General Su Can (Vincent Zhao) gives up
war (and the offered governorship to his foster brother Yuan (Andy On)) to follow his dream of learning more about Wushu and
opening his own Wushu school while having a family with his wife Sing. Years pass and Yuan hasn't forgotten that Su
Can's father killed Yuan's father. Yuan has perfected the Five deadly Venom Fists. He kills Su Can's brother
and attempts to have his soldiers kill Su Can. Su Can attempts to save Ying and their son only to be posioned by Yuan
and fall into the river to be rescued by Ying. Su becomes his own enmey and battles the God Of Wushu as he trains to
get his strength (and skill and confidence) back. He faces off against Yuan only to have his life take other turns
afterwards that include learning the way the Druken Fist and fight wrestlers in a combat ring.
TRUE LEGEND has some great action direction
and yet the atcion work isn't as impressive as anything Yuen Woo Ping did for THE MATRIX films. The film comes
off as too episodic and I feel like I don't care for the characters enough. Too many of the characters come off
as a little unlikeable and the likeable chaarcters don't have enough screen time. David Carradine and michelle
Yoeh have small roles in this movie where the role Carradine has is a little thankless (in one of his last roles before he
died). TRUE LEGEND would have been a better film if they found a way to flesh out the episodes in Su Can's life
into a more cohesive story and flesh out the characters more. TRUE LEGEND is more of a rental for the fight scenes and
yet there are better action direction in other Asian films I have seen lately.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
five behind-the-scenes fetaurettes go ove
rthe various aspects of the production-
DRUKEN FIST MASTER- promo fluff
THE MILITIA'S FORTRESS- focus on the opening
sequence
THOUSAND BUDDHA CLIFF- they built the set
outdoors against a green screen and filming action against green screen proved challenging for the VFX crew.
CAPTURING CLASSIC CHINA
CHOREOGRAPHED DRUNKENESS
Storyboard-to-scene comparison
music video- "Axis Of Envy" by The Shadow
Bureau
international trailer
FINAL ANALYSIS:
TRUE LEGEND has some well stage fight sequences out of a film that comes off as too episodic.
this DVD review is (c)10-2-2011 David
Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com
