True Legend
Encyclopedia
True Legend is a 2010 martial arts film
directed by Yuen Woo-ping
, starring Vincent Zhao
, Zhou Xun
, Jay Chou
, Michelle Yeoh
, Andy On
, David Carradine
, Guo Xiaodong, Feng Xiaogang
, Cung Le
, Gordon Liu
, Bryan Leung and Jacky Heung
.
Martial arts choreographer Yuen Woo-ping, returns to film directing for the first time since 1996 film Tai Chi Boxer.
The film has been shown in both 2D and 3D, and was promoted as the first Chinese 3-D film
. It was considered one of the biggest box office failures of the year, making only RMB 46.5 million (US$6.82 million) against an estimated budget of US$20 million. It was released in the U.S. on May 13, 2011 by the distribution company Indomina, where it grossed US$62,200 during its run.
Five years later, Su and his wife Ying (Yuan's sister) have a child, Feng. Su's father informs them that Yuan is returning from the military to be a governor. He warns Su that Yuan may not have come back simply to reconcile with family but to seek revenge. This is because years ago, Su's father killed Yuan's father when the latter went too far in learning a evil martial arts technique called the Five Venom Fists. Su's father then took Yuan in, but he harbours concern that Yuan is still vengeful. Su is naive and assures his father that everything will be alright.
When Yuan returns, a homecoming party is held. Yuan greets his sister Ying, Feng, and Su's father. Su's father knows what is impending and asks Yuan to take his revenge on him alone, sparing Su and his family. Using his mastery of the Five Venom Fists, Yuan kills Su's father and decapitates him. He expresses his desire to be with his sister (Ying) and her son Feng as a family. When Su hears the news of his father's murder, he rushes to the scene of his father's death and is attacked by the Iron Twins. He chases them to a rapid where Yuan is offering Su's father's head to his real father as a symbol of revenge taken. A battle ensues between Yuan and Su. Yuan has a dark armour sewn into his body, making him partially invulnerable to blades. Using his Five Venom Fists, Yuan deals a deadly poisonous blow to Su who is defeated. Feng begs for Su's life and Yuan spares him but throws him into the rapids. Ying jumps into the rapid to save Su and Yuan is heartbroken at the loss of his beloved sister. He takes Feng in as his only family.
Ying awakes in forest area and tries to bring her husband to civilization and safety. They are found by a herb researcher and wine maker, Sister Yu, who treats Su's wounds. Su comes to consciousness but is broken to find his right arm severely weakened with all tendons torn. At first, he is desperate and turns to drinking, but with Ying's support, he focuses on training in order to save Feng. He meets Wu Shu God and an old sage and asks to be their disciple. At a sacred site, he trains with the Wu Shu God for years, always trying to defeat him but never able to. Later, by checking Su's pulse, Dr. Du reveals to Ying that Su is going mad and that there is probably no Wu Shu God or Old Sage since she is the only one living in the area. Ying follows Su into the forest one day and finds him fighting (seemingly) with himself, oblivious to the fact that he is only battling with the Wu Shu God in his mind. Ying pleads with Su to come to his senses but he does not believe her. By the time Su realizes the truth, it is too late. Ying has left to try to save Feng by herself.
At Yuan's palace, Ying is now a captive of Yuan. Su arrives shortly after and fights his way through the guards. He also battles the Iron Twins and with his improved skills, impales both on a satay, a saber like spear. Yuan orders his men to bury Ying alive in a box and then kills the men who buried her so that only he knows her location. A crazed Su battles with Yuan in his training chamber and ultimately defeats him, even gnashing though a poisonous snake in the process. Feng screams that Yuan must not die because only he knows Ying's location, but a maddened Su delivers a fatal blow to Yuan's throat, thus executing him in anger. Realizing the words of Feng, he rushes out and a dying soldier reveals the vague location of Ying. Su and Feng rush to search for her but manage to dig her out too late. Ying dies from lack of air.
