Review of The Grandmaster (2013) by Keenan S — 17 May 2014

The Grandmaster is a beautiful, but flawed drama/martial arts film. I was intrigued to see a film about the man who trained Bruce Lee as so aggressively advertised with the film, but I wasn't quite sure of what to expect from this film. It's more of a drama than a martial arts film, but I think it works quite well in both categories, as well as being visually stunning to look at and interesting in the number of philosophies it presents.

As stated in advertisements, the film is about Ip Man, the Wing Chun master who trained Bruce Lee and his tumultuous life from the 1930's through the early 50's. It also focuses on his battles, his attempts to unite Northern and Southern martial artists together, the Japanese invasion, the loss of his family, and falling in love with a woman named Gong Er, who is the daughter of a grandmaster whom he defeated, who is on her own quest for revenge against one of her father's students who killed him and betrayed not only their school, but the country as a whole.

The plot, while interesting, unfortunately feels muddled and rushed at certain points. In an attempt to talk about the lives of two people, the film condensed a bit too much into a scant 100-some-odd minutes (At least here in the U.S.). I remember there were even points where I shouted, "Whoa, movie! Slow down!" because there were some points where it tried to go too fast as it crammed so many plot elements together. I wish we got to see the much longer version of the film because it feels too short for what it wants to do, but should have been a 2.5, 3, or even 4-hour film (I love film epics, I wish this had happened) to properly develop all these ideas. Still, while the plot can be unfocused and muddled at times, it is still quite compelling and interesting to follow, especially with all the tragedy and drama contained within it.

It also helps that the acting is quite good from Tony Leung and Ziyi Zhang who dominate the screen whenever they appear, as well as having terrific chemistry with one another. The other actors are pretty solid, but they are left in the shadows of the two leads.

On top of having loads of drama, there are also plenty of well done and exciting action scenes to please fans of martial arts films. Then again, the action should be good considering the guy who choreographed the fights was the same guy behind the choreography of The Matrix, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Kill Bill. Each fight scene is visceral, exciting, and a whole lot of fun.

While the story is flawed, it is still quite interesting, and the film also has plenty of drama, great acting, awesome fight scenes, beautiful visuals, great music, and more to satisfy the viewer. While I wish the plot had been written better, The Grandmaster is a beautiful and flawed drama that is still quite good.