True Legend
Dir: Yuen Woo-ping
Rating: 1.9/5.0
Indomina Releasing
115 Minutes
Yuen Woo-ping is best known in this country for his action choreography work on such films as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Kill Bill (2003-2004) and The Matrix Trilogy (1999-2003). He's revered the world over for his inventive use of wire techniques which give his performers the ability to "fly" and wage battle high above the ground. He began his career as a director in the Hong Kong film industry, helming such classic flicks as Snake In the Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master (both 1978), which established the "comedic kung fu" genre and helped make Jackie Chan a star. It's been 15 years since Yuen directed his last feature, and it would seem that in the interval he's let Hollywood cloud his brain. His newest film, True Legend, is an incoherent mess: it is inelegantly paced, the computer effects are atrocious, and the last 25 minutes feel like an awkwardly-grafted short film that was hastily added to pad out the running time. But the worst disappointment is the fighting - the wushu battles are a nightmare of flash over substance, incorporating the worst of video game aesthetics with an editing technique that could charitably be described as "epileptic". True Legend is a disappointment in almost every respect imaginable.
The film is a spiritual prequel of sorts to his Drunken Master, in that it tells the "true" story of the legendary Su Can (Man Cheuk Chiu) and how he was inspired by the God of Wushu (Jay Chou) to invent the loose-limbed "drunken style" boxing. In terms of the narrative this actually constitutes somewhat of a spoiler, as the revelation that Su is the legendary Drunken Master comes after the narrative has seemingly resolved itself.
As the story opens, Su is a general in the Chinese army. After a noisy and dimly-lit battle set in a largely computer generated cave that looks like an unused set from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Su and his half-brother Yuan (Xun Zhou) return to the prince with their report. The prince is enamored of Su but is rightly suspicious of Yuan - he's evil, and the film makes this clear in dozens of less-than-subtle ways. He's always held a grudge against Su and their father, who was responsible for Yuan's real father's death. It seems that Poppa Yuen was proficient in the "Five Venom Fists" technique, which makes the practitioner strong but poisons their soul. And so Yuen kills his false daddy, kidnap's Su's child and throws Su and his wife Ying over a waterfall.
They are saved by a mountain hermit (Michelle Yeoh, in a glorified cameo) who mends Su's wounds. As Su succumbs to alcoholism and madness, he is trained by the God of Wushu in what is either a fantastical realm or his fevered imagination. The scenes of training take place in the most absurdly rendered CGI environment this side of the original arcade version of "Mortal Kombat." After recovering his wits, Su and Ying return to exact vengeance on the dastardly Yuan. After the battle has ended, there is an extended denouement featuring David Carradine (in another glorified cameo) as a promoter of Blood Sport-like battles. Su must defeat a number of Russian wrestlers to save his son's life. Fully drunk now, he staggers and weaves his way to victory. The end.
The fighting scenes in True Legend are its weakest feature, which is a shame. Yuen was the director who brought Jackie Chan to the world's attention. The student has truly become the master, as Chan's fights are a paragon of clarity and impact. True Legend's fights are nothing but a lot of sound and fury, signifying zip.
by Shannon Gramas
Source: http://www.spectrumculture.com/2011/05/true-legend.html
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