Known to western audiences as the action choreographer genius behind the Matrix fight scenes, Yuen Woo Ping has actually directred a number of films in China. After twelve years of collaborating with other directors to make their chop socky dreams come true, Yuen returns to the director’s chair with True Legend. True Legend is actually his third interpretation of the exploits of Beggar Su. In 1993, Yuen’s Heroes Among Heroes (Fist of the Red Dragon) starred Donnie Yen as Beggar Su and followed his younger years. Yuen’s second Beggar Su film was released the same year as Gordon Chan’s King of Beggars in which Stephen Chow of Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle fame portrayed Beggar Su.

This time around, Yuen’s third version of Beggar Su follows his fall from grace as a group of conspirators ruin his reputation to his rise as a folk hero as the “King of Beggars.” Vincent Zhao stars as Beggar Su. I don’t recognize the name, but my Kung Fu cinema fandom isn’t as strong as it should be. I do recognize Gordon Liu and Michelle Yeoh which makes my pants crunchy all over. In fact, you can follow Michelle Yeoh’s blog for updates and photos from the set of True Legend. The film is set to release sometime in 2009. With Yuen Woo-Ping’s name attached to direct, I really think this has a good chance of being brought over here soon after release. He’s got a lot of friends in Hollywood and this sounds too good to miss!

[Via Kung Fu Cinema]

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 at 11:48 am and is filed under Movies, Chop Socky, Kung Fu Masterpiece Theater, Action, Crunchy Pants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.