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 Back
in the days of New York yore there was a land teeming with all manner of
vice and depravity called Times Square; an area so sleazy and perilous
that those unarmed to the teeth were advised to stay away, day or
night. Due to rampant criminal activity, tourists only visited a Times
Square cinema as a test of courage. Besides pornography, one of the
most featured film genres played in Times Square venues was kung fu
films; on any given week, double features of Hong Kong action could be
experienced in all their dubbed glory as one dodged the rats and junkies
in the aisles. Since the Disney-fication of the area in the late 1980s,
audiences haven’t truly been able to experience the wonders of classic
tales of flying warriors, Shaolin monks and assorted Asian good guys
chopping, kicking, slicing and dicing on missions of righteousness,
loudly cheered on by a receptive (mostly conscious) audience.
Well, my dears, for one shining moment in a Times Square movie theatre,
those dingy, dangerous days of old were revived as an enthusiastic crowd
nearly as questionable as one from the pre-gentrified age gathered to
view a stunning mix of Old and New School kung fu in Yuen Woo-ping’s
True Legend.
A venerated warrior fighting for his king, all Su
wants to do after winning his last impossible battle is go home, marry
the girl of his dreams and settle down. Generously handing his
accolades and an appointment as governor to his foster brother, Yuan, Su
lives a life of domestic bliss until the day when his kindness push
kicks him in the backside. A decades-long grudge Yuan has held against
Su’s family is finally revealed. Yuan has learned a monstrous fighting
technique and sewn dark armor onto his very skin in his effort to
destroy all that his loving former brother holds dear and steals Su’s
only son. Su’s faithful wife, Ying, who is also Yuan‘s blood sister
follows her man into exile, nursing him back to health after Yuan’s Five
Venom Fists cripples one of Su’s arms. The pair hides away on a
mountain, helping a herbalist and part-time vintner. Su loves this job
a little too much and the once-honourable warrior becomes a bit of lush,
which might explain his seeing things that aren’t really there. In Su’s
case, these hallucinations would consist of a pair of deities that scoff
at Su’s squandered talent. Shamed into action, Su begins to train
against the untouchable God of Wushu, with musical accompaniment by the
bearded, jolly Old Sage. The training turns Su’s life around and Ying
is glad to see the change in him, but worries that all this improvement
might be the unhealthy result of being pent-up in the mountains with an
enormous jug of grain alcohol as a best mate. Doubts aside, Su finally
matches the skill of the Wushu god and returns to face Yuan and claim
his son. Unfortunately for Su, it’s not like old Irontats (- feel
free to sub that third vowel at any time) has been sitting around
playing tiddlywinks. Yuan has delved even further into the dark martial
arts and kung fu insanity has made him even more vicious. His battle
against Su has consequences on both sides, leaving Su and his son
adrift, wandering rudderless through Asia until Su must once again find
what is really important in life.
Here’s a movie that really should have been shown
in 3D. The spectacular fighting sequences that kick off practically
from the opening titles would have been unbearably mind-blowing if the
film was presented the same as it was in China. This is huge missed
opportunity. Martial arts cinema legend Yuen Woo-ping directs the
amazing kung fu action, using classical and newer mixed techniques.
There is the opening sequence where Su’s men infiltrate an enemy camp to
save their prince with sword and arrows flying everywhere. Su’s
multidimensional training sessions with the God of Wushu are gorgeous
and literally out of sight. A scene where Yuan and Su battle in a well,
trying to kill each other while keeping from hitting the snake-covered
bottom is unforgettable. Yuen moves the camera around in a more modern
(though not necessarily more effective) way, using both beautiful
natural landscapes and fantastical CGI worlds, while keeping the
time-tested, audience-approved wire-fu and puffs of dust that appear
when one enemy punches another.
Andy On is fabulous as the evil Yuan and I predict
will start a whole new trend in glamourous human mutilation. On’s
increasing greenness as he ingests more venom into his body isn’t nearly
as stunning as his model-gaunt cheekbones and snarling, bravura kung fu
moves. As Su’s faithful wife Ying, Zhao Xun is luminous as the quiet
tower of strength, determined to keep her family together at any cost.
As the God of Wushu, Jay Chou displays the star quality barely hinted at
in this year’s Green Hornet. In his long white wig, golden tiara and
regal bearing, one wonders if the film’s creators hadn’t had the
Japanese anime character, Sessho-maru from the Inu Yasha series in
mind? There are extended cameos of Michelle Yeoh as the mountain
herbalist and Gordon Liu as the cackling, mystical Old Sage and I wish
there had been more of both. I could have done with a lot less of the
ear-piercing screams of the kid playing Su’s son; a cry so shrill it
should have been used as a weapon. The late American star and martial
arts aficionado David Carradine makes one of his final appearances as a
Western fight promoter who’ll break his own rule book to ensure his
brawlers win against the Chinese; which leads me to another sad point.
True Legend’s truly tragic note is its last act.
Up until then, the story of Su’s fall and rise against the evil, insane
Yuan has the audience exhausted with its thrilling action and emotional
for Su and his family. It would have been right to end the film there,
even on a possibly melancholy note. Instead we are given a terrible,
tacked-on further adventure that reduces the great martial arts film
that we’ve been experiencing for the past hour to an also-ran that
copies any number of better movies, from Jet Li’s Fearless (from
2006, choreographed by Yuen Woo-ping) to Donnie Yen’s Ip Man (2008).
We watch Su climb back into an eighty-proof jug and get swept into a
staged fight with a bunch of very large, China-phobic foreigners.
Before that battle, we have a little of 1966’s Come Drink with Me -- and
thereby the café scene from 2000’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (choreographed
by Yuen) -- and a bunch of 1978’s seminal Drunken Master (directed
by Yuen), as Su is once again favoured by the fighting gods who
teach him to put his inebriation to good use. It’s all artless
regurgitation of better films and the plagiarism of the director’s own
work threatens to ruin every good thing that came before.
True Legend is absolutely worth seeing on big
screen with the noisiest, most into-it crowd you can find. It’s a
wonderful combination of the best of Old School kung fu cinema and new
techniques and technology. Pity that the film’s terrible, tacked-on
ending keeps True Legend from being truly legendary.
~ The Lady Miz Diva
May 13th, 2011
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