Review of True Legend (2010) by John S — 09 Jul 2012

The peculiar structure, wire-fu, and bad CGI may get to you but the phenomenal story, great performances, and superb fight scenes will as well.

The Kung Fu God that is Yuen Woo-Ping has taken his classic Chinese Wuxia style and brought it to the 21st century. Being his first film of the millennium, True Legend is a movie of over-the-top myth and magic with outrageous fight scenes and choreography. It may not be as good as his best, but the fight scenes are still a joyous wonder.

The magical storytelling takes the film to epic proportions (literally). The mix of Wuxia fantasy epic and 70s Chinese kung fu madness with electric cinematography and thrilling effects is simply glorious. Crappy CGI and cheesy wire fu may hamper the experience, but it works well with the fantasy themes.

The story is quite the tale. If you are unfamiliar with the story of Beggar So/Su but familiar with the character, it is an utter delight to learn about the myth and legend. The three part structure is rather odd at first, it feels like three different movies strung together. It is easy to misconstrue it as sloppy writing, but when you understand the classic three-part structures of wuxia novels as being more like three individual serials, then it works very well.

Overall, True Legend feels like a modern Yuen Woo-Ping film that still stays true to its roots. It may not be perfect but it's still hugely entertaining.