True Legend (2010) screening at Museum of the Moving Image + Rock Steady Crew
September 19th, 2011 by Mr. C
Director: Yuen Woo Ping
Stars: Vincent Zhao, Zhou Xun, Jay Chou, Michelle Yeoh, Andy On, David Carradine, Gordon Liu, Cung Le
Genre: Qing dynasty period piece, kung fu action
True Legend was shown at the Museum of the Moving Image as part of the Fist and Sword programming hosted by Warrington Hudlin. Following the screening, Sifu Jose Figueroa, a Chen style Tai Chi specialist and Jo Jo Torres, one of the original founding members of the Rock Steady B-boy crew will discuss and demonstrate the dynamics of kung fu and breakdancing! Jose & Jo Jo have been childhood friends since elementary school while growing up in the Bronx. Why are they having a panel on b-boying and kung fu? Because this movie will put both of these elements on display! And because both of these art forms have been meshed together in urban areas since the kung fu craze & hip hop madness from the 1970’s!
As the Director & fight choreographer of True Legend, Yuen Woo Ping would deliver an old school vicious throwdown enhanced with technology accompanied by a simple plot: revenge, revenge, & more revenge! The drunken fist style would get a spotlight in this film to no-ones surprise along with a nice dosage of ground fighting inspired from the power moves of breakdancing! Yuen Woo Ping, if you didn’t know was responsible for cult favorites such as the Drunken Master, Drunken Tai Chi, Iron Monkey, Dance of the Drunk Mantis, Wing Chun, & the Tai Chi Master besides many, many modern HK martial art films! Woo Ping had an early vision of incorporating breakdance in his Fu movies with Donnie Yen in the 80’s like Mismatched Couples & Drunken Tai Chi. His father was the great Kung Fu film legend Simon Yuen who often specialized in drunken boxing playing the role of beggar So or Sam Seed aka Ol’ Dirty! All the old skool fans will know what I’m talking about!
The cast would reveal the ultimate who’s who list filled with old school, new school, every school, mixed martial artists, pop stars, & even contained the last performance by the late David Carradine before his untimely death. The lead character was played by the chinese wushu beast himself, Vincent Zhao (The Blade & Once Upon a Time in China) while being backed up with tremendous help from the kitchen including the capable Andy On and Jay Chou (Green Hornet). For the additional wow factor & for the salt over the shoulder effect, veterans David Carradine, Gordon Liu, & Michelle Yeoh would be the tie in for old school flavor! Even mixed martial artist, Cung Le was thrown into the True Legend wok to stir up the dragon’s flame! The fighting choreography was fast, furious, superhero like, and sometimes dreamy but the action still managed to come off as dark and gritty especially when the crazy Yuan destroyed anyone in his path with the 5 venoms fist style along with his stitched in body armour of steel to his flesh! This is one of those movies where the fight scenes probably dominated most of the screen time and thank god it did because it more than made up for the wack & lack of story! The setting of the movie takes place at the end of the Qing dynasty when General Su (Vincent Zhao) and his adopted brother, General Yuan (Andy On) barely get back to home base after a brutal battle. Su is praised by his leader and recommends to the emperor to promote him as governor for his brave mission. Yuan will rage on with deep disgust. However, General Su decides to retire from the cause to spend time with his wife and kid and concentrate on a life of martial arts while the brother heads back into the mayhem of the battlefield. When Yuan comes back from the war, he will unleash the beast with his deadly venom techniques! The first half of the film will concentrate on family dynamics and filial piety or lack thereof! Michelle Yeoh would make a cameo as a legendary healer from the mountains! The God of Wushu (Jay Chou) and the Sage (Gordon Liu) would play the role as the mysterious walk on water kung fu masters offering a beatdown in order to reach the next chow down! Is Su fighting for redemption or is he battling an inner demon? Su would eventually learn to develop some new techniques known as the drunken style while he encounters a drunk in a restaurant! Floor techniques from breakdancing would get thrown in the mix with drunken flare as windmills, freezes, and plenty of familiar down rock routines were used as a perfect weapon! The old Rock Steady Crew in attendance at the theater were hootin’ and hollerin’ when the familiar B-Boy moves were magnified on the screen! Head spinning and one armed freeze techniques was a sight to see from Beggar Su! It was definitely a fun sequence with solid choreography! The latter part of the film would segue into a fighting tournament with larger than life opponents in a win or die state of mind! General Ma, one of Su’s confidants from the militiary would find himself in this death match. Beggar Su and his son would stand by his side as his B-Boy backup ready to take battle on stage when called! The bottom line with True Legend is that if you are familiar with Yuen Woo Ping’s intricate fight choreography on his films in the past, you will surely appreciate the martial arts action being put forth in this project as well. Like I said earlier, the fight scenes dominate most of the screen time and just as well because the plot was nothing to write home about. The visuals were incredible, though! I’m not a huge fan of CGI but I felt in this case it really complimented the scenes in order to relay their super human abilities. I can only imagine the sensory overload if I actually saw True Legend in 3D! When the credits were rolling after the film, we all gave a nice applause in memory to David Carradine.
I can’t wait to purchase this film on Blu ray when it becomes available!
After the movie, sifu Jose Figueroa and Jo Jo Torres talked about their backgrounds and the influence of kung fu films with breakin’ and vice versa. Yuen Woo Ping would pay homage to the b-boys by implementing their culture into his films as early as the 1980’s with Mismatched Couples featuring Donnie Yen. He would do so again with True Legend!
This event ended with Jose, Jo Jo, and other O-G members of the 1st generation of the Rock Steady Crew forming a circle with the audience before they took the show to the floor! A nice steady mix of Jimmy Castor’s “It’s just begun” would light the fire for Jose as he swept the floor like he wanted to take down the crowd with drunken vengeance! I think Jo Jo Torres would of blew a load if “Apache” by the Incredible Bongo Band would of came on! Jo Jo did an amazing headspin as he cut up the floor like it was the 1970’s! The moves that father time has taken away was made up for by great energy and that B-Boy attitude! It was really fun to watch this old crew of masters from the Bronx get down!
Tags: hong kong, mr c, rock steady, yuen wo ping
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