Presumably the story is similar to his actual life in the sense of trying to show or promote how Tai Chi can be a martial art, not that he entered an illegal underground fight to the death circuit. This film is based loosely on the real life events of the main lead Tiger Chen (yep that's his real name). The first film of 2013 set in the Far East starring Keanu Reeves, his second Asian film came out a month later (in the US).
