Acclaimed director and action choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping, has finally returned with his kung fu epic ‘True Legend’.  The film, already a hit in Asia, is set to unleash itself upon international audiences on May 13th of this year.  Apple, as usual, is one of the first to give audiences a taste of what to expect with a 2 minute trailer for the film courtesy of Apple.

At first glance, the True Legend trailer seems surprisingly good.  It’s got slick action sequences, fast cuts and instills its viewers with the feeling that this is not a film they want to miss.  It is not until we inspect it’s glossy finish a little further that we find the true deception within.  For starters, the first words that the audience see’s on screen are “From the creators of Kill Bill, The Matrix and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon”.  This is only partly true.  Yuen Woo-Ping, the film’s director, did do action choreography for all of the aforementioned films, and Bill Kong did produce Crouching Tiger, but that’s it!  There is no other strand tying these films together!  None of the more important above the line players of these films had anything to do with True Legend.  There is no Tarantino, no Wachowskis, and no Ang Lee.  Even the writer and producers are different! It kinda reminds me of when they used to call some kung fu imports a “Quentin Tarantino Film” even though he only really helped get international distribution.  The advertisers are blatantly trying to play to the ignorance of the average movie-goer and it’s completely misleading.

The editor of this fine piece of work did however manage to do one thing very well.  He somehow managed to erase any hint of the stiff acting and flaccid storyline that makes the actual film border on being comically hokey instead of its ‘seriously epic’ intention.  Instead, the correct decision was made to concentrate solely on the film’s awe inspiring action sequences; which are really the film’s only saving grace.  However, I am still left with the inescapable conclusion that international audiences are having the wool pulled over their eyes, and have absolutely no sense of the calamity that they are about to endure.  Then again, isn’t that the job of a great trailer?

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