Qing court, Vincent’s family and Lau were the target of many enemies who wanted the powerful martial arts books.

Vincent vowed to find the murderers of his parents and seek revenge. Lau realized that Vincent’s heart was filled with revenge, which was an obstacle in his martial arts and personal training.

In order to help Vincent see past revenge, Lau was willing to sacrifice himself and pretended to be Vincent’s parents’ murderer. Vincent did hurt Lau and once he realized Lau’s good intentions, Vincent was finally able to see past revenge. In order to repay Lau and fulfill his father’s martial arts dreams, Vincent focused on mastering the techniques of taichi. But Vincent still struggled in grasping the true spirit of taichi, until he met Raymond Lam….

Raymond was the new successor to his father’s renown martial arts school and his future was filled with promise. Raymond was considered to be a celebrity in the martial arts world. Raymond had a cultured upbringing in one of the most powerful families, which was completely different that Vincent’s childhood, therefore the men were naturally at odds with each other. Vincent also saw Raymond as a perfect challenge to increase his martial arts form. However since Vincent did not master his taichi skills yet, he ended up losing to Raymond in combat. Vincent and Raymond’s paths also crossed because of Myolie Wu. When Myolie revealed her feelings to Vincent, he had rejected her, which led to her accident and eventual memory loss. Raymond saved Myolie and fell in love with her. Originally Myolie had a good impression of Raymond as well, but before the relationship was able to develop further, Vincent appeared once again before Myolie, triggering her old memories. She remembered her love for Vincent, yet his rejection had caused her much pain too. Raymond agreed to fight Vincent mainly because of Myolie. She thought that by using Raymond to defeat Vincent, it would make her feel happier, but when she saw the bruised Vincent, she did not feel any ounce of happiness. Raymond and

Vincent’s combat attracted the attention of another martial arts expert, played by Kwok Ching Hung. Kwok’s life goal was to increase his martial arts ability by fighting the most challenging opponents. Kwok had searched everywhere to locate Lau Siu Ming in hopes of fighting him, but found out Lau was no longer there, only leaving behind his skills with Vincent.

Kwok saw the untamed strength in Vincent and realized his potential: Vincent may be the most challenging fighter he will come across in his life. But Vincent’s skills were still unrefined, so Kwok vowed to help Vincent attain more powerful skills by overcoming Raymond first. Vincent realized that once his skills improved, Kwok will want to fight him in a future life-death match, but the two developed an odd friendship.

Raymond realized that Vincent was the person that Myolie always loved, which increased his animosity towards Vincent, making him anticipate his next combat with Vincent even more.

At this time, Vincent realized that Lau Kong (Raymond’s martial arts mentor) was the person who was implicated in his parents’ death. Lau Kong also turned out to be the long-lost father of Melissa Ng. Just as Vincent and Melissa had overcome various obstacles to be together, Melissa was placed in a very difficult position. Vincent controlled his fiery impulses and hatred, while assuming the mentality of a martial arts challenger in his battle against Lau Kong. As a result, Vincent came to understand the true spirit of taichi and his skills were pushed to a new level. Vincent beat Lau Kong in combat.

Raymond always had a father-and-son relationship with his mentor, Lau Kong. When Lau’s combat loss eventually led to his death, Raymond’s animosity towards Vincent only increased. However when Raymond and Vincent met in battle again, Vincent emerged as the victor with his improved taichi skills.

Vincent finally realized that he has lost much ground in his relationship with Melissa. Just as he was ready to propose marriage, Kenneth re-emerged with his young son in tow. Kenneth had gotten married with Selena and they had a son together, but Selena died due to illness. On her deathbed, she asked Melissa to help her take care of her son. Melissa promised to do so and Vincent sadly watched Kenneth and Melissa leave together.

Vincent’s victory over Raymond caused a stir in the capital. The martial arts association wanted to elect a chairperson and the front-runners were Vincent and Kwok Ching Hung, due to their superior skills. But Vincent, disappointed in losing Melissa, was not interested in fame and glory. Kwok became the chairperson of the martial arts association, while Vincent returned to his old village, vowing to find the “tao (way) of life.” Vincent made friends with his old enemies in the village by teaching self-defense skills. Many of his former enemies even became his disciples.

But Kwok’s true identity was not simply a martial arts expert. He wanted to use the martial arts school association to create chaos in the capital and attain his own political agenda. After Raymond lost his battle with Vincent, his martial arts school’s reputation was ruined. Raymond hated Vincent and vowed revenge. Raymond knew his own efforts were not enough, so he asked Kwok Ching Hung to be his martial arts master.

Raymond soon found out the real identity of Kwok Ching Hung and his political agenda, but wishing to defeat Vincent, Raymond betrayed his own beliefs and conscience. Vincent also realized the intentions of Kwok and returned to the capital to unmask his true identity. But Kwok was well established among the people in the capital, so no one believed Vincent.

At this point, only one person backed Vincent’s story and that was Raymond, who had realized Kwok’s political agenda early on. Raymond finally came forward and spoke the truth, supporting Vincent’s story. But the truth was realized too late; the capital was already in turmoil and amidst the turbulence, the final battle between Vincent and Kwok Ching Hung finally takes place….

Credit to jaynestars.com