"The Grandmaster" focuses on the life and times of Yip Man (played by the immense Tony Leung), a master of the Wing Chun style of fighting, now increasingly revered as one of the martial arts greats, in some part at least due to the reverence of association to the iconic Bruce Lee. After a series of movies, most prominently featuring Donnie Yen, the great auteur Wong Kar Wai takes a jab at the increasingly glorified figure and delivers a mesmeric opus to martial arts. The Grandmaster" ventures from his life in Foshan in the 1930s up until his flight to Hong Kong, where he finally manages to setup a successful school. The story itself however seems to only fleetingly linger on Yip Man, instead attempting to encapsulate the art itself (its changing fortune and how various styles from across this vast country ventured and interacted with each other) and the political overtones under which it struggled to survive, because returning to the forefront triumphant and admired. As Yip Man ventures from mainland China to the British dominated Hong Kong, the fight for the existence of martial arts becomes a extension of the struggle to maintain national identity.
As the outer reality of Japanese and English occupation brings about varying internal conflicts, Kar Wai treats us to enchanting poetic scenes of combat, bringing out the beauty of the dance with a mix of slow motion, trademark camera shots and the odd bit of wires. This does cause the fights to lack in intensity, instead bringing about the fluidity of movement and the beauty it encapsulates. Nonetheless this poetry in action and the political undertones are not enough to lift the movie, that is horrendously hampered by a disjointed and messy story. As Kar Wai decides to float in a dreamlike fashion while interjecting pathos into many speeches, the end result is unfortunately a dramatic mess, which fails to flesh out the story, but manages to stay pretentious for all two many scenes.
Restraint borders with pomposity, the tone traverse at time into over- sentimentality, while subtleness flirts unkindly with irrelevance. Unfortunately, this quasi-biopic the lack of structure works to overall detriment, leaving but a set of memorable scenes to admire, while the rest barely registers. Painfully disappointing movie, which despite my admiration, must register as a failed return by the cinematic grandmaster.
As the outer reality of Japanese and English occupation brings about varying internal conflicts, Kar Wai treats us to enchanting poetic scenes of combat, bringing out the beauty of the dance with a mix of slow motion, trademark camera shots and the odd bit of wires. This does cause the fights to lack in intensity, instead bringing about the fluidity of movement and the beauty it encapsulates. Nonetheless this poetry in action and the political undertones are not enough to lift the movie, that is horrendously hampered by a disjointed and messy story. As Kar Wai decides to float in a dreamlike fashion while interjecting pathos into many speeches, the end result is unfortunately a dramatic mess, which fails to flesh out the story, but manages to stay pretentious for all two many scenes.
Restraint borders with pomposity, the tone traverse at time into over- sentimentality, while subtleness flirts unkindly with irrelevance. Unfortunately, this quasi-biopic the lack of structure works to overall detriment, leaving but a set of memorable scenes to admire, while the rest barely registers. Painfully disappointing movie, which despite my admiration, must register as a failed return by the cinematic grandmaster.