The era changes from the dynastic to the colonized. Su has lost his mind after the loss of his wife and the previous delusions he had. A homeless Feng leads his father through the streets by rope and takes care of him. A Kung Fu master is killed in a fighting arena - part of a foreigners' club - leaving Su's old friend, Ma, as leader of the Wu Shu Federation. The arena is a stage below which tigers lurk freely, waiting for any unfortunate fighter to drop below.
In the meantime, Su goes into an inn and creates trouble by stealing wine and countering people bent on stopping him with martial art moves. He then meets a fellow drunkard who spars with him and gives him a few philosophical tips. The two of them start using Drunken Fighting (Zui Quan) techniques, and Su regains his sanity. The inn lady calls Ma to deal with Su and Ma recognizes Su. They have a talk and Ma gives Su back his sword. Su asks Ma to take care of Feng since he is unfit to be a father but Feng persists, staying with his father instead.
The next day, Su and Feng show up to support Ma in his arena battle. Su goes about drinking in the club's bar area, oblivious to Ma receiving a serious beating in the ring. When Feng tries to save Ma from being killed, the opposing wrestler grabs Feng and holds him in the air. Feng screams for help from his father. His son's cries awake Su from his drunken state and Su rushes into the arena. As Ma and Feng are being taken out of the arena by bystanders, Su battles and defeats the wrestler. Anthony, owner of a wrestling stable, orders his lot to pour into the arena, resulting in a mismatch of three wrestlers to one (Su). Using the drunken martial arts technique learned from his fellow drunkard in the inn, Su's defeats the fighters although he is heavily injured. At the end of the battle, the other fighters are either dead or unconscious, and only after a vision of Ying and the dramatic cries of Feng in an otherwise silenced arena, does a semi-conscious Su manage to stand up. He is declared the winner.
The film ends with a seemingly restored Su practising his moves of old but with long hair reminiscent of the insane period of his life, with Feng observing. Su has seemingly found his passion.
True Legend began shooting in the mountain region in a suburb of Beijing on August 28, 2008 that was quite low-key. Filming wrapped up in late January, 2009. The set of the scene in which Su Can saves the Imperial Prince / General broke an all time record for the largest set ever built inside a Chinese filming studio. The filming period of this film took five months to complete. While still in pre-production, Yuen Woo Ping and some of his workers took more than four months to scout for possible filming locations. They finally chose Yellow Mountain, Hukou Waterfall of the Yellow River and the traditional Anhui hui-style residences. Yuen Woo Ping preferred to shoot their original structure rather than building it in sound stages, which may look fake.
The scene in which Andy On and Vincent Zhao fights at Hukou Waterfall is said to be the hardest fight scene to shoot in the entire film according to Yuen Woo Ping. Yuen Woo Ping stated,
"The safety issue for that scene was the biggest challenge of the whole movie. The landscape looks magnificent but are very dangerous; there was no chance for us to make any mistakes. We meticulously planned out the whole choreography and tested and rehearsed it for many times before rolling the camera. We also double-wired our talent just to make sure they were completely safe. This fighting sequence took us 15 working days to complete."
The films action choreography has been praised and ridiculed with some saying that the action choreography is unmemorable. Despite this Yuen has explained that he doesn't wish to create too fanciful action sequences and explains that "if it's too fanciful than the audience won't be able to see the moves all that clearly." Instead he wants to create a mixture of traditional and modern form of martial arts thus the action scenes in which Beggar Su uses his Drunken Fist, he did a lot of modern time break dancing.
When asked why isn't the movie in full 3-D but is only nearly 20 minutes in 3-D. Yuen explained that making a 3-D film is very expensive and takes a lot of human resources. Yuen added that he hired up to one hundred digital artists in order to convert the two action scenes that he thought were the most important in the movie to be converted into 3-D. It took up to nine entire months just to convert these two fight scenes into 3-D. Despite his efforts, a number of countries who bought the movies distribution rights didn't release the movie in 3-D because workers in movie theaters would have to tell the audiences when they should put on their 3-D glasses and take it off as there are scenes in between the 3-D scenes that are in 2-D.
in Europe in Region 2
.
