True Legend (2011)
Average Rating: 5.9/10
Reviews Counted: 38
Fresh: 24 | Rotten: 14
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 5.8/10
Critic Reviews: 11
Fresh: 7 | Rotten: 4
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 3,791
My Rating
Movie Info
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
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Cast
-
Vincent Zhao
Su Can -
Xun Zhou
Ying -
Andy On
Yuan Lie -
Xiaodong Guo
Ma Qingfeng -
Jay Chou
God of Wushu/Drunken Go... -
Michelle Yeoh
Dr. Yu -
David Carradine
Anthony Gambling House ... -
Gordon Liu
Old Sage -
Cung Le
Militia Leader
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True Legend Trailer & Photos
All Critics (39) | Top Critics (12) | Fresh (24) | Rotten (14) | DVD (4)
Diverting but unmemorable martial arts feature unlikely to become a classic.
Top CriticSomewhere between masterful and messy, Yuen Woo-ping offers lots of kinetic kicks, but his CGI work deserves a kick in the pants.
A silly and yet often enjoyable action film, the movie isn't so much a winking homage to those late-'70s Hong Kong exports as another entry...
Fans don't go to martial-arts movies for the story. They want action -- and Yuen doesn't disappoint.
Fans who've been waiting 15 years for the director of "Drunken Master" to helm a new movie definitely won't be disappointed.
A hodgepodge of styles, "True Legend" works best as a freewheeling showcase for Yuen's dazzling fight sequences above any sort of cogent storytelling.
Great fight scenes and diverse martial arts make for a very entertaining film.
suffers from an erratic narrative pace, shoddy characters and an overuse of digital gimmickry, all of which create the impression of an ersatz epic spectacle
Serious to the point of silliness, True Legend offers nothing new, but it steals adroitly.
Comes off less like the work of an old master and more like the mediocre imitation of one.
This gnarly beast -- written by To Chi-long -- is epic in scope
Opting for craziness over coherence, True Legend at least expends its energy in the right place.
The comedic touches humanize this ridiculously invincible warrior with self-destructive emotional flaws. Though Su's alcoholism that morphs into the triumphant martial arts moves Drunken Fist, like Depp's unbeatable inebriated pirate, are beyond silly.
Yuen understands that martial arts sequences are more than bodies in motion, they are bodies telling stories in motion.
A bloated epic that never gets past the limits of a stilted set-up, and then damningly wears out its welcome with a plodding final act that offers none of the catharsis its makers seem to think it does.
An exciting mix of the best of Old School kung fu cinema and new technology absolutely worth seeing on big screen. Pity that the film's terrible, tacked-on ending keeps True Legend from being truly legendary.
Bridged by rude comedy familiar to veteran viewers of Hong Kong martial arts cinema, True Legend is refreshingly unpretentious in comparison to the pompous nationalism of recent Chinese war spectacles like The Warring States.
From the opening credits to its predictable conclusion it becomes clear that 'True Legend' lays its intelligence at the level of a superhero comic strip (or saloon delirium).
Indeed, there's a true legend at work here, but unfortunately, the phrase is not descriptive of the film itself but rather its maker Yuen Woo-ping, the brilliant martial arts choreographer.
Warrior perfects a new form of martial arts after tragedy strikes his family in a film from the extraordinary action choreographer Yuen Woo Ping.
It starts off spectacularly, with some of the finest, fastest and most graceful fight footage I've ever seen.
Audience Reviews for True Legend
Super Reviewer
The story line is actually very consuming once you become endeared by the characters, whom I might add are supremely crafted. I mean how can you not think the 'God of Wushu' is not cool.
It's been a long while since Yuen Woo Ping helmed a film as a director, and here he applied plenty of wire-fu liberally to craft a film that provided for some fantastical elements in its martial arts.
Zhou Xun is a fine actress, and her presence here provided that well needed contrast of acting ability compensating for the lack thereof in Zhao's, starring as Su Chan's wife Ying, the pillar of strength, confidence and hope. Andy On played Yuan Lie with enough creepiness and ruthlessness that he may be one of the more memorable martial arts villains amongst recent kung fu films, adding to that his treading the extremely thin line of incest as well with Ying, in wanting to be together forever with her.
I was surprised to see three special appearances I recognized in this martial arts epic film.
Super Reviewer
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Latest News on True Legend
May 12, 2011:
Critics Consensus: Priest is Without a PrayerThis week at the movies, we?ve got a vampire slayer (Priest, starring Paul Bettany and Karl Urban)...
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Foreign Titles
- True Legend (Su Qi-Er) (DE)
- True Legend (UK)
