A second trailer for the upcoming kung fu action movie “True Legend” came out recently. This all-new trailer of the comeback film of famed kung fu director, Yuen Woo-ping, shows more action and the plot of the film. Yuen, who last directed “Tai ji quan” (“Tai Chi Boxer”) way back in 1996, is not only taking the helm of his first film after 14 years, he is also bringing back the Chinese kung fu style that was popularized by Jackie Chan in the 1978 movie, “Drunken Master”. The movie tries to explore the beginnings of the martial arts technique, the Drunken Fist.

The movie revolves around the adventures of Beggar Su, a Chinese martial arts folk hero. The cast of the movie is led by Vincent Zhao (“The Sino-Dutch War 1661” – 2001) who plays the role of Su Qi-er, a war hero in the late Qing era, who retires to live a quiet life with his wife and son. He is, however, attacked and seriously injured by his ruthless step-brother, Yuan (played by Andy On, “Black Mask 2: City of Masks” – 2002). Although Su and his wife are able to get away, their son is abducted by Yuan, who uses the Five Venom Fist, a dark martial arts technique. As he recuperates from his wounds, an enigmatic Bearded Man (played by Leung Kar-yan, “Seven Swordsman” – 2005) together with Lord Wushu (Jay Chou, “The Green Hornet” – 2010), his apprentice, helps Su sharpen his martial arts technique. While trying to rescue his son, Su’s wife is killed. Su becomes despondent and later turns into a beggar. But after his son is once again threatened, this time by Westerners, Su inadvertently develops the Drunken Fist martial arts style as he gathers all of his fighting skills.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The movie is set to be released in Asia on February 11.

Sources: kungfucinema.com and wikipedia

The end of December was pretty busy, judging from the action the Chinese box office saw. 2 very high profile films were released and each announced its arrival with unprecedented first day sales. The movie world was buzzing with the news of ‘The Storm Warriors’ and its record breaking first day debut sales. However, before the week was even over, Jay Chou’s new film The Treasure Hunter blew past the competition to take home the box office record for first day sales.

‘The Storm Warriors’ is the anticipated sequel to 1998’s ‘The Storm Riders’ which was based on the comic book Fung Wan. The second part of the series, (directed by the Pang Brothers) once again focuses on the exploits of Wind (Ekin Cheng) and Cloud (Aaron Kwok) this time against The wicked Lord Godless ( Simon Yam is that you, you busy man?) The film is described as a CGI wet dream, visually striking with a slick style if lacking in substance. (Read JapanCinema’s review here) The success of ‘The Storm Riders’ pretty much ensured a successful opening for the sequel, but few expected it to hit $5 million on the first day, which is just a phenomenal number for China.

‘The Treasure Hunter’ by contrast, stars golden boy Jay Chou.  Directed by Kevin Chu  (Kung Fu Drunk), the film is reminiscent of  adventure films like The Mummy. Qiao Fei (Chou) is a treasure hunter who is entrusted with a fabled map that leads to a lost city by his mentor. The protection of the map and the mentor’s daughter (Chling Lin) becomes his next quest.The film has garnered mixed reviews but that did not stop it from bulldozing the competition by making 7.83 MILLION RMB on its first day! It seems that not even the visual enticement that is a Pang Brothers film can steer away from the beautiful picture Jay Chou and supermodel Lin can make on screen. Could this be the start of a new golden age for film in China?

source: asianfanatics.net

Yuen Woo Ping in the directing seat and have to say im really looking forward to this movie coming out. The Movie includes Chui Man chuk, Vincent Zhao, Zhou Xun, Jay Chou, Michelle Yeoh, Andy On, and Guo Xiaodong and is currently set for a Feburary release date.

Synopsis:
(SPOILER WARNING) “At the end of the Qing Dynasty, war hero Su Can leads a spectacularly daring raid on enemy forces before retiring home from his military life to his beloved wife and their newborn son. Six years later, his vengeful step-brother Yuang returns from war unrecognizably consumed by Dark Martial Arts and armed with his Five Venom Fist, which he wields to severely injure Su as payback for a long and dark family history. Su and his wife barely escape with their lives, but their son is now held captive by an increasingly psychotic Yuang. Over many long and difficult months, Su recovers from his injuries and once again hones his craft with the help of a mysterious Bearded Man and his apprentice, Lord Wushu, a Golden Monk of unimaginable martial arts virtuosity. But even with this training, Su is unable to save his wife’s life when she single-handedly stakes out to find their son. Utterly broken by grief, Su soon wanders the streets as a drunken beggar with no will to live. It is only when his son is once again threatened, this time by imperial Westerners out to shame the Chinese people, that an inebriated Su summons all his fighting skills to save the day and unwittingly forges a new style of martial arts forever known as The Drunken Fist!”

Article taken from http://michelleyeoh.info/Movie/truelegend.html

Yuen Woo Ping also explains the difficultly for shooting some of the scenes for the film “Before the actual shooting, the action team had to rehearse extensively and check all wires and props with great care. Greater caution was called for during shooting, as it was indeed a matter of life and death. Even as we stood on the wooden platform we built, we felt a bit shaky due to the river raging past below us. And it was hard to imagine the courage needed for the crew who had to stay beneath the platform! During filming we accidentally dropped a dummy into the river, and it was dragged away by the current at once. There was simply no way to get it back, and suddenly we were reminded how dangerous the whole thing really was!”

Read the full piece at http://www.yuenwooping-truelegend.com/en/diary.php

The latest film of Taiwanese Actor and Singer Jay Chou is Treasure Hunter which will be released on December 2009. This will be his last movie to be released this year before is Hollywood film debut as Kato in “The Green Hornet” scheduled to be released by 2010. This Martial Arts Action-Adventure film is directed by Taiwanese Director Kevin Chu who also directed Jay Chou in last year’s Martial Arts-Comedy film “Kung-fu Dunk”.

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In this film, Jay stars as Ciao Fei, a brave young man who struggles to protect a buried treasure from ancient Chinese Dynasties by recovering a map of its whereabouts from an international crime organization called The Company. Ciao Fei was forced to give the map to the crime organization in exchange for the life of his mentor’s daughter Lan Ting (played by Lin Chi Ling). Now with an archaeologist with him, they race to get the map back and stop The Company from getting the treasure first.

Jay Chou’s career is now in full blast with this action-adventure flick that will surely be a hit in the whole Asian region making him an A-List actor in Asian Cinema.