True Legend

Wenzhuo Zhao has just reduced a rebel province, but he turns down the chance to be the new governor, so he can marry Xun Zhou and open a martial arts school. Some time later, his foster brother, Andy On decides to beat Zhao to a pulp and take his nephew so he can keep him safe. The happy couple wind up on a mountain with Doctor Michelle Yeoh, and while he heals, has training episodes with Jay Chou, the God of Wushu. Eventually, there's a big fight with On, and Miss Zhou winds up dead.

It's supposed to be about the founder of the 'Drunken Fist' form of martial arts. If that sounds familiar to western audiences, that's because DRUNKEN MASTER was a breakout hit for Jacky Chan. The director of this film, Woo-Ping Yuen, had a small role in that film, and decided to make an utterly serious drama about it, with evil foreigners beating the tar out of Chinese, and jazz bands playing "Sweet Georgia Brown" sixty years before it was written. Chou appears to be having some fun in his dual roles -- the second is "Drunken God". Otherwise it's seemingly endless fantasy fighting and unhappiness.

There also something that annoys me about the Chinese fantasy films I've seen over the past couple of years: you can see the fact it is computer generated. Reality has a roughness that lends it verisimilitude, and the fantasy sequences wind up looking like cutscenes from a computer game.