In order to understand what this movie is about (even after watching it), I had to go to the website and read the synopsis.
Yuen Woo Ping (The Matrix trilogy, Kill Bill Volumes I and II, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero) brings you True Legend a heart pounding epic about the timeless battle between good and evil. Su Can’s (Vincent Zhao) respectable life is obliterated when his vengeful brother, Yuan (Andy On), returns from war armed with the deadly Five Venom Fists. Weakened but not destroyed, Su Can learns a never-before-seen form of martial arts: the Drunken Fist. Armed with this new power, he returns home to honor his family through retribution by taking on his brother in a battle to become the ultimate warrior. Packed with distinct fighting styles—including MMA, knife combat and sweeping aerial stunts— and starring martial arts legends Michelle Yeoh, David Carradine and Jay Chou, True Legend has Phillip French of The Observer raving, “It opens with one of the best action sequences I’ve ever seen.”
I’m not a martial arts junkie, but I appreciate well choreographed and executed fight scenes; this film has plenty of them. It almost moves so fast you can’t see what’s going on. There is one scene in particular that stood out for me when they were fighting in a well. Yep, it was pretty badass.
From a story point of view, it really was all over the place and not very cohesive. Starting out, I thought it was a revenge film, but even the revenge didn’t make much sense. I pieced together that the two men, Yuan and Su Can, who called each other brother, were not actual brothers. Su Can’s father adopted the son, Yuan, and daughter, Ying after killing their father because he was a bad guy, I think, I couldn’t quite pick up on it. (It’s subtitled and the audience was very distracting.) The two brothers are in the army together and when Su Can passes on a promotion, which is then given to Yuan, and then Su Can quits the army to start a family with Ying. This all happens within the first 15 minutes of the film. With me so far?
Now, apparently this is about Su Can learning the art of Drunken Fist, which is him basically acting drunk as he fights. The movie really had two endings and could have easily been over after the first one, but the second part is more about Drunken Fist.
The sound effects and music were another turn off for me. I understand that it was probably just trying to go “old school” but it was very distracting when sounds for things breaking were clearly not correct. Sounds of several clay pots breaking sounded more like glass and when fighting, the staffs hitting each other sounded like rebars hitting one another. There was also very little music during the fight scenes and although I don’t need a music cue to tell me when something is happening, it seemed like something was missing without it.
Lovers of martial arts films will certainly enjoy the film and will probably look past my problems with the story. The cameo brings down the house and the fight scenes save it. I however, wanted the story to be more fulfilling.
Rating: Great fight scenes, lackluster story. 4/10
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