True Legend with Vincent Zhao, Andy On and a heap of other people!

Remember Jackie Chan’s Drunken Master?  Fei Hung, played by Jackie Chan, was trained by a vicious beggar named So (or Su).  Well this movie tells the tale, as many other have before it, of Beggar Su – a famous Chinese martial artist rumored to be the creator of Drunken boxing.

The movie starts off with an epic battle.  General Su Can (Vincent Zhao) is leading his troops and secures a celebrated victory.  Upon his return he is offered the position of Governor by his superiors – a position he turns down insisting that his adopted brother Yuan, whose father was killed by Su’s father, should be perfect for the position.

Having treated Yuan as a blood brother as well as marrying his sister – he has a chat to Yuan, whom his superiors think is arrogant and not worthy of the position of Governor.  Su tells Yuan that he intends to go home and hone his Wushu, and teach it as a profession.  This is something Su has dreamed of for years.  Yuan takes Su’s place as General (but not yet as Governor) as Su returns home for a better life.

Years later Yuan returns home to see Su and his family.  Now governor, he has a league of men alongside him, but he looks a little different.  He has been mastering the evil martial art of his father (which lead to his father’s death years earlier), called the Five Venom Fists.  Almost instantly on his return he seeks out Su’s father and exacts his revenge, killing him ruthlessly and taking his sister and nephew away.  Su quickly learns of these events and rushes to face Tuan, but is defeated by his superior Kung Fu.

Su is thrown into a river and his wife follows, realizing that Yuan would not hurt her son, and the two barely escape death and Su’s wounds and poisoning of the Five Venom Fists is healed by a wine maker named Dr Yu (Mixhelle Yeoh). Su faces depression but quickly starts training again so he can rescue his son. He goes mad and starts hallucinating, seeing visions of a Wushu god, to whom he fights and trains harder every day to defeat.  Recognizing his impaired mental state, his wife returns home to save her son.  Su frees himself from his imagination and follows her and faces off against Yuan.

Yuan buries Su’s wife alive, but is killed by Su in battle.  Su then finds and digs up his wife to find her dead.  From then on he and his son wander the streets homeless.  Su turns to drinking and after a few events starts to further refine his technique and create his drunken boxing style.  It isn’t long before he is forced to use his new found skills, and prove to the world he is the legendary fighter and a ‘True Legend’ (yeah, yeah, hence the title!).

A Movie More Like 2 Small Movies…

I found myself double checking the timer when watching this movie.  The beginning of the film leads up to the epic battle between Su and Yuan, but it happens about an hour into the film.  The movie then tells a rather sad story of Su and his son – being homeless and what they face on the streets before Su develops his Drunken boxing.

It’s a little funny the way it’s structured.  Since we’re set up waiting to see the main character achieve one goal, its strange when he does half way through the movie.  We’re then left with nothing really.  As the events unfold you learn what the (second) story is about, but there’s no real direction or hint to keep you wondering ‘how did he get there’ or ‘how did he overcome this problem’.  If just sort of fizzles and leads to a very anti-climatic (yet entertaining) fight sequence at the very end.  I thought it was a little strange and off putting.

Perhaps some kind of framing device would have helped wrap this story up, something at the beginning of the film which leaves us with some kind of expectation as to how far the movie will go, keeping the audience’s interest up.  Instead, the feel that the movie ends with the battle between Su and Yuan kinda kills it a little.

A hell of a line up!

You want a movie with names?  This one has it!  Lead roles, support roles and cameos of famous martial arts actors really gained my attention watching this movie.

First of all you’ve got 2 relatively famous Chinese actors like Vincent Zhao from The Blade (or Dao) and Andy On who was introduced in Black Mask 2, and has since appeared in New Police Story with Jackie Chan,  Fatal Contact With Wu Jing and The Lost Bladesman with Donnie Yen.  But this movie has a lot cameos to back these guys up!

You’ve got Dr Yu played by top female martial artist Michelle Yeoh, who plays a good supporting role. Also David Carradine who hosts the fights at the end of the movie.  Gordon Liu is the old sage across from Jay Chou who is the God of Wushu.

To top it off this movie also introduces Cung Le – MMA/UFC fighter and martial arts actor from Dragon Eyes.

Packed with names, this movie has a talented cast being instructed by Yuen Woo-Ping yet the movie actually lost money in the box office.  Unfortunately all of the names in the world cannot guarantee success.

With a bit of a disjointed story telling structure and overly fake CGI visuals mixed in, the movie looks a little cheap.  But ultimately I still found it to be an entertaining film – thanks to the fight scenes!

The Martial Arts and Action

Most of the fights are a tasteful blend of wirework and fast paced action.  This same pace and ferocity is carried through each scene while working with many different styles of fights.

The battle and one on one fights all show a vast range of weapon work as well as hand to hand fighting.  But the sharp contrast in Su’s style before he adapts his drunken boxing is most noticeable.  The drunken style is just as exciting, fast and hard hitting as his previous, and makes for awesome entertainment as he takes on some pretty gargantuan guys at the end of the film in the form of juiced up wrestlers that’d snap Arnold Schwarzenegger in half!

The weak point is the seemingly misplaced mysticism of the film.  I mentioned before that Su hallucinated the ‘God of Wushu and the Old Sage’ – but whether they were his imagination or some higher power is not revealed to the audience.  So the fight seems a little silly with the hugely fake surroundings.

Also the Five Venoms fists of Yuan takes away from the fast and skilled fighting moves we all like to see.  As fast and vicious strikes are changed over for magical poisonous ones you can’t help but feel a little robbed considering what the fights lead up to.  Luckily it’s only a relatively small chunk of the action.

The Verdict?

Severely in the middle!  Story is ok, the movie has some weak points but it does have some decent action.  I’ll probably watch it again some day so I guess it has my recommendation!