Martial arts film
Martial arts film is a film genre. A sub-genre of the action film, martial arts films contain numerous fights between characters, usually as the films' primary appeal and entertainment value, and often as a method of storytelling and character expression and development. Martial arts are frequently...
directed by Yuen Woo-ping
Yuen Woo-ping
Yuen Woo-ping is a Chinese martial arts choreographer and film director, renowned as one of the most successful and influential figures in the world of Hong Kong action cinema. He is one of the inductees on the Avenue of Stars in Hong Kong...
, starring Vincent Zhao
Vincent Zhao
Vincent Zhao Wenzhuo , sometimes credited as Chiu Man-cheuk, is a Chinese actor and martial artist. Zhao is best known playing the role of Chinese folk hero Wong Fei-hung in the Once Upon a Time in China film and television series.-Early life:Zhao was born in Harbin, Heilongjiang, China, as the...
, Zhou Xun
Zhou Xun
Zhou Xun is a Chinese actress and singer. She is regarded as one of the "Four Young Dan actresses" in China in the early 2000s, along with Zhang Ziyi, Xu Jinglei and Zhao Wei.-Early life:...
, Jay Chou
Jay Chou
Jay Chou is a Taiwanese musician, singer-songwriter, music and film producer, actor and director who has won the World Music Award four times. In 1998 he was discovered in a talent contest where he displayed his piano and song-writing skills. Over the next two years, he was hired to compose for...
, Michelle Yeoh
Michelle Yeoh
Michelle Yeoh Choo-Kheng is a Hong Kong-based Malaysian Chinese actress, well known for performing her own stunts in the action films that brought her to fame in the early 1990s....
, Andy On
Andy On
Andy On Chi-kit is a Chinese American actor and martial artist.-Biography:On was born on 11 May 1977, in Providence, Rhode Island. As a native to the USA, Andy On can speak English, Mandarin and Cantonese...
, David Carradine
David Carradine
David Carradine was an American actor and martial artist, best known for his role as a warrior monk, Kwai Chang Caine, in the 1970s television series, Kung Fu, which later had a 1990s sequel series, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues...
, Guo Xiaodong, Feng Xiaogang
Feng Xiaogang
Feng Xiaogang , in is a Chinese film director. He is famous in China as being perhaps the most successful "commercialized" filmmaker whose comedy films do consistently well in the box office, although Feng has attempted to break out from that mold by making drama or period drama films...
, Cung Le
Cung Le
Cung Le is a Vietnamese-American Sanshou kickboxer, mixed martial artist, and actor from Saigon, Vietnam currently competing in the UFC. He is the former IKF Light Heavyweight San Shou World Champion and has a professional San Shou record of 16-0 before moving to mixed martial arts...
, Gordon Liu
Gordon Liu
Gordon Liu is a Chinese martial arts film actor. He became famous for playing the lead in The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and its sequels...
, Bryan Leung and Jacky Heung
Jacky Heung
Jacky Heung Cho is a Hong Kong actor. He is the son of film producer/presenter Charles Heung, and the nephew of Jimmy Heung.-Filmography:-External links:*...
.
Martial arts choreographer Yuen Woo-ping, returns to film directing for the first time since 1996 film Tai Chi Boxer.
The film has been shown in both 2D and 3D, and was promoted as the first Chinese 3-D film
3-D film
A 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
. It was considered one of the biggest box office failures of the year, making only RMB 46.5 million (US$6.82 million) against an estimated budget of US$20 million. It was released in the U.S. on May 13, 2011 by the distribution company Indomina, where it grossed US$62,200 during its run.
Plot
Su Can is a general who leads a military force to save a prince from a large fortress of enemies in the mountains. In return, the prince promises that the Emperor will make him governor of Hu Bei. Su's step brother Yuan is envious of Su, but Su loves him and asks the prince to make Yuan governor instead. Su wants to leave the military and lead a life pursuing the perfection of Wu Shu, eventually in the hopes of starting his school and teaching his skills. Su gives his great prestigious sword to a comrade Ma, then tells Yuan of his plans. Yuan expresses that he is always in Su's shadow but accepts the governorship. Early next morning, Su leaves on a horse.Five years later, Su and his wife Ying (Yuan's sister) have a child, Feng. Su's father informs them that Yuan is returning from the military to be a governor. He warns Su that Yuan may not have come back simply to reconcile with family but to seek revenge. This is because years ago, Su's father killed Yuan's father when the latter went too far in learning a evil martial arts technique called the Five Venom Fists. Su's father then took Yuan in, but he harbours concern that Yuan is still vengeful. Su is naive and assures his father that everything will be alright.
