Chinese movies of this type are very appealing. This one fits in with the likes of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (this worlds best movie), "House Of Flying Daggers" and "Hero". It doesn't quite achieve the same level of greatness, but is surely in the same spirit.So the story is touching, and in a way that these movies do better than any other. It's not quite developed enough though. In fact, it feels like the fight-scenes had priority over the story. Had the priority (between story and fight-scenes) been shifted the other way around, I think this movie might have been top-league.When you've seen blood splatter out the mouth of some poor kungfu-blasted victim for the umpteenth time it gets to be a bit of a cliché. The fight-scenes weren't badly done, there was just way too much of it.The movie feels a bit rushed, like there perhaps wasn't enough time to finish it properly. A bit like "hurry up, we haven't got all day, just wrap it up as it is and hope nobody will notice the slack", and "don't worry if it's half-finished, we'll just throw in another fight-scene and call it a day". That detracted quite a bit. I wouldn't go so far as to say it had the Hollywood mass-production feel to it, but neither did it achieve the true-art feeling that the 3 master-pieces I mention at the top has.Still, it is a moving film that did indeed manage to pull on the heart-strings. But it just could have been better.

Americans have grown accustomed to a certain kind of Chinese martial arts film. Ever since Crouching Tiger, the Chinese MA film has gotten more attention beyond whatever Hollywood effort is churned out to force a Jet Li or Jackie Chan sub-par effort on American audiences. Crouching Tiger was followed by films like House of Flying Daggers and Hero, while those with bigger interests in the subject certainly sought out more films that most Americans might not know.True Legend seems to pick up on this. Yuen Wo Ping, who is no stranger to Hollywood martial arts films, having dabbled his hand in a number of Hollywood efforts, seems to have taken some of what he's done for American audiences and applied it to this film. He has, after all, been attached to several big U.S. productions, most notably Kill Bill and The Matrix series of films. These and other notable Chinese MA films, which saw American audiences, between True Legend and his last directorial effort, Tai Chi Boxer (1996). So, it may not be surprising that he's incorporated some more Western friendly elements. That may be far reaching, but True Legend is certainly no traditional Martial Arts film.For Chinese MA fans, this is a mixed bag. It starts out with several powerful action sequences, the most notable being the opening rescue scene. Sadly, this is Ping putting his best foot forward and the film never truly rises above it in terms of impressive action. That doesn't mean the film doesn't contain some other outstanding scenes that, at least, left me with a few 'oh snap' moments. And the combination of fantasy elements that you might see in older films, like the 5 Venom Fist style MA, and more modern concepts, like mixing break dancing with drunken fist boxing, give the film it's own identity. Sadly, this creates a bit of an identity crises. We're given a historical context for the film, and the story presents itself similarly to Fearless, another MA biopic, but the film isn't grounded in reality and some strange turns are taken, those most notable being main character Su's encounter with The Wushu God. It's a bizarre, CGI heavy intermission between the more grounded first and final acts. But the entire tone of the film seems to be a mix of the two: the more traditional Chinese MA film and the modern, special effects and wire laden Chinese MA film, the kind that Western audiences might be more accustomed to. And reading about the production of the film, you can certainly see that Ping did want to go beyond the traditional film to create something more modern.Despite this seemingly jumbled style, the film is full of Ping's mastery. Fantastic camera work, editing, and special effects add to the impressive set pieces and choreographed action sequences. Again, there are a ton of 'oh snap' moments, and in a MA film, that is a wonderful thing to have. The opening scene is an incredible display of talent, action, special effects, and choreography that will most likely go down as one of the great modern MA action scenes. There are plenty of other fantastic action sequences, and thankfully Ping knows how to shoot a proper action scene as opposed to so many other directors who think all the action has to be confusing and up close, and all the editors who think that it requires cuts by the second. This film reaffirms that, even after all these years, Ping can still produce something that is entertaining and exciting, that he is still a master of the MA sequence.Whether you enjoy this film or not will depend entirely on how much you can enjoy the fairly odd mix of styles along with the inclusion of a fifth act to end the film. It does take a bit of a right turn with the final act, but it's none the less very entertaining, and includes a cameo (most likely our last glimpse) of David Carradine, who you might know worked with Ping on Kill Bill. However, I would recommend this film to any MA fan. It's unique blend of quirky style, fantastic action, and masterful filming technique all make up one entertaining Chinese MA.

There are some great things about this film, and some things that definitely detract from what is otherwise a really good action flick for those who enjoy the genre."True Legend" takes one good story, and then decides that one story is not enough. This is basically two films. One about revenge against a brother turned evil - another about a forgotten warrior who becomes a drunken master.Both could have held up better on their own. Their combination gives us some of the films only weaknesses... it's disjointed, and overlong.The action sequences are pretty spectacular, and my only gripe is some unnecessary overuse of cgi.The film has some other ideas that are fantastic. An enemy with sewn in body armor(super cool), and the whole learning from amazing/classic kung fu masters that don't really exist. The scenes that featured those two elements are by far the strongest scenes in the film.It almost seemed as if the movie jumped from the first storyline to the second without filling in the middle of the story. While this would have made the film even longer - it would have made the film less disjointed.Don't get me wrong - this is an action blast for those in search of just that. The real crime here is that this film obviously had tons of resources to become the truly epic film that it wanted to be, but isn't.That said, I could watch this thing over and over again for kick-butt action value alone.If you like to nitpick - you'll hate it. If you just like some kick-butt kung fu - you'll love it. I'll eventually own this... but for the same type of reasons I own the movie ,"300".

This is one of those Kung-Fu movie where the plot isn't all that effective, but the fighting sequences makes up for it. From what I heard this is a Chinese folklore tale style of story and the direction and many different sequences make it seem like it. The fighting sequences makes the characters seem superhuman which is typical for these types of genre in china, but doesn't go all that overboard with it in most scenes although still not believable at all. It does feature typical special fighting moves in this such as the Five Venom Fists. I found it kinda funny however how you can tell who the good guys are and who the villains are right off the bat because of the way they look. It just seemed a bit too generic for example with the dark spiky clothes and pale skin. Despite the plot not being all that great and the pacing a bit off, the fight sequences are top notch in this and very entertaining to watch. The fight choreography is very well crafted in this and will make a lot of the audiences have there eyes glued to the screen. Yes, there is use of CGI in this but it isn't used way too much to the point it gets irritating to watch in this type of movies. On a negative note, this movie goes in a direction where it tries a bit too hard to look epic. Especially when it comes to the plot, it doesn't have to be slightly convoluted cause when it comes down to it, it's a simple story. But it tries to make it seem more than what it is, maybe because the plot is a bit too narrow, which isn't a good thing. Because it throws the good pacing off of the whole progression of the film. Also like some of the reviewers are saying the bit of incest is kinda awkward in this because the characters just seem to be fine with it. Anyways overall this is a good martial arts flick where there is hardly a dull moment and any fan of this type of genre should check it out. Like I said the plot isn't anything outstanding, but I am giving this movie a 6.5 because the entertainment value of it all is pretty darn high.6.5/10