The True Legend Of The Beggar Fighter
TRUE LEGEND (Blu-ray)
Release Date: October 25th, 2010
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 116 minutes
Language: Mandarin with English subtitles
Director: Woo-Ping Yuen
Cast: Man Cheuk Chiu, Xun Zhou, Michelle Yeoh, Xiaogang Feng, Andy On,
Originally released in 3D for its theatrical run, True Legend now arrives on Blu-ray and DVD. It also marks the last screen appearance by actor David Carradine, who died in Bangkok during post-production on June 3rd 2009.
The story centres on a man whose passion for learning and teaching martial arts eventually leads to him eventually becoming the legendary beggar fighter.
When retired military general, Su Can (Vincent Zhao) starts a new life with his wife Yuan Ying (Zhou Xun) and son, Feng, his half-brother Yuang (Andy On), kidnaps the boy out of jealousy and revenge. Many years earlier Su’s father killed Yuang’s to stop him from perfecting an evil martial arts technique called the Five Venom Fists. Now Yuang himself has perfected it to the point where he feels immortal and intends on using it to stop anyone who gets in his way. He kills Su’s father, decapitating him as a way of avenging his own father’s death.
SPECIAL FEATURES
- Making of
- Trailer
- Music video
In order to fight Yuang and get his son back, Su must perfect his own skills and after almost being killed by Yuang, goes to train at a scared site with a Wu Shu God and an old sage who teach him many fighting techniques including ‘The Drunken Fist’ move, to ensure he will be able to save his son.
While its fight sequences are fun to watch, True Legend offers nothing new or substantial to the martial arts genre. If you’ve been watching martial movies from the late 1970’s and early 1980’s such as Drunken Master (1978) with Jackie Chan, then you would have seen most of these moves already. Yuang’s transformation into a venomous villain who after all these years finally takes revenge on Su for his father’s death is somewhat of a problem in terms of character development and motivation as well.
At almost 2 hours long, the film feels around 35 minutes too long as well. This together with skipping over a few years and not giving characters enough time to development makes True Legend something less better than it could have been.
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