Wong Kar Wai's 'The Grandmasters'

[Sgt.Pepper]

Wong Kar Wai's The Grandmasters is a biopic of Yip Man, the legendary martial arts master who trained Bruce Lee, among many others.

The first teaser trailer has just arrived, and while it's in a foreign language, the visuals looks truly incredible.

[YT]dlMHFlJJxUg[/YT]

I've been waiting for this movie for quite sometime now, so it's great to finally see some footage. I was bit dissapointed by My Blueberry Nights, so I hope that this film will be a return to his magnificence ‘90s works.

 

[Gold Samurai]

So is this like rebooting batman after "The Dark Knight Rises"?

There's already been an Ip Man franchise

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

So is this like rebooting batman after "The Dark Knight Rises"?

There's already been an Ip Man franchise

I haven't seen those movies, what are they about? This one is a biopic, if that makes any difference.

 

[JFK]

Sgt. Pepper, the "Ip Man" films are about Ip Man, the mentor of Bruce Lee. Donnie Yen, martial artist extraordinaire, played the role in those films, and Tony Leung plays him in "The Grandmasters." "Ip Man" dealt with the Japanese occupation in Fo Shan, during the second World War, where Ip Man and his family lived. Ip Man uses his kung fu ideals, and physical abilities, when needed, to give his community, badly-needed hope. "Ip Man 2" deals with his life after moving to Hong Kong, following the war, and his struggles in setting up his kung fu business. He literally had to fight the other kung fu masters in the area, to earn his right to open his business.

Samurai, from what I've been able to gather, Wilson Yip and Wong Kar Wai were going to do an "Ip Man" film together, many years back, but the project fell apart. In 2005, while doing press for the Wong Kar Wai film, "2046," actor, Tony Leung stated that the next year, he and Wong would begin shooting "The Grandmasters". Scheduling conflicts delayed the filming. In the meantime, Wilson Yip shot his own Ip Man film (2008) with Donnie Yen.

Considering Wong Kar Wai had been planning to do this film for about a decade, I can't say I blame him for persisting in making this film, even though his ex-partner beat him to the punch. I think Wong and Leung had their hearts set on it. In any case, Wong being a director of, for lack of a better description, "art films," it should have quite a different feel than the "Ip Man" movies, which were terrific, if conventional. (I loved them.)

From watching "The Grandmasters" trailer, and reading the synopsis, that's been floating around, I think this film may take even more liberties with Ip Man's story, than the "Ip Man" films, so I would be surprised, if it turned out to be the biopic, it was originally thought to be. I think, maybe, Wong might be mythologizing Ip Man, the way Wong Fei Hung, a real-life early 20th century Chinese folk-hero was mythologized in many, many films over the years, the best known portrayal being by Jet Li in the "Once Upon a Time in China" series. If Wong Fei Hung can the subject of many different portrayals, and movies, than I'm sure Ip Man can be as well.

I'm really looking forward to Wong's take on his story, and Tony Leung's portrayal of the man, Tony being in the absolute top tier of Asian actors - heck, he's in the top tier of actors everywhere, not just Asia. He trained in Wing Chun for a year, at one point, breaking his arm, which delayed filming, again. Hopefully all the waiting will be worth it.

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

The Grandmasters Allegedly Set For Release Late 2012

Bona Film recently released their 2011 data and results to investors, and as they laid out their projections for earnings in 2012, business site Benziga notes that there has been a "reshuffle" of release dates for their top tier films: " 'The Grandmaster' from Wong Kar-Wai and 'Once Upon a Time in Shanghai' starring Chow Yun-fat were pushed back to Dec '12, with some originally planned titles to be delayed into 2013."

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/wong-kar-wais-the-grandmaster-reportedly-wont-be-ready-for-release-until-at-least-december-2012

I guess it was too much to hope for the film to bow at this year's Cannes. Anyway, I do hope to see it release sometime this year because it's getting difficult to remain optimistic about a film that's been in production for a long time.

For anyone that's interested; there's a new Russian teaser, which is almost identical to the previous teaser but with a couple of new footage in it.

 

[Destructus86]

Looks fantastic. I'll see it for sure.
It'll be hard to beat Donnie Yen's performance though

 

[Project862006]

Official Trailer


wow this looks epic

 

[Gianakin_]

Can't wait!

 

[Crockett]

**** yes this looks so good, it seems like a typical kung fu film but hopefully it'll be like Ashes of Time (closest example to this) where it does have fighting sequence but its emphasis is more on the characters rather than the action sequence, just like your typical WKW film, though I'm sure we'll have a fair share of latter as well and I'm certainly not complaining from the look of it in the trailer.

 

[Gianakin_]

I've been itching for a Yip Man movie after the POS that was Yip Man 2, aka the chinese version of Rocky IV.

 

[Ipodman]

Wow nice trailer! Didn't like Ip Man 1 and 2 with Donnie Yen that much... Donnie Yen is a good kung fu dude but the movie itself isn't that interesting to me. Everyone around me loves those movies tho...

