Movielogr

Rating: 7 stars

Tags

NWI China Hong Kong Kung fu 1940s female martial artist challenge martial arts

All movies seen on 09/21/2021

View on: IMDb | TMDb

The Grandmaster (2013)

Directed by Wong Kar-wai

Biography | Action | Drama

Most recently watched by vivalaserdisc, schofizzy, danielt, SIxBORG, sensoria, twobitme, jasmined

Overview

Ip Man’s peaceful life in Foshan changes after Gong Yutian seeks an heir for his family in Southern China. Ip Man then meets Gong Er who challenges him for the sake of regaining her family’s honor. After the Second Sino-Japanese War, Ip Man moves to Hong Kong and struggles to provide for his family. In the mean time, Gong Er chooses the path of vengeance after her father was killed by Ma San.

Rated PG-13 | Length 130 minutes

Actors

Tony Leung Chiu-Wai | Zhang Ziyi | Chang Chen | Zhao Benshan | Xiao Shenyang | Song Hye-kyo | Wang Qingxiang | Zhang Jin | Shang Tielong | Song Tao | Lo Hoi-Pang | Cung Le | Chin Shih-Chieh | Yuen Woo-ping | Lau Ga-Yung | Lau Shun | Julian Cheung | Zhou Xiao-Fei | Berg Ng Ting-Yip | Lo Meng | Fang Chengcheng | He Pei-yu | Wu Yixuan | George Wang | Elvis Tsui | Wang Man-Cheng | Cho Man-Keung | Siu Ping-Lam | Tony Ling Chi-Wah | Li Jing | Hung Kai Sui | Tong Han | Ni Haifeng | Yuen Cheung-Yan | Yin Chunxiong | Charlie Yeung | Benz Kong

Viewing History (seen 3 times)

Viewing Notes

After viewing SHANG-CHI again I wanted to watch more Tony Leung movies… and since I haven’t seen this one since it was released *and* he’s a kung fu master it felt appropriate. Netflix has the US theatrical cut, aka the Weinstein Cut. This is the same cut I saw for the special screening w/Tony Leung Q&A (also the last in theater movie I saw with Yumi, IIRC).

This is a goofy movie, pretentious and oddly structured. However, by the end you realize that the “grandmaster” isn’t referring to Ip Man in this retelling of his story. Besides the cast its greatest strength is the visuals, the exquisite photography, framing and composition. During this viewing I couldn’t recall who directed this but of the usual suspects guessed WKW simply based on the camera work and long drawn out scenes. This is a beautiful movie to watch. Given the other Ip Man films this one is more tragic and melancholic, another WKW hallmark. I do like this movie a lot and now want to revisit the HK cut of the movie that I have on DVD. I’d love to see the original Berlin cut.

Comments