The film stars Vincent Zhao in the lead role, and co-stars Zhou Xun, Jay Chou, and Andy On.

Gordon Liu, Leung Kar-yan, Michelle Yeoh, and David Carradine (in his final film role before his death) make cameo appearances.

[1] Set in China in the 1860s, the plot follows retired Qing general Su Can (Zhao), whose peaceful life is interrupted when his vengeful brother, Yuan (On), returns from war armed with the deadly Five Venom Fists.

[2][3] Su Can is a general who leads a military force to save a prince from a large fortress of enemies in the mountains.

Su wants to leave the military and lead a life pursuing the perfection of wushu, eventually in the hopes of starting his school and teaching his skills.

Ying follows Su into the forest one day and finds him fighting (seemingly) with himself, oblivious to the fact that he is only battling with the Wu Shu god in his mind.

A crazed Su battles with Yuan in his training chamber and ultimately defeats him, even gnashing though a poisonous snake in the process.

Realizing the words of Feng, he rushes out and a dying soldier reveals the vague location of Ying.

A Kung Fu master is killed in a fighting arena - part of a foreigners' club - leaving Su's old friend, Ma, as leader of the Wu Shu Federation.

In the meantime, Su goes into an inn and creates trouble by stealing wine and countering people bent on stopping him with martial art moves.

He then meets a fellow drunkard (the Wu Shu god in disguise) who spars with him and gives him a few philosophical tips.

Anthony, owner of a wrestling stable, orders his lot to pour into the arena, resulting in a mismatch of three wrestlers to one (Su).

Using the drunken martial arts technique learned from his fellow drunkard in the inn, Su's defeats the fighters although he is heavily injured.

At the end of the battle, the other fighters are either dead or unconscious, and only after a vision of Ying and the dramatic cries of Feng in an otherwise silenced arena, does a semi-conscious Su manage to stand up.

In order to prepare for the role Zhao had to lose up to nine kilograms' worth of weight as he explains "Beggar Su can't be too plump."

Zhao also had to take up to 2 months' worth of break dancing classes due to the fact Yuen wanted to have a more rhythmic and modern form of the drunken fist.

True Legend began shooting in the mountain region in a suburb of Beijing on August 28, 2008 that was quite low-key.

Yuen Woo Ping preferred to shoot their original structure rather than building it in sound stages, which may look fake.

Yuen Woo Ping stated, "The safety issue for that scene was the biggest challenge of the whole movie.

When asked why the full movie isn't in 3D but around 20 minutes in 3D, Yuen explained that making a 3D film is very expensive and takes a lot of human resources.

[6][7] Reviewer Charlie Jane Anders of Gizmodo praised the film as "pure old-school awesomeness", comparing it to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and Hero (2002).

[8] Reviewer Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave True Legend 2 out of 5 stars, writing that it "boasts some great action scenes.

"[9] In a review of True Legend for The New York Times, reviewer Mike Hale wrote, "Like so many of the bloated, moralistic epics being pumped out by the Chinese film industry, it maneuvers cardboard characters through a story built almost entirely from aphorisms, scheming and pledges of revenge.