“True Legend” or “Su Qi-Er” literally translated as “Beggar Su,” marks the return of famed Hong Kong director Woo-ping Yuen to fast-paced fantastical martial arts pulp.

Set against the backdrop of Qing Dynasty China, “True Legend” puts a new twist on the ancient Chinese legend of Su Can (Vincent Zhao), better known as Beggar Su, one of the mystical Ten Tigers of Canton and the martial artist said to be the father of the Drunken Fist style of Wushu martial arts.

The story follows the benevolent Su, a brilliant military general beloved and respected by his troops.  After successfully leading a near-suicide mission to rescue a feudal prince, Su’s impressed superior offers him a governorship.  He declines, instead choosing to start a family with the love of his life Ying (Zhou Xun) and open a Wushu training school of his own.  He entrusts the governorship to his best friend and adopted brother Yuan Lie (Andy On).  Yuan’s power corrupts him and leads him to carryout a revenge plot he’s been fantasizing about since his childhood against his adoptive father (Su’s real father) for killing his biological father.  Yuan’s bloodthirsty revenge leaves Su and his young son in rags, begging in the streets for pocket change to satisfy Su’s insatiable appetite for wine.  We then learn whether or not redemption is in the cards for the legendary figure.

For die-hard fans of classic Hong Kong martial arts cinema, large portions of “True Legend” will feel like meeting up with an old friend you haven’t seen in years.  You’ll reminisce about the way things were, be delighted by something you’d forgotten about, bask in the nostalgia for a pleasant 110 minutes, but in the end, it just won’t feel quite like it used to.

Thanks to Woo-Ping’s impressive career as martial arts choreographer on films like “Kill Bill,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “The Matrix” sequels, and as a director of landmark films like 1978′s “Drunken Master,” which established Jackie Chan as an international superstar, the action and fight sequences are spectacular.  Vincent Zhao’s brilliant martial arts skill is on full display and makes for some beautiful fights opposite Andy On.

Also familiar to Kung Fu cinema fans will be Su Can’s mystical training sequences where he travels to a new plain of existence and meets an old drunken sage (Gordon Liu) who will only train him if he can defeat the God of Wushu, played by pop singer, Jay Chou, in combat.  Much of the cinematography is breathtaking and these sequences deliberately recall classic Hong Kong cinema mysticism.

While there is much redeeming about “True Legend,” significant missteps prevent it from becoming much more than a novelty.  The story is convoluted, incoherent and altogether baffling.  Virtually nothing is followed through to its logical conclusion, and although the film’s third act features one of David Carradine’s final performances, it is otherwise wildly uneven, blatantly nationalistic and completely unnecessary.  And the characters themselves, mostly cardboard representations of vague emotions and broad themes, don’t do much to improve the half-baked narrative.