True Legend

Rating: 7.4/10

Genre: Action

Overall value for money and time: 7.5/10

The story of Su Qi-Er, a decorated general and war hero who gave up being governor to lead a simple life with his family, and to open up a martial arts school. Years later, his once perfect life was ripped apart when his vengeful sworn brother returned as governor and took away everything from him; he killed his father, claimed Su Qi-Er's son as his own; and fatally damaged his right hand...

Returning to rescue his son, there was a twist of events which resulted in the birth of a new style of martial arts... The drunken fist.

That's the sypnosis, in a nutshell that is. The entire movie isn't quite your typical martial arts movie. First, it had story, well it had 2 main plots in fact. The first half focusing on the characters development and background of our male protagonist while the second half focused more on the development of the drunken fist. It was refreshing for me, it felt like I was watching 2 separate movies, True Legend 1 and True Legend 2. None of the main plots outlasted it's duration and kept me at the edge of my seat throughout.

Secondly, the main ingredient which makes every martial arts film... the action itself. Solid fighting scenes. Though one cannot help but compare this movie with previous martial arts film like Fearless and Ip Man, and true, the fighting scenes might not necessarily be on par... but I think it's all due to the essence of the stance itself. While fearless featured Jet Li in more stylistic stances, Ip Man featured Donnie Yuan in more forceful stances. Poor Vincent Zhao had to come behind the previous 2 martial arts artist just because his fighting stance wasn't that "cool".

Drunken fist is in itself a "lazy" fighting stance, and because of that, it might not necessarily appeal to most audience, because it lacks the force, the elegance, and the "coolness". Therefore, we can't fault True Legend's fighting scenes because of that... overall, all the actors excelled in bringing out their individual characters. Though personally, Jay Chou's presence as the God of Wushu and Drunken God seemed a little out of place.

*spoilers ahead* The part where Jay Chou appeared might seem a little too cheesy at first, but on reviewing the entire movie after watching it, I realised it still made sense. Because there was a scene in the movie which quoted something like, "There are 2 enemies, one external, and the other within yourself." Can't remember the exact quote but it made sense... because in the midst of the movie, it showed how Su Qi-Er was so "obsessed" with his martial arts that he had to first overcome the enemy within himself.

The movie started off strong, kept it going till the middle (end of first story) but dropped towards the end. What I didn't like about it is that it the ending scene felt like an imitation of Ip Man's. I shan't spoil the story for you any further, but overall, this movie isn't as bad as what most critiques claim. While it might not win the top spot of martial arts movies, it will definitely come within the top 10 of your list.