In 2013, Reeves starred in his own directorial debut, the martial arts film Man of Tai Chi. The film has multilingual dialogue and follows a young man drawn to an underground fight club, partially inspired by the life of Reeves’ friend Tiger Chen. Principal photography took place in China and in Hong Kong. Reeves was also assisted by Yuen Woo-ping, the fight choreographer of The Matrix films.[140] Man of Tai Chi premiered at the Beijing Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival,[141][142] and received praise from director John Woo.[143] A wider, warm response followed suit; Bilge Ebiri of Vulture thought the fight sequences were “beautifully assembled”, and Reeves showed restraint with the film editing to present the fighters’ motion sequences.[140] The Los Angeles Times wrote, “The brutally efficient shooting style Reeves employs to film master choreographer Yuen Woo-ping’s breathtaking fights […] is refreshingly grounded and old-school kinetic”,[144] while Dave McGinn of The Globe and Mail called the film “ambitious but generic”.[145] At the box office, Man of Tai Chi was a commercial disappointment, grossing only $5.5 million worldwide from a budget of $25 million.[146][147] Also in 2013, Reeves played Kai in the fantasy 47 Ronin, a Japanese fable about a group of rogue samurai. The film premiered in Japan but failed to gain traction with audiences; reviews were not positive, causing Universal Pictures to reduce advertising for the film elsewhere. 47 Ronin was a box office flop and was mostly poorly received.[148]
Keanu redirects here. For other uses, see Keanu disambiguation.
