True Legend   Starring: Vincent Zhao, Zhou Xun, Jay Chou Optimum Home Entertainment RRP: £15.99 OPTD1847 Certificate: 15 Available 25 October 2010

When Su decides to leave the life of a successful general behind him, he cannot foresee that his stepbrother, Yuan, would take the opportunity to kill the man they both call father. In a direct confrontation Su looses and is thrown into a fast running river, into which his wife Yu, who is also Yuan’s sister, also throws herself. Believed dead Su and his wife take refuge in the mountains where he starts to heal. To keep them alive Yu brews wine which Su drinks with gusto. In his inebriated state he starts to develop a new form of martial arts, the drunken fist...

True Legend (2010 - 1 hr, 50 min, 04 sec) is a martial arts historical drama written by Chi-long To and directed by Woo-ping Yuen, his first martial arts film in the last fourteen years. The story is based on ‘The King of The Beggars’ Chinese folktale.

With so many kung-fu films competing for fans attention and the overuse of wirework creating many films that possess the same, fake, stylistic fighting, a new film has to have something special, so how about a really, really drunk hero.

True Legend is a bit of an odd film, which really feels like two different movies glued together. For most of the film Chinese society is portrayed in an almost medieval fashion, all samurai and fantasy elements. We meet Su Qi-Er as a successful general, who ends up fighting his stepbrother, following his father’s death.

The middle section retains fantasy elements as Su, in exile with his wife, is visited by the God of Wushu and a drunken sage. Through their tutelage, and a fair amount of free wine, he regains his confidence and fighting skills, returning home to avenge his father’s death and rescue his son. Although he wins, he also looses when he discovers that Yaun had already buried Yu alive.

Most films would have stopped there, but True Legend takes a sudden turn with Su and his son wondering around like beggars until he ends up in the very modern looking border between China and Russia, where he fights a bunch of Russian all-in wrestlers.

The fight choreography by Yuen Woo Ping is pretty impressive, even if the drunken style may look a bit odd; there is only a touch of noticeable wire work and CGI enhancement, giving an overall impression of a realistic fight style. The fights are spread well throughout the film, demonstrating differing styles of fighting in a frenetic and fun fashion.

Vincent Zhao as Su, upon whom the film’s success rests, works well in the role and the story provides enough interaction between the main characters not to feel like just on fight after another. Apart from Zhao the film also features Xun Zhou (Yuan Ying), Michelle Yeoh (Sister Yu), Xiaogang Feng (Pickpocket), Andy On ( Yuan Lie), Luxia Jiang (Iron Maiden), Chia Hui Liu (Bearded Man), Ka-Yan Leung (Su Wan-Kun) and David Carradine, as a corrupt fight promoter.

As befitting a new film the picture is sharp and clear with either a 2.0 Stereo or 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound, Mandarin, audio track, with burned in English subtitles. For extras you have a pretty good ‘Making of’ (27 min, 21 sec) discussing the film and the man characters motivation, as if anyone needed one to stay drunk, the original theatrical trailer (2 min, 03 sec) and a music video (5 min, 03 sec) of the film's theme track.

Ultimately, the film is a little uneven, but still an above average martial arts film.

6

Charles Packer