|
How entertaining? ★★★☆☆
Thought provoking? ★☆☆☆☆ 3 March 2013
This article is a review of THE GRANDMASTER.
|
“Kung Fu. Two words. Horizontal, vertical. Make a mistake, you’re horizontal,” Ip Man
Director Wong Kar Wai. Action choreographer Yuen Wo Ping (THE MATRIX; CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON). Actors Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi. THE GRANDMASTER should’ve been the martial arts flick for the ages. It wasn’t. Not even close. 1936, Southern China. Opening on a fight in extreme slo-mo. Leung’s Ip Man takes on a coterie of assailants in the rain. The water bounces gracefully off surfaces. He punches/kicks gracefully. Beaten up people fall and crash into stuff gracefully. Once you’ve seen this fight you have basically watched most of the film. Only Zhang Ziyi’s entrance enlivens proceedings, adding some emotional heft, but no way near enough. And there is a gaping hole of intellectual inquisitiveness. Pretty imagery staves off ennui, otherwise this is hardly better than vacuous; never transcending B-movie stylings and clichés.
Director Wong Kar Wai. Action choreographer Yuen Wo Ping (THE MATRIX; CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON). Actors Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi. THE GRANDMASTER should’ve been the martial arts flick for the ages. It wasn’t. Not even close. 1936, Southern China. Opening on a fight in extreme slo-mo. Leung’s Ip Man takes on a coterie of assailants in the rain. The water bounces gracefully off surfaces. He punches/kicks gracefully. Beaten up people fall and crash into stuff gracefully. Once you’ve seen this fight you have basically watched most of the film. Only Zhang Ziyi’s entrance enlivens proceedings, adding some emotional heft, but no way near enough. And there is a gaping hole of intellectual inquisitiveness. Pretty imagery staves off ennui, otherwise this is hardly better than vacuous; never transcending B-movie stylings and clichés.
|
|
|
|
|
I will put this out there: Am no fan of the director. I was hoping for THE GRANDMASTER to finally shift my opinion. Can’t seem to shake that his oeuvre is 'The Emperor's New Clothes' of cinema. CHUNGKING EXPRESS, IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, 2046, DAYS OF BEING WILD, ASHES OF TIME, MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS all leave me cold. Don’t get me wrong, am happy to engage with emotionally crippled individuals attempting human warmth, read/see THE REMAINS OF THE DAY, but Wong Kar Wai’s wavelength smacks too much of self-satisfaction. Just because a shoot is gruelling, doesn’t mean a diamond will be the result.
And let’s not forget, Donnie Yen has already delivered a combat-spectacular in the form of IP MAN. Equally badly written, for some overlapping reasons, but at least the fights were extraordinary. (However, the less said about IP MAN 2 the better.)
|
|
An occasional voice over kicks off with Ip Man as a 40 year-old, talking about his life thus far analogously as spring. His father’s successful business allowed him to indulge his passion: martial arts. The first part of the flick is how he became a grandmaster. Contests in various ornate cramped spaces, shot in inky blacks and golds, punctuated by red, demo his calm, other-worldly demeanour, and formidable hand-to-hand prowess.
“Kung Fu is about precision. If anything gets broken, you win,” Ip Man to Gong Er (Zhang Ziyi)
There’s a sexual frisson to their first fight, not capitalised on till much later into the runtime, but by then a belated romantic sub-plot feels tacked on. Their initial fracas also has a super-human element to it that feels out of place. Then the movie skims unsatisfying along his life – the Japanese invasion, and post-war move to Hong Kong. Added to the clunky dialogue, melodrama is thrown in. Zhang Ziyi can’t stop this project capsizing, but she does keep it afloat, just, whenever her mysterious, melancholic presence is on the screen.
As sporadically entertaining as THE GRANDMASTER is, if I see shoes slowly sliding into a new stance in close-up again, it’ll be too soon.
|
|
We have selected movies below that we think will be of interest to you based on this review.
Using these Amazon affiliated links help us keep Filmaluation free for all film and arts lovers.
Amazon UK
|
|
|
|
|
Amazon USA
|
|
|
|
|