Reviewed by: j.crawford Date: 05/18/2013 Summary: Great. True Legend may be Master Yuen's masterpiece; this retelling of the Beggar So story has just about everything a fan of wuxia could ask for and more. Yuen has cast pop star Jay Chou in his best role in a move to date, the God of Wushu. Production values are of the highest quality. Really, you have to see this film. Reviewer Score: 9

Reviewed by: bkasten Date: 08/29/2012 Summary: Technically masterful I went into this film a blank slate: I assumed nothing; I knew absolutely nothing about the film; I even skipped the opening credits so as to not have preconceived notion about any of the actors. I came away thoroughly impressed--on a number of counts. This is pretty much an old school period martial arts piece with modern choregraphy and CGI. The film opens with lots of good guys and bad guys fighting in some huge underground cave (replete with relatively-well-done but by-now-standard over-the-top CGI). Cut to good guy's family life. Bad guy now appears on the scene and beats up good guy. Good guy trains harder and returns to kill bad guy. In this case, however, a tragic plot twist occurs and for the last third of the film, the story takes the protagonist down the path of self enlightenment. The sheer eye candy: the length and sophisticated technicality of the fights sets a very high standard. Nonetheless, there is a screenplay here and it is executed well. The lead roles played by Vincent Zhao and Zhou Xun--who are generally considered b-grade actors (not always a bad thing)--turned in a flawless melodramatic performances. Even the usually lamentable male babyface stunt-prop Andy On managed his role as the comic-book-bad-guy very well. If there is a problem with the screenplay it is the odd duality thereof. The first two thirds of the film is tinged with fantasy/comic-book elements. The fights are somewhat supernatural (particularly on the part of the bad guy). The last third, however, everything becomes much more starkly real and the protagonist becomes a mere mortal...and there is a lack of plot elements and continuity to help explain this. It's almost as though two people wrote the screenplay. Does it matter? Not really...it still works and my suspension of disbelief was generally maintained throughout. The cameos by David Carradine, Leung Kar-Yan, Gordon Liu and Michelle Yeoh were nice--albeit mostly pointless to the story. I sure wish Michelle Yeoh would be a little more serious about acting in films more frequently. This film attempts to be nothing more than a technically masterful martial arts film with a solid story to hold it together. In that endeavor Yuen Woo-Ping and the actors succeeded with near perfection. --Not sure what Mssrs. Koch and Booth were on when they watched this film ;-) Reviewer Score: 9

Reviewed by: MrBooth Date: 12/02/2010 Yuen Wo-Ping returns to the director's chair after an extended absence to have a go at the post-FEARLESS big budget kung fu film, and it's not a bad effort. Zhao Wen-Zhao, Jet Li's eternal shadow, takes the lead role - didn't realise he was supposed to be the famous Beggar So until after the fact, possibly the untranslated Chinese text would have explained that if I understood it. Chances are the story has little grounding in fact or history anyway so it probably doesn't matter. Wo Ping has never had the skills of narrative and character development of directors like Ronnie Yu and Wilson Yip, so it's no surprise that these aspects aren't as well realised as in FEARLESS or IP MAN. ZWZ has never had the acting talent or charisma of Jet Li or latter day Donnie Yen, so it's no surprise he doesn't pull off the role as well as they do theirs - though he has improved a little with age. He's still quite impressive physically, too, and the action scenes are of the kind of high standard you'd expect of Yuen Wo Ping. Zhou Xun is as weird looking as ever, and out-acts the rest of the cast quite comprehensively. There are small roles for old school legends Michelle Yeoh, Leung Kar-Yan and Gordon Liu which is a nice treat for the fans, and hopefully helps them to pay their bills. Jay Chou has a bizarre but enjoyable role as the God of Wushu. The film is not great, but perfectly satisfying, up until the last 20-30 minutes. The main story arc is pretty much finished, then there's effectively an extended coda that feels unnecessary - except to bring it in line with the kind of Chinese nationalism expected in a post-FEARLESS kung fu film. At least nobody bleats on about the importance of unifying the nation, whatever the sacrifice - though there is plenty of "keep the family together at all costs" talk that could easily be read that way if you're so inclined (with the kid as a metaphorical Taiwan, no doubt). Worth a look, but more so for fans than casual movie goers I think. 6.5/10 Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: mrblue Date: 07/17/2010 True Legend falls prey to what is becoming much too common in recent Hong Kong and Mainland films: bad-looking CGI effects. In particular, the amount of time spent in front of greenscreens during the training scenes undermines what should be the real special effect people are looking at -- the performers. Thankfully, there isn't too much of an emphasis on wannabe big effects outside of these segments. Unfortunately, there is a terrible kid actor (who plays So's son) that permeates the whole movie whose screeching and whining may have you reaching for some Advil, a cold beer, or maybe (in this reviewer's case) both. In the end, though, True Legend is nothing earth-shattering, but fans of high-flying wire-fu will find a lot to enjoy here. It's a picture that will reassure the viewer that Yuen Woo-Ping still has the goods, and might just convince them that Zhao Wen-Zhuo is a possible breakout star in the martial arts film world. Note: the original theatrical version had a few scenes that were presented in 3-D. Most reviews reported that the effect was underwhelming to say the least. To date (July 2010) no home video version has been released that contains the 3-D footage. Reviewer Score: 7