 

[Project862006]

i prefer donnie yen when he plays a regular guy like flashpoint and kill zone where he just plays a bad ass street cop

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

Wong Kar-wai never ceases to amaze me. The trailer is so stunning, it's sickening. I hope we get an international release dates sometime soon.

 

[Nathan]

Meh, too over the top. I'll stick with the Donnie Yen Movies. Those have some crazy stuff too, but not on the level of this movie.

 

[Ipodman]

This one look waaay better in every way. And it's Wong Kar Wai ffs...

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

The Grandmaster to Open Berlin Film Festival

Press Release:

Spoiler

The international premiere of The Grandmaster by Chinese director and president of this year’s jury, WONG Kar Wai, will open the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival.

The Grandmaster is an epic martial arts drama set against the tumultuous backdrop of 1930’s China and inspired by the life and times of the legendary IP Man (Tony LEUNG Chiu Wai), mentor to Bruce LEE. The plot encompasses themes of war, family, revenge, desire, love, and memory. The all-star cast headed by Tony LEUNG Chiu Wai (Days of Being Wild – Berlinale Forum 1991, Chungking Express, Happy Together, In The Mood for Love, 2046, all directed by WONG Kar Wai), also includes Ziyi ZHANG (Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon, D: Ang Lee), who was a guest at the 2009 Berlinale Competition with Forever Enthralled (D: CHEN Kaige), CHANG Chen (Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon; Eros, D: WONG Kar Wai), ZHAO Benshan (Happy Times, D: ZHANG Yimou), XIAO Shengyang (A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop, D: ZHANG Yimou – Berlinale Competition 2010) and SONG Hye Kyo (A Reason to Live, D: LEE Jeong-hyang), as well as hundreds of Asia’s top martial artists.

“It is a special honour for us to open the 2013 Berlinale with the presentation of the newest film by this year’s jury president, WONG Kar Wai. With The Grandmaster, Kar Wai has added a new and exciting facet to his body of works, and created an artful, visually powerful genre film,” says festival director Dieter Kosslick.

Nearly three years of film production and almost a decade of preparation went into the making of The Grandmaster for its director WONG Kar Wai, who began exploring the idea for the film in 1996.

“I am truly very honoured by Dieter and his invitation for my new film The Grandmaster to participate in the 63rd Berlinale and to open the festival. This is a dream project for me that I had been developing for many years. I am very happy to be able to present it in Berlin. I was already greatly looking forward to my returning to Berlin to serve as the President of the International Jury, so seeing The Grandmaster presented there will make it all the more special for me,” says WONG Kar Wai.

With his signature style-defining mood, atmosphere and reality, director WONG Kar Wai delves into the eternal question in martial arts of whether the victor is more than merely the “last man standing”, and brings the genre to new heights.

The Grandmaster is a Block 2 Pictures and Sil-Metropole Organisation presentation of a Jet Tone Films and Sil-Metropole Organisation production. It is written and directed by WONG Kar Wai.

The Grandmaster will be presented as the opening film in the official selection, but screening out of competition.

The world premiere of The Grandmaster will be celebrated on January 8, 2013 in China, and the film will open at cinemas in numerous countries including Germany in spring 2013. The film’s distributor in Germany will be Wild Bunch.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/12/wong-kar-wais-the-grandmaster-to-open-63rd-berlin-film-festival/

Back in August when it was announced that WKW was the Jury President, I was hoping that the film could show up there as well. So I couldn't be more pleased that it turned out to be true. Can't wait!

 

[Crockett]

Feels like an eternity since My Blueberry Nights, so a distributor better snatch the rights not long after its premiere in both China & Berlin Film Festival for the Scandinavian territories.

 

[Mace Bloodstone]

anyone see it yet?

 

[nocomics]

anyone see it yet?

It's only in like 1 theatre around my area and it's only 1 showing at 10:20pm ct. Sorry, but as much as I wanna see this I don't go to movies this late at night.

 

[DarthDorranceBane]

This was released like a year ago.

 

[Drz]

Anyone know where i can get the director's cut/original chinese cut on Blu-ray?

 

[LordofhouseEl]

Very disappointed in this, the fight scenes were phenomenal but the movie was all over the place. Was hoping for a bit if consistency like Donnie Yen Ip man. None the less I enjoyed the movie and would definitely add it to my collection.

 

[Octoberist]

Lord,

Keep in mind that only the butchered Weinstein version is available in the US/UK. That's why the film was all over the place. You'll need to import the director's cut to see Wong Kar Wai's TRUE vision of the film.

Screw the Weinsteins.

 

[Drz]

Where can you import one?

 

[lililatigresse]

Lord,

Keep in mind that only the butchered Weinstein version is available in the US/UK. That's why the film was all over the place. You'll need to import the director's cut to see Wong Kar Wai's TRUE vision of the film.

Screw the Weinsteins.

I saw it in France months ago and it was still a hot mess.