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True Legend (2009)


AlbertV

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With True Legend's release date drawing nearer, more and more videos and stills from the film are surfacing. The gala premiere will be held in Beijing on January 31, possibly attended by some Hollywood personages. In addition, True Legend, as well as Little Big Soldier, will get a special screening at 60th Berlin International Film Festival in February.

The opening 10-minute battle scene, taking 21 days to shoot and involving 1000 extras and stuntmen, takes place in a huge cavernous stockade in a mountain. The stockade, covering 5km², built at a cost of 10m yuan in 3 months, is billed as the biggest indoor set in Asia. Cameras attached to mini-choppers were employed for for aerial shots.

The scene sees Manchu soldiers led by Zhao Wen Zhuo, Andy On and Guo Xuo Dong battling Cung Le and his henchmen, using over 200 different types of weapons, which are further enhanced and multiplied with special effects in post-production. When this scene was being filmed, director Oliver Stone, a friend of director Yuen Wo Ping, paid a visit to the set and interacted with various cast members, including Zhao Wen Zhuo, whom he found to be familiar.

The finale is set in Thousand-Snake Cavern that is filled with poisonous critters. As the shot was not well captured due to difficulties of shooting and handling the wirework inside the narrow well, another set of the well was built in Hong Kong after filming wrapped up and Andy On and Zhao Wen Zhuo were recalled for a rematch.

When choreographing the martial arts sequences, Yuen Wo Ping approaches Drunken Fist from a new angle. Apart from more modern elements, Yuen Wo Ping is discarding all fixed forms as well as the various fanciful names accompanying each of moves.

The action here will be more realistic, Beggar Su will fight based on instincts, delivering whatever blows that come to his mind, following his heart completely, how to hit, how to block, how to stand up and give the enemy a back thrust, all acting according to circumstances, no posing whatsoever.

Yuen Wo Ping speaks very highly of Zhao Wen, "His performance was excellent, for he has very good foundation in wushu. I told him to learn Drunken Fist, there were a couple of very demanding moves, he could perform it in front of the camera with ease after training for one month. I'm making the action more contemporary, using wushu and more modern elements like street-dancing to execute Drunken Fist.

"Apart from immense explosive energy, Zhao Wen Zhuo is very strong and has high level of endurance. The training duration was long, and there were many outtakes, but he could still take it. There were outtakes not because of Zhao Wen Zhuo, but his opponent, Andy On's action sense was a little weaker, resulting in outtakes as I was a little more demanding."

Still, Yuen Wo Ping says that Andy On is a very mindful and hardworking actor who could have performed better had his leg not been injured before shooting, and he was given a month of rest, his fist and kick were very powerful. Yuen Wo Ping also says that it was Jay Chou who designed his own [outlandish] costumes for the film.

On the lack of talent in the action film industry, Yuen Wo Ping regrets that there aren't any new martial arts directors, in particular, to take over the mantle, "No one is learning this in Hong Kong anymore, they feel that it is too tough, better focus on academic studies, don't learn other things, you can't earn a living with kungfu, and it's so arduous. The hope of the future lies in Mainland, for there are many talented wushu practitioners in Mainland, and their choreographies are very creative, have to recruit them, train them in creativity.

For example, Wu Jing, when I brought him into this industry, I purposely trained in a certain way, he said this was not good, so I changed, more or less like that. That was how Wu Jing, Donnie Yen were taught.

"In Mainland, I would get people to train them. When filming, every script is different, every action, situation is different, that is not something that can be imparted, it depends of your wisdom and creativity, I trained them to work on the set, I roughly relate the meanings to them, what kind of kungfu style, and let them get a hold of the feeling, this is how they were trained.

"There are a lot more talented individuals in Mainland than Hong Kong, so have to teach them some common knowledge on filmmaking, but for creativity, and groundwork, they have to be with you on the set. Give them chances, you do it, I watch, it's like a test, if you don't pass, get someone else. So, it's better to look for successors in Mainland; in Hong Kong, no one is learning this, without wushu background, it's very hard to train them."

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Looks like this will be a Taiji Master for a new age (albeit using drunken fist instead).

I think the one thing HK has lost is its innocent bonkersness!

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Well, I'm totally excited for this too. Beardy, Gordo, Michelle, Woo Ping, Zhao Wen Zhuo, Cung Le- even if it's awful (and I'm thinking not), I'll still get it. My only real fear is that it becomes too ponderous to watch more than once or twice.

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im so happy! This title looks sweet!! Good to see Zhao get a strong movie role with such a strong cast...and freakn Master Killa and Beardy!This is gonna be a good year for kung fu!

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I work in Chinatown in NY and I went to the DVD store under the Manhattan Bridge and they had "True Legend" region 6 with English subtitles. Even though I have an all region player I really didn't want to pick it up just yet. The lady said the Chinese subtitles play on top of the English ones together. Hopefully the English subtitles one will come out soon.

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Thought I'd mention that LoveHKFilm.com has a review up for True Legend. They say that there is a drastic change in tone in the third act which ruins the movie. It also mentions that the 3D effects which are used in portions of the film are "ultimately not that impressive, simply creating distance between the background and overly flat human figures in the foreground. For True Legend, regular 2D is the way to go."

But who cares... I'll still watch it at the theater and buy it on DVD, even if it is two years from now. Personally, I can't wait to see this.

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That's disappointing. I was looking forward to this the most out of the Bodyguards & Assassins, 14 Blades, True Legend late-2009/early-2010 HK trio.

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hope it's a better package than Bangkok Adrenaline was...a dull behind the scenes and shoddy looking non anamorphic trailer for Blu ray action films like T2, Rambo etc

PQ & AQ for the film was good though.

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