Review of The Grandmaster (2013) by Caesar M — 21 Mar 2013

It's seem Yip Man is now in the same league as famous Martial Artists Wong Fei-Hong and Liu Zhensheng (Chen Zhen in films) with each of the mention having films made about them. It's because of these films these Martial Artist will be immortalize in the genre and very doubtful they'll disappear from the big screen anytime soon. Films based around Yip Man still have a long way to go before they can surpassed what Donnie Yen films brought to the table.

The Grandmaster 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. I waited a good two hours for some resemblance of plot to appear, but it never came. What you get is a series of excuses for fight scenes. Two people arguing over money equals fight scene. A women wants to reclaim her family honor is resolve with a fight scene. How did good is our protagonist Martial Art by introducing him with a cliche flashback fight scene in the rain where he takes down dozen of combatants. A woman is told by her elders not seek vengeance which her dead father told to but who cares about mature storytelling add another fight scene defeating the point that long dramatic scene. The film is simple to follow, but the dialogue is always on martial arts or philosophy make it difficult to make sense of what's going on. I don't mind learning about Martial Arts, but conversations solely around Martial Art won't tell your film story. It would have also be nice if the film characters talked about others thing beside Martial Arts, philosophy, and love. Maybe that's why the film needed cards to tell us happened to Ip Man because the writers themselves can't. The characterization for master Ip Man is great, but supporting character are forgettable. It's a more story oriented film than the previous films based on Ip Man and managed to make that a bad thing. When your film is based on Ip Man and does not concentrate on the technique he's most famous for or IP Man himself your writers have done something seriously wrong.

The film benefits from very high production values. The costuming, the music, and the sets are top notch surpassing most films in this genre. The fights scenes will not be as famous as Donnie Yen films but they are noteworthy. They are nicely choreographed, but the director screws them up. The director will zoom in on a small detail in slow motion and at times just slow motion breaking the momentum of the fight. It's difficult to enjoy these fight scenes given they lack gravity. This film is going for a more realistic and gritty take on the famous Martial Artist but the fight scenes destroy that realism. Last time I checked no person in real life can squish a carriage with their bare hands and be consciously fine when their face is punched into a moving a train. The editing is clearly noticeable in these fight scenes to hide the fact the lead actor know no Martial Art. Which is shame since Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi perform impressively given their lack of a martial arts background. The months of training to get them prepared physically for their respective roles paid off in the grace and confidence by which they execute their moves. There was no need for to over edit their fight scenes if they moved like actual Martial Artist. At leas the film is pretty to look at, but comes with a price when your more interested in how it looks than what actually going on half of the time.

The Grandmaster is my first major disappointment of this year. The films focuses to much on other character instead of the one the film is based around on. It doesn't tell it story well and given how much of Ip Man life it chronicle it's a shame the film couldn't have a better script. The fight scenes also suffered from bad editing and the director breaking the momentum for his visuals. At best it's an alright film having better production values than most and focusing heavily on its story, but that goes to waste on plot that forgets whose story it's telling and how to to properly tell it.