FANTASTIC FEST Honors Director Yuen Woo-Ping With Lifetime Achievement Award

Legendary. Iconic. Downright mythological.  These words are not mere hyperbole when it comes to describing Master Yuen Woo-Ping. Ground-breaking fight choreographer, seminal action director, the hallowed filmmaker will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at this year's Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX.
Words alone cannot describe this man's contribution to Asian action cinema. Master Woo-Ping has worked with virtually every name in the book, starting out with a very young Jackie Chan back in 1978, when they made Snake In Eagles Shadow and Drunken Master. Sammo Hung. Yuen Biao, Donnie Yen, Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh have all worked under the direction and tutelage of the maestro of martial arts. His balletic fight choreography has been a profound influence on damned near every action director that has come along since, and literally changed the face of cinema violence, especially when it comes to close combat.  Now movie lovers have a very rare chance to see Master Woo-Ping up close and personal, where he will be accepting his award at the premiere of his new epic, True Legend, taking place September 25'th, 2010, at the Paramount Theatre, in Austin, TX.

This is the definition of awesome.

More from the official press release -

FANTASTIC FEST HONORS DIRECTOR YUEN WOO-PING WITH

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

The Lifetime Achievement Award Will Be Presented at the

Gala Screening of "True Legend"

 

Austin, TX---Tuesday, August 31, 2010--- The 6th annual Fantastic Fest will honor director and master fight choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the world premiere of his new martial arts fantasy True Legend, starring Vincent Zhao (Fong Sai Yuk, Dragon Gets Angry) Zhou Xun (The Emperor and the Assassin, Suzhou River) with Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and the late David Carradine (Kill Bill), on Saturday, September 25, 2010 at The Paramount Theatre in Austin, TX.  The film will play as part of a double feature with Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, Yuen Woo-Ping's directorial debut and the film that put action legend Jackie Chan on the map.  Fantastic Fest will play host to Yuen Woo-Ping's first U.S. festival appearance.

 

If you've ever walked out of a movie theatre after watching a martial arts film and left your jaw on the floor, your eyes were probably dazzled by the fight choreography of filmmaker, Yuen Woo-Ping.  Gods of kung fu -- Jackie Chan, Stephen Chow, Jet Li, Donny Yen and Michelle Yeoh -- have all had their impressive abilities molded into a cinematic language of fist-pounding aerial artistry at the hands of Yuen Woo-Ping.  His work headlines the top fight sequence lists of all time from films like The Matrix trilogy, Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Iron Monkey, Drunken Master, Once Upon a Time in China, Fist of Legend and Kung Fu Hustle. 

 

"We are thrilled to have a filmmaker of Mr. Yuen's incredible talent and filmography attend our festival to accept the Lifetime Achievement Award," says Fantastic Fest co-founder Tim League.  "A large part of our programming at Fantastic Fest is devoted to a genre of which Mr. Yuen represents the pinnacle of quality."

 

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Tickets for the Gala Screening of True Legend will go on sale Wednesday, September 8 at NOON CST on the Fantastic Fest official site.

 

True Legend (2010)

World Premiere, Hong Kong, director: Yuen Woo-Ping

Yuen Woo-Ping, legendary director and martial arts choreographer, brings TRUE LEGEND, an epic tale of Su Can, Master of the Drunken Fist.  

 

A well-respected martial arts teacher and a good husband and father, Su Can's journey begins when his vengeful brother, Yuan, returns from war.  Seeking revenge from a dark family history, Yuan, armed with the Five Venom Fist, destroys Su Can's family and dignity.  Reduced to a beggar, Su Can finds apprenticeship from Lord Wushu and adapts to a new form of martial arts, the Drunken Fist.  At peace with himself, he regains his strength to reclaim his life and returns home to claim retribution and his family honor.  Good versus evil, two skilled rivals battle to become the ultimate warrior.

 

Snake in the Eagle's Shadow (1978)

Hong Kong, director: Yuen Woo-Ping

As a director and action choreographer, Yuen Woo-Ping is identified with the 'new school' of kung fu. But just as a jazz musician must master the standards before he can take off on wild harmonic flights, Yuen had to earn his diploma from the old school before he could tear down the walls. Think of this movie as his graduate thesis. It's similar to the Shaw Brothers training films so popular at the time, but there are crucial differences in humor and attitude. Jackie Chan, at his acrobatic best, stars as an orphan who ekes out a Dickensian existence as the janitor and human punching bag at a kung fu school. When he sees an old beggar (played to sheer perfection by Yuen Woo-Ping's father, Siu Tien Yuen) being roughed up by bill collectors, he jumps in to help. The old man, actually a great martial arts master, is touched by the gesture but appalled by the terrible kung fu so he takes the boy on as a disciple, teaching him the Snake Fist boxing style. Unfortunately, the master of the Eagle Claw style, played by phenomenal high-kicker Hwang Jang Lee, has vowed to eradicate the Snake Fist style and all its practitioners from the Earth, which spices things up considerably. The kung fu fights here are among the best you'll ever see, with some staggering moves you won't believe. Best of all, it's entertaining from beginning to end.

 

Fantastic Fest has scoured the globe for the very best in action, horror, science fiction, fantasy to the truly bizarre in contemporary cinema for your viewing pleasure.  Look for more announcements in the weeks to come, including information on our gala events, parties and AMD Next Wave filmmakers in attendance.

 

Fantastic Fest is the film festival with the boring parts cut out.  Miss this one and your regrets will agonize you for years to come.  You have been warned.

See the trailer below!