When Yuan returns, a homecoming party is held. Yuan greets his sister Ying, Feng, and Su's father. Su's father knows what is impending and asks Yuan to take his revenge on him alone, sparing Su and his family. Using his mastery of the Five Venom Fists, Yuan kills Su's father and decapitates him. He expresses his desire to be with his sister (Ying) and her son Feng as a family. When Su hears the news of his father's murder, he rushes to the scene of his father's death and is attacked by the Iron Twins. He chases them to a rapid where Yuan is offering Su's father's head to his real father as a symbol of revenge taken. A battle ensues between Yuan and Su. Yuan has a dark armour sewn into his body, making him partially invulnerable to blades. Using his Five Venom Fists, Yuan deals a deadly poisonous blow to Su who is defeated. Feng begs for Su's life and Yuan spares him but throws him into the rapids. Ying jumps into the rapid to save Su and Yuan is heartbroken at the loss of his beloved sister. He takes Feng in as his only family.
Ying awakes in forest area and tries to bring her husband to civilization and safety. They are found by a herb researcher and wine maker, Sister Yu, who treats Su's wounds. Su comes to consciousness but is broken to find his right arm severely weakened with all tendons torn. At first, he is desperate and turns to drinking, but with Ying's support, he focuses on training in order to save Feng. He meets Wu Shu God and an old sage and asks to be their disciple. At a sacred site, he trains with the Wu Shu God for years, always trying to defeat him but never able to. Later, by checking Su's pulse, Dr. Du reveals to Ying that Su is going mad and that there is probably no Wu Shu God or Old Sage since she is the only one living in the area. Ying follows Su into the forest one day and finds him fighting (seemingly) with himself, oblivious to the fact that he is only battling with the Wu Shu God in his mind. Ying pleads with Su to come to his senses but he does not believe her. By the time Su realizes the truth, it is too late. Ying has left to try to save Feng by herself.
At Yuan's palace, Ying is now a captive of Yuan. Su arrives shortly after and fights his way through the guards. He also battles the Iron Twins and with his improved skills, impales both on a satay, a saber like spear. Yuan orders his men to bury Ying alive in a box and then kills the men who buried her so that only he knows her location. A crazed Su battles with Yuan in his training chamber and ultimately defeats him, even gnashing though a poisonous snake in the process. Feng screams that Yuan must not die because only he knows Ying's location, but a maddened Su delivers a fatal blow to Yuan's throat, thus executing him in anger. Realizing the words of Feng, he rushes out and a dying soldier reveals the vague location of Ying. Su and Feng rush to search for her but manage to dig her out too late. Ying dies from lack of air.
The era changes from the dynastic to the colonized. Su has lost his mind after the loss of his wife and the previous delusions he had. A homeless Feng leads his father through the streets by rope and takes care of him. A Kung Fu master is killed in a fighting arena - part of a foreigners' club - leaving Su's old friend, Ma, as leader of the Wu Shu Federation. The arena is a stage below which tigers lurk freely, waiting for any unfortunate fighter to drop below.
In the meantime, Su goes into an inn and creates trouble by stealing wine and countering people bent on stopping him with martial art moves. He then meets a fellow drunkard who spars with him and gives him a few philosophical tips. The two of them start using Drunken Fighting (Zui Quan) techniques, and Su regains his sanity. The inn lady calls Ma to deal with Su and Ma recognizes Su. They have a talk and Ma gives Su back his sword. Su asks Ma to take care of Feng since he is unfit to be a father but Feng persists, staying with his father instead.
