"True Legend" ("Su Qu-Er") was actually a nice surprise. I had been putting watching it off for some time now, but that turned out to be a mistake on my side.
The story in "True Legend" is about Su Can (played by Wenzhuo Zhao) who serves as a general, but leaves his army life behind to open up a martial arts school. His adopted brother Yuan Lie (played by Andy On), envious and always standing in the shadow of Su Can, end up killing their father and taking Su Can's son captive. Su Can and his wife Yuan Ying (played by Xun Zhou) end up at a secluded mountain, where they live with Dr. Yu (played by Michelle Yeoh) while Su Can is struggling to regain his fighting abilities and battle for his mind. Tensions are high and the stakes even higher, as the two brothers end up face to face.
Actually the story was rather interesting, although the movie had a tendency of lingering on certain parts a bit too much, where it ended up being somewhat of a drag to watch; especially on the mountain training scenes and the tavern epiphany scene.
What really impressed me about this movie was the sword fighting scenes and the martial arts scenes. They were amazing to look at. Very well choreographed and executed. Given this being a Mandarin martial arts movie, expect a lot of wire action in the movie. Personally, I don't mind that, but of course that is a matter of preference.
And as with most other epic Chinese movies in the same genre, there is a lot of really breathtakingly beautiful scenery to be seen in this movie. Lots of nice details everywhere.
"True Legend" is a great epic movie that hold elements from movies such as "Hero", "Ong Bak" and the like. It works very well when combined, and there is a lot of action from start to end.
If you enjoy Asian movies, especially the epic ones with lots of sword fights and martial arts, then it is very likely that you will enjoy "True Legend" as much as I did.
