cadillac20 Americans have grown accustomed to a certain kind of Chinese martial arts film. Ever since Crouching Tiger, the Chinese MA film has gotten more attention beyond whatever Hollywood effort is churned out to force a Jet Li or Jackie Chan sub-par effort on American audiences. Crouching Tiger was followed by films like House of Flying Daggers and Hero, while those with bigger interests in the subject certainly sought out more films that most Americans might not know.True Legend seems to pick up on this. Yuen Wo Ping, who is no stranger to Hollywood martial arts films, having dabbled his hand in a number of Hollywood efforts, seems to have taken some of what he's done for American audiences and applied it to this film. He has, after all, been attached to several big U.S. productions, most notably Kill Bill and The Matrix series of films. These and other notable Chinese MA films, which saw American audiences, between True Legend and his last directorial effort, Tai Chi Boxer (1996). So, it may not be surprising that he's incorporated some more Western friendly elements. That may be far reaching, but True Legend is certainly no traditional Martial Arts film.For Chinese MA fans, this is a mixed bag. It starts out with several powerful action sequences, the most notable being the opening rescue scene. Sadly, this is Ping putting his best foot forward and the film never truly rises above it in terms of impressive action. That doesn't mean the film doesn't contain some other outstanding scenes that, at least, left me with a few 'oh snap' moments. And the combination of fantasy elements that you might see in older films, like the 5 Venom Fist style MA, and more modern concepts, like mixing break dancing with drunken fist boxing, give the film it's own identity. Sadly, this creates a bit of an identity crises. We're given a historical context for the film, and the story presents itself similarly to Fearless, another MA biopic, but the film isn't grounded in reality and some strange turns are taken, those most notable being main character Su's encounter with The Wushu God. It's a bizarre, CGI heavy intermission between the more grounded first and final acts. But the entire tone of the film seems to be a mix of the two: the more traditional Chinese MA film and the modern, special effects and wire laden Chinese MA film, the kind that Western audiences might be more accustomed to. And reading about the production of the film, you can certainly see that Ping did want to go beyond the traditional film to create something more modern.Despite this seemingly jumbled style, the film is full of Ping's mastery. Fantastic camera work, editing, and special effects add to the impressive set pieces and choreographed action sequences. Again, there are a ton of 'oh snap' moments, and in a MA film, that is a wonderful thing to have. The opening scene is an incredible display of talent, action, special effects, and choreography that will most likely go down as one of the great modern MA action scenes. There are plenty of other fantastic action sequences, and thankfully Ping knows how to shoot a proper action scene as opposed to so many other directors who think all the action has to be confusing and up close, and all the editors who think that it requires cuts by the second. This film reaffirms that, even after all these years, Ping can still produce something that is entertaining and exciting, that he is still a master of the MA sequence.Whether you enjoy this film or not will depend entirely on how much you can enjoy the fairly odd mix of styles along with the inclusion of a fifth act to end the film. It does take a bit of a right turn with the final act, but it's none the less very entertaining, and includes a cameo (most likely our last glimpse) of David Carradine, who you might know worked with Ping on Kill Bill. However, I would recommend this film to any MA fan. It's unique blend of quirky style, fantastic action, and masterful filming technique all make up one entertaining Chinese MA.

sankhaonline They tried to make an epic saga with some fantasy legend like story in the beginning, then somehow changed the mind and added some tragedy and at the and the mixture of Ipman, Tai chi master, Tom yum goong, ghulam(Hindi). The ending is so horrible and funny, you will wish some quick ending and some real beating up of the hero. This is those kind of movies where they try very hard to provoke some emotion out of you and harder they try, more comical it becomes. Very poor acting. Fight scenes could have been way better if there were some good budget. The graphical scenes are poorly done.Watch it if you have nothing else to do and you truly love the Chinese action movies, but set your expectation very very low, really low.Even rating 5 seems too high for me. Still...

mmushrm I am very much disappointed in the movie. It started off with so much promise then got progressively worse until the end where it felt like I was watching a totally different movie.The movie can be divided into 3 parts. The 1st part is rather good, it reminded me of the 70-80s style martial art movies. The fighting was good although the bad guy seemed over done.It started going bad for me in the middle part where our hero is training to fight the bad guy again. HORRIBLE CG work, I mean really bad. Also repetitive and add to that not very good martial arts. It also left me confused as to ...is it real or only in his head. The main plot line is concluded in the middle section. Baddie dies but a phyricc victory as hero's wife dies as well. Hero becomes a drunk which brings us to...Part 3. I guess this is where it shows him as the mythical drunken beggar. Problem is it just shows him as a weak pathetic drunk until he has to fight the whitemen ala FEARLESS style. Basically the movie looked like it jumped very far ahead in time. The "feel" and the look of the movie totally changed. It went from old time china to suddenly westerners walking around everywhere and participating in fights. The fight scenes were long and formulaic, westerners ganging up and cheating etc. The guy gets drunk and throws out some break dancing moves.For me the movie was too disjointed, add very bad CG and fights and I have to say give this a miss. Watch fearless instead or one of the drunken master movies.

jtwcosmos "Don't you ever touch my sister like that."This is the story of a Chinese general who abandons his military and political carrier, choosing to pursue the simple life of a family man and teacher of martial arts. His decision works out well for him, until the day his half brother returns, determined to avenge the death of his father.The first part of the movie delivers what it promises: a family drama with dark and surreal overtones, balanced by a romantic atmosphere of devotion and unconditional love, set in an age of heroes and legend. And it works well - very well, in fact - until the writers decide to make it go "Puff!" in the middle of the movie, smashing the whole thing to pieces.The fighting is decent (even though Bruce Lee they're not) and you'll spend the entire time shouting "The vase!... The vase!... Watch the... vase".The special effects are not that terrible, the music is OK (in a non-irritating way) and the mood of the movie swings from soft and beautiful to angry and dreadful or desperate. The camera work is unusual, the framing and the angles are a bit strange and it takes a while for the viewer to get used to them. The scenery is beautiful and the sets are very convincing.The characters are simplistic, stereotypical and rudimentary. The hero is the protector of the family, the woman is the beautiful, devoted and loving wife and mother, and the villain is the monster who doesn't care much for anything, except his obsessions. The kid is... the most irritating kid I've seen, in a while.True Legend. As a martial arts movie it is OK, I guess, but the story requires massive improvement. 5/10.