The next day, Su and Feng show up to support Ma in his arena battle. Su goes about drinking in the club's bar area, oblivious to Ma receiving a serious beating in the ring. When Feng tries to save Ma from being killed, the opposing wrestler grabs Feng and holds him in the air. Feng screams for help from his father. His son's cries awake Su from his drunken state and Su rushes into the arena. As Ma and Feng are being taken out of the arena by bystanders, Su battles and defeats the wrestler. Anthony, owner of a wrestling stable, orders his lot to pour into the arena, resulting in a mismatch of three wrestlers to one (Su). Using the drunken martial arts technique learned from his fellow drunkard in the inn, Su's defeats the fighters although he is heavily injured. At the end of the battle, the other fighters are either dead or unconscious, and only after a vision of Ying and the dramatic cries of Feng in an otherwise silenced arena, does a semi-conscious Su manage to stand up. He is declared the winner.
The film ends with a seemingly restored Su practising his moves of old but with long hair reminiscent of the insane period of his life, with Feng observing. Su has seemingly found his passion.
Cast
- Vincent ZhaoVincent ZhaoVincent Zhao Wenzhuo , sometimes credited as Chiu Man-cheuk, is a Chinese actor and martial artist. Zhao is best known playing the role of Chinese folk hero Wong Fei-hung in the Once Upon a Time in China film and television series.-Early life:Zhao was born in Harbin, Heilongjiang, China, as the...
as Su Can / Beggar So - Zhou XunZhou XunZhou Xun is a Chinese actress and singer. She is regarded as one of the "Four Young Dan actresses" in China in the early 2000s, along with Zhang Ziyi, Xu Jinglei and Zhao Wei.-Early life:...
as Xiao Ying - Jay ChouJay ChouJay Chou is a Taiwanese musician, singer-songwriter, music and film producer, actor and director who has won the World Music Award four times. In 1998 he was discovered in a talent contest where he displayed his piano and song-writing skills. Over the next two years, he was hired to compose for...
as God of Wushu / Drunken God - Michelle YeohMichelle YeohMichelle Yeoh Choo-Kheng is a Hong Kong-based Malaysian Chinese actress, well known for performing her own stunts in the action films that brought her to fame in the early 1990s....
as Sister Yu / Yu Shu Lien - Andy OnAndy OnAndy On Chi-kit is a Chinese American actor and martial artist.-Biography:On was born on 11 May 1977, in Providence, Rhode Island. As a native to the USA, Andy On can speak English, Mandarin and Cantonese...
as Yuan Lie - David CarradineDavid CarradineDavid Carradine was an American actor and martial artist, best known for his role as a warrior monk, Kwai Chang Caine, in the 1970s television series, Kung Fu, which later had a 1990s sequel series, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues...
as Anton - Guo Xiaodong as Colonel Ma
- Feng XiaogangFeng XiaogangFeng Xiaogang , in is a Chinese film director. He is famous in China as being perhaps the most successful "commercialized" filmmaker whose comedy films do consistently well in the box office, although Feng has attempted to break out from that mold by making drama or period drama films...
as Pick pocket - Cung LeCung LeCung Le is a Vietnamese-American Sanshou kickboxer, mixed martial artist, and actor from Saigon, Vietnam currently competing in the UFC. He is the former IKF Light Heavyweight San Shou World Champion and has a professional San Shou record of 16-0 before moving to mixed martial arts...
as Militia Leader - Gordon LiuGordon LiuGordon Liu is a Chinese martial arts film actor. He became famous for playing the lead in The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and its sequels...
as Old Sage - Bryan Leung as Su Wan-kun
- Jacky HeungJacky HeungJacky Heung Cho is a Hong Kong actor. He is the son of film producer/presenter Charles Heung, and the nephew of Jimmy Heung.-Filmography:-External links:*...
as Imperial Prince / General - Yan Ni as Bar Owner
- Will LiuWill LiuWill Liu is a Taiwanese singer and composer. He is well known for his album "Caihong Tiantang" and is known as good friends with Taiwanese artists Jay Chou and Show Luo....
as Iron Lad - Jiang Luxia as Iron Maiden
- Li Zo as Little Feng (age 5)
- Suen Hanwen as Little Feng (age 8)
- Conan Stevens as Malotoff
- Jon HeidenreichJon HeidenreichJon Heidenreich is an American professional wrestler, better known simply as Heidenreich. He is best known for his tenure with World Wrestling Entertainment, where he was a one time WWE Tag Team Champion with Road Warrior Animal as a part of the Road Warriors.-Early career:Prior to professional...
