Rent The Grandmaster (2013)

The Grandmaster (aka Yi dai zong shi) review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

Kar Wai Wong’s The Grandmaster is a martial arts picture that wants to get lost in its own beauty and emotion. It paces out the mesmerizing moments of action so the story can whiz by in the fast lane. You can do your best to track how it zips from decade to decade with interconnecting texts of expositions, but it’s far less engaging than the well-choreographed fights. Much in the same style of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and House of Flying Daggers, it entrances the viewer with more fancy footwork and pretty words than flowing dialogue. It’s that rare breed of action film where you don’t mind the favoring of punches over plot.

Based on the life of the Wing Chun grandmaster, we follow Ip Man (Tony Chiu Wai Leung) from 1930 to 1950 in a changing China. Told in a non-linear fashion, the film jumps around in time where it becomes tricky to differentiate flashbacks from present events (maybe it’s all flashbacks for all I know). Take the first scene for example where Ip Man recalls a time when he was fighting waves of martial artists in the rainy streets. After some impressive moves and a victory over his attackers, he then reflects all the way back to when he was first inducted with his fighting style at the age of seven. Then he bumps up his memory to the point of his marriage to Cheung Wing-sing. Blink and you’ll miss most of these moments as it briskly zooms to the next fight scene as fast as Tony's punches.

The good news is that your eye is given plenty of time to react to the martial arts which is well-worth the time the film takes to slow down for these moments. The opening fight in the heavy rain makes great use of multiple camera angles and slow motion that allows you to take in the detail of every move. Ip Man, dressed in his dapper suit and fedora, flows through the bad guys with ease. He bends arms, sweeps legs and pushes with such force that men go flying backwards in gloriously exaggerated (but not over the top) stunt work. It’s a fantastic way to begin the film and perfectly sets the tone.

Unlike the simpler martial arts pictures, The Grandmaster favors poetry in motion as opposed to pulse-pounding blows. When Ip Man meets with the northern Wudang Boxing grandmaster, they have more of a philosophical debate as the northern master challenges him to the old snatch-this-from-my-hand test. Winning once again, the northern master’s daughter Gong Er (Ziyi Zhang) does not accept Ip Man's triumph. She challenges him to a test of defeating her in combat without breaking any piece of furniture within a lavish enclosure. The two trade fists and palms as they swing and sweep around the interior. Their battle takes them up the stairs, on the stairs and over the stairs as they fling each cross multiple floors. It’s a wondrous dance of martial arts amid some brilliant lighting and set decoration.

As the two part ways from their fight with Ip Man the winner, they undergo much heartbreak in an ever-changing world. With the Japanese invasion and threat of poverty, they lose loved ones and their will to continue on with martial arts. Ip Man loses his children and is forced to seek work in Hong Kong. Gong Er’s father is forsaken by his elders and she seeks vengeance by shirking marriage, children and teaching. The movie more or less becomes her’s for the third act as Gong Er fights her way back into the dignity of her house, eventually reuniting with Ip Man for a romance that simply did not have time to blossom. The two have an impressive on screen premise you almost feel cheated that nothing came of their relationship, but that’s just like a biopic for you.

The Grandmaster may bob and weave too wildly with its flashbacks and time periods, but it has the moves of a truly artistic martial arts epic. It takes a far more beautiful route towards relaying the unique life of Ip Man as a touching tribute to martial arts rather than a more character-driven period piece. It may sound like a cheap method, but it seems strangely fitting in how it wants to say so much more than just about the man himself. Where it falters in writing, it more than makes up for in the direction which gives a stylish drama coating to a commercial product. It’s a film where I didn’t mind so much about where the plot was at in the fights or callbacks. What’s up on the screen is an entertaining action picture oozing with beauty and elegance.