The Grandmaster

The Grandmaster Information

The Grandmaster is a Hong Kong-Chinese martial arts drama film based on the life story of the Wing Chun grandmaster Ip Man. The film was directed and written by Wong Kar-wai and starred Tony Leung as Ip Man. It was released on 8 January 2013 in China. It was the opening film at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival in February 2013. The film was selected as part of the 2013 Hong Kong International Film Festival. The Weinstein Company has acquired the international distribution rights for the film.

Plot

The film chronicles the life of the Wing Chun grandmaster Ip Man from the 1930s in Foshan, his flight to Hong Kong after the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the events leading to his death.

The movie begins with Ip Man reflecting on martial arts, and then cuts to a scene of a fight under the rain between Ip and a dozen combatants. Ip Man wins, and experiences flashbacks of his life, from his early training at the age of seven to his induction into martial arts by his master Chan Wah-shun, and his marriage to his wife Cheung Wing-sing.

Ip Man's peaceful existence is threatened by the arrival of Gong Yutian, a martial arts master from northern China, who announces that he has already retired and has appointed Ma San as his heir in the North. He then concedes that the South should have its own heir. A flurry of discussions and fights erupt as various masters attempt to challenge Gong, but they are all barred by Ma San. As the Southern masters are deliberating on a representative, Gong Yutian's daughter Gong Er arrives and she tries to convince her father not to continue the fight. Meanwhile, the Southern masters decide on Ip Man to represent them, and Ip proceeds to be tested by three Southern masters before he challenges Gong Yutian. However, the "fight" between Ip and Gong turns out to be actually an exchange of philosophical ideas. Gong declares Ip the winner and returns to northern China. However, Gong Er sets out to regain her family's honour by challenging Ip Man, and they agree that whoever breaks a piece of furniture during the fight will be the loser. An intense fight breaks out between Ip Man and Gong Er, which concludes with victory for Gong because Ip broke a step at the very end. Ip and Gong then part on friendly terms.

Ip Man and Gong Er keep in contact after parting ways by exchanging letters, and Ip intends to bring his family with him to northern China, but his plans are disrupted by the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War. During the war, Ip Man and his family descend into poverty and he loses his two daughters due to starvation. In the meantime, in northern China, Ma San becomes a hanjian and ends up killing Gong Yutian. When Gong Er returns, she confronts her elders for forsaking her father but they tell her that her father's final wish was for her to be happy and not to seek vengeance. Gong Er refuses to accept that, and she vows to never teach, marry or have children her entire life in order to choose the path of vengeance.

Ip Man moves to Hong Kong in the hope of starting a career as a martial arts teacher, but ends up facing all sorts of challenges because there were also numerous other martial arts masters. He defeats them soundly and earns a reputation. He meets Gong Er again on Chinese New Year's Eve 1950 and asks her for a contest one more time while implying that she should start rebuilding her martial art school. But Gong Er refuses, stating that many martial arts disappeared in the course of history; and that hers would not be the only one. A flashback after that shows a confrontation between Gong Er and Ma San at a train station on Chinese New Year's Eve 1940, and Gong defeats Ma after a brutal and intense fight. However, Gong herself is heavily injured and loses her ability to use martial art.

The film then fast-forwards to the 1952, when Ip Man and Gong Er meet each other for the last time. Gong confesses to Ip that she has had romantic feelings for him right from the beginning. She dies shortly after. The cause of death was never clearly stated but it was implied that in the fight with Ma San not only her martial art was lost, but her life was shortened, too. The final scenes offer a visual montage as Ip Man's school flourishes. Off screen, it is stated that Ip Man died in 1972.

Cast

Tony Leung Chiu-Wai as Yip Man (Ye Wen)
Zhang Ziyi as Gong Er
Song Hye-kyo as Cheung Wing-sing (Zhang Yongcheng)
Chang Chen as "The Razor" Yixiantian
Zhao Benshan as Ding Lianshan
Wang Qingxiang as Gong Yutian
Zhang Jin as Ma San
Yuen Woo-ping as Chan Wah-shun (Chen Huashun)
Xiaoshenyang as Sanjiangshui
Cung Le as Tiexieqi
Shang Tielong as Jiang
Lo Hoi-pang as Uncle Deng
Chin Shih-chieh as Gong clan elder
Wang Jue as Gong clan elder
Lau Ga-yung as Yong
Lau Shun as Rui
Zhou Xiaofei as Gu
Bruce Leung
Julian Cheung
Lo Mang
Berg Ng

Music

The music is composed by Shigeru Umebayashi, Nathaniel Méchaly and Italian composer Stefano Lentini, who contributed with his original "Stabat Mater" for soprano and orchestra.

Reception

Variety gave the film a positive review, stating Wong "exceeds expectations with 'The Grandmaster,' fashioning a 1930s action saga into a refined piece of commercial filmmaking". The review further mentions: "Boasting one of the most propulsive yet ethereal realizations of authentic martial arts onscreen, as well as a merging of physicality and philosophy not attained in Chinese cinema since King Hu's masterpieces, the hotly anticipated pic is sure to win new converts from the genre camp."

While praising Tony Leung's Ip Man and Zhang Ziyi's Gong Er, The Hollywood Reporter lamented on some of the more underdeveloped characters, such as Chang Chen's Razor and Song Hye-Kyo's Madam Ip, stating, "While Zhang Ziyi's Gong Er is more or less complete and coherent, the same can't be said of some of the other characters, such as Chang Chen's Razor, an expert of the Bagua school who is supposed to be another of the grandmasters. Song Hye-kyo's Madam Ip has only a cursory presence and is basically rendered invisible in the film's second half."

The Grandmaster has earned HK$21,156,949 (US$2.7 million) at the Hong Kong box office, and grossed over 312 million yuan (US$50 million) at the mainland Chinese box office, and thus becoming Wong's highest grossing film to date.