TRAILER: The Director of True Legend Is Responsible for All of Your Favorite Fight Scenes

It's a bit of a stretch on this trailer's part to bill True Legend as coming from "the creators of The Matrix, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Kill Bill, but it's certainly true that director Yuen Woo Ping was likely a driving force in your favorite scenes from these films. The legendary fight choreographer has also orchestrated amazing action sequences in Kung Fu Hustle, Fist of Legend, Once Upon a Time in China and more than thirty other kung fu movies. And now, he's finally stepped up to directing.

Actually, he has directed films before, but it was back when he wasn't established enough to get real money or exposure. I can't speak to the quality of his previous directorial effort The Fiery Dragon King except to say that I've never really heard it mentioned in any Kung Fu film circles or Wu Tang Clan songs.

But onto the trailer for True Legend! The first shot here is a stunner - a sublime, mysterious chase through a field involving two running men and a floating Sensei. Almost immediately afterwords, it devolves into about what you'd expect from a a movie directed by an action choreographer, that is, a lot of fighting. It looks like great fighting, and the cinematography looks good, but at the same time, it's hard to tell whether there is enough character or story development to hold everything together. It's also unfortunate that the trailer plasters that "one of the greatest action sequences ever" pulled-quote over the scene that looks the most like a video game.

But maybe none of that matters. The trailer assures us that the film has all of the essentials; floating, fighting, lots of colors and a pretty great appearance by the late David Carradine. Ping may not be delivering the end-all awesome combination of all the films mentioned at the beginning of the trailer, but it looks like he at least delivers what fans want to see.

Verdict: Sold.