Keanu Reeves may be one of the most beloved movie stars working right now, loved more for his down-to-earth personality and well-documented generosity than his range as an actor. Reeves has a talent for playing taciturn action heroes and comic foils, but tends to falter when asked to play richer, more sophisticated characters. Compare his hilarious turn in Always Be My Maybe, or his impressive physical performances in the John Wick films to, say, Bram Stoker's Dracula, where he struggles to maintain his British accent.

More than his acting, though, Reeves seems to be loved for being an impeccably decent human being. He runs his own leukemia charity. When he caught people trespassing on his property, he invited them for a drink. He famously gives expensive gifts to his co-stars in many of his films, like Rolex watches for the John Wick crew.or motorcycles for the stuntmen who worked on "The Matrix Reloaded". He often goes out of his way to interact with fans and sign autographs. He was once quoted as saying that he has enough money and that he is happy to give most of his film salaries to charity. More rich people could learn from Keanu.

However, of all the films, documentaries, cartoons and TV series in which Reeves has appeared, he has only once taken a crack at directing. In 2013, Reeves directed the somewhat obscure martial arts film Tai Chi Man, in which he also played the villain. The Tai Chi Man was well received by critics who saw it (it has a 71% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes), but it didn't generate much enthusiasm. /Film wrote about its trailer in the past, but the "Tai Chi Man" is rarely talked about anymore. Let's take a moment to think about that.

"Tai Chi Man," according to critics, was something of a throwback film, trying to recreate the story and tone of the Chinese martial arts films of the 1970s. Tiger Chen plays a version of himself, a student of Tai Chi who uses the martial art as a form of meditation and exercise. Reeves plays Donaka Mark, the head honcho of a shady, underground fighting tournament. Mark tries to recruit Chen into his brutal fight club, but Chen initially refuses. However, when Chen discovers that his Tai Chi temple is in need of a structural upgrade, he agrees to enter the tournament, hoping to win a large enough prize money to repair it.

However, over the course of Chen's fights, he becomes more and more violent, having to become more and more brutal in order to win. Of course, Chen is horrified by his actions, but Mark, it turns out, orchestrated it. Mark was the one who called the building inspectors to Chen's temple to lure him to the tournament. It seems he wanted to conduct a Joker-like moral experiment to see if a noble, peaceful, ethical Tai Chi master can be forced by circumstances of greed and violence. The final moral showdown: Can Mark force Chen to kill?

However, few were interested in finding the answer. With a modest budget of $25 million, The Tai Chi Man grossed just $5 million at the box office internationally. Only about $100,000 of that came from ticket sales in America. Its small numbers may have stemmed from a strange release pattern: The Tai Chi Man was available for download on September 27, 2013, but then received a very small theatrical release on November 1. Any Keanu fans who were interested in seeing The Tai Chi Man as soon as possible probably bought it at home before it opened in theaters. $4.28 million of the film's earnings came from Chinese ticket sales.

It's easy to see why Reeves would want to direct Man of Tai Chi. Tiger Chen was a central member of Yuen Wu-ping's fight choreography on The Matrix in 1999, and Reeves worked extensively with Chen. The two became fast friends, and he would go on to work with Reeves again on The Matrix Reloaded, in which he had a brief cameo. Chen also had parts in the Keanu Reeves-starring John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum” and “The Matrix Resurrection”. This was in addition to serving as fight choreographer for Charlie's Angels and Kill Bill. Chen has also appeared in several films released in his native China, as well as the international star vehicle Triple Threat starring Chen, Iko Uwais and Tony Yaa.

The Tai Chi Man was clearly a pet project for Chen and Reeves, giving the two an opportunity to work together again and for Chen to play a more visible, leading role. It's a shame the film didn't do better in the US, as Chen could easily have become a legitimate Hollywood powerhouse on the screen, at least in action films and fight films. Instead, he will have to console himself with a decent Chinese film career and the many, many awards he has won for his martial arts; Chen is a national karate champion.

"Man of Tai Chi" also starred other notable international stars such as Karen Mok and Ye Qing. Uwais also has a small part in the film, and a closer look can reveal a cameo by Yuen Wu-ping himself. Fans of martial arts movies would do well to give The Tai Chi Man another shot. Eventually, if enough people rent it, the movie can finally break even.