The Grandmaster (***)
Directed
by: Wong Kar-wai
Starring:
Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Zhang Ziyi, Song Hye-kyo, Chang Chen, Zhao Benshan, Wang
Qingxiang, Zhang Jin
Seen:
March 9th 2014
***
Out of ****
The
Grandmaster is a slow moving but relatively interesting drama following the
life of the legendary Wing Chun grandmaster Ip Man, the man who trained Bruce
Lee. The trailer mentions that before he could train masters, he had to become
one himself. The movie is beautifully filmed and reminds of a non-fictionalised
Hero or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, with some fight scenes leaning towards fantasy
as filmed in the previously mentioned movies. The Grandmaster is filmed in a
darker hue than most movies, and is mostly presented in greys and browns, with
short forays into brighter colours. My feeling is that the story is told
unevenly and in almost a staccato burst mode, as care is given to create
visually beautiful scenery and backdrops with the story then added almost as an
afterthought late in the scenes, and in a way that at times almost lost me. I
believe a deeper knowledge of this culture might have helped here, as this is a
Chinese movie made primarily for Chinese audiences.
The
Grandmaster follows the life of Ip Man from his days in Foshan, where the
viewer is shortly introduced to some of the early events in his life, some of
his training as a kid through to his marriage to Cheung Wing-sing. Ip Man lives
peacefully and with little complication in his life until the arrival of a
master from the north, Gong Yutian (Qingxiang). Yutian is retiring, but has
declared Ma San (Jin) as his successor, and he continues to express his
interest in finding a suitable successor in the South.
The
idea of a contest raises tensions, and the South nominate Ip Man (Chiu-Wai).
Gong Er (Ziyi) has her eye on taking over her father’s role as the leader in
the North however, and when Ip Man is declared the champion after a battle of
wits, she creates a reason to challenge Ip Man to regain her family’s honour,
and she wins this challenge. The two part on very good terms and keep in
contact, with Ip Man stating his intention of visiting Gong Er in the North. His
intensions are however interrupted by the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1938,
when Ip Man and his family lose everything they have. In the North Ma San turns
on his own master which sets Gong Er on a path of vengeance.
Wong
Kar-wai makes a good movie, and the cast deliver great performances almost
universally, apart from some caricature-like moments from certain “strong-willed”
characters. What helps the movie a lot is choreographer Yuen Woo-ping, the man
behind such efforts as Lethal Weapon 4, The Matrix movies, Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon, and the Kill Bill movies to name but a few – the fight scenes
are stunning. The movie is however far too slow, and it came very close to
losing my interest for probably its entire second half, regardless of the fact
that the story is quite captivating and that the movie gets the viewer vested
in the interests of Ip Man.
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