After seeing it a few times, this is my conclusion. First, there seems to be two plots: one is that some English tuxedo-wearing guys are smuggling opium to China, the other is a boy-wants-girl love story.
One reviewer said it takes place about the year 1900 -- I couldn't have guessed from just watching the movie. Other flaws seems to be that it is unclear where it takes place. "In a village, somewhere in China." Yet there is a nearby town or village where they, unknown to all main characters, are sacrificing children (!) in a seemingly recurrent ritual. How can they not know about this? Later, this incident is never talked of again, and this and several other incidents make me wonder, why there are so many subplots.
Quite a few things don't make sense in the film... Don't understand why it even called "tai chi 2". It doesn't have anything in common with Tai Chi 1 (tai chi master). And the officer to which Rose was engaged is also an enigma: is he good or bad? I felt sorry for him anyways -- he was just trying to do his job and start a family, but everyone seemed to dislike him.
The acting is overall like the others said: decent, but not very spectacular. All though they could have mentioned the mother and father are very enjoyable to watch. Maybe a good thing would be if the story was focused more on the family life. Or focused on, well, *anything*, instead of diverse itself like it did.
Note that the first scene takes place 10 years before the rest of the film. They could have mentioned this. And why why couldn't they have bothered making a decent ending....
Enjoyable little thing though, thanks to its action and humour!! Recommendable!! 7 / 10.