as Fighter - Sylvester TerkaySylvester TerkaySylvester Terkay is an American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist best known for his run in World Wrestling Entertainment ....
as Elder Scot Brother - Matt Weise as Younger Scot Brother
- Dominique Vandenberg as Bald One Eye
Production
When Yuen Woo Ping was given the script by producer Bill Kong. Bill Kong reportedly recommended Vincent Zhao for the role of Beggar Su. Saying that Zhao has been doing television dramas in recent years and should act more in movies. Yuen Woo Ping after looking through some of Zhao's old works decided to choose choose him for the lead role. In order to prepare for the role Zhao had to lose up to nine kilograms worth of weight as he explains "Beggar Su can't be too plump." Zhao also had to take up to 2 months worth of break dancing classes due to the fact Yuen wanted to have a more rhythmic and modern form of the drunken fist. Yuen originally wanted actor Feng Xiaogang to play the role of Old Sage but due to schedule conflicts Feng had to turn the role down and was given the chance to direct his own scene in the movie where he appears as a Pickpocket. Despite this Yuen and the producers thought that the scene wasn't needed in the movie and the scene was deleted instead.True Legend began shooting in the mountain region in a suburb of Beijing on August 28, 2008 that was quite low-key. Filming wrapped up in late January, 2009. The set of the scene in which Su Can saves the Imperial Prince / General broke an all time record for the largest set ever built inside a Chinese filming studio. The filming period of this film took five months to complete. While still in pre-production, Yuen Woo Ping and some of his workers took more than four months to scout for possible filming locations. They finally chose Yellow Mountain, Hukou Waterfall of the Yellow River and the traditional Anhui hui-style residences. Yuen Woo Ping preferred to shoot their original structure rather than building it in sound stages, which may look fake.
The scene in which Andy On and Vincent Zhao fights at Hukou Waterfall is said to be the hardest fight scene to shoot in the entire film according to Yuen Woo Ping. Yuen Woo Ping stated,
"The safety issue for that scene was the biggest challenge of the whole movie. The landscape looks magnificent but are very dangerous; there was no chance for us to make any mistakes. We meticulously planned out the whole choreography and tested and rehearsed it for many times before rolling the camera. We also double-wired our talent just to make sure they were completely safe. This fighting sequence took us 15 working days to complete."
The films action choreography has been praised and ridiculed with some saying that the action choreography is unmemorable. Despite this Yuen has explained that he doesn't wish to create too fanciful action sequences and explains that "if it's too fanciful than the audience won't be able to see the moves all that clearly." Instead he wants to create a mixture of traditional and modern form of martial arts thus the action scenes in which Beggar Su uses his Drunken Fist, he did a lot of modern time break dancing.
When asked why isn't the movie in full 3-D but is only nearly 20 minutes in 3-D. Yuen explained that making a 3-D film is very expensive and takes a lot of human resources. Yuen added that he hired up to one hundred digital artists in order to convert the two action scenes that he thought were the most important in the movie to be converted into 3-D. It took up to nine entire months just to convert these two fight scenes into 3-D. Despite his efforts, a number of countries who bought the movies distribution rights didn't release the movie in 3-D because workers in movie theaters would have to tell the audiences when they should put on their 3-D glasses and take it off as there are scenes in between the 3-D scenes that are in 2-D.
DVD release
On October 25, 2010, DVD was released in Optimum Home EntertainmentOptimum Releasing
StudioCanal UK is a film distributor company working in the UK and Ireland. The company releases many films, including foreign language films, anime releases such as Studio Ghibli's films and independent British, Irish and American films in the UK and sometimes Ireland.Optimum was acquired by...
in Europe in Region 2
DVD region code
DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...
.
External links
- True Legend Trailer
- http://www.inbaseline.com/project.aspx?project_id=199274
- http://www.conanstevens.com/acting-movies-tv-film/tall-actor-blog/true-legend.html