I found this in a charity shop when I was looking for something totally unrelated and thought since I so enjoyed In the Mood for Love and Happy Together, I’d give it a shot. This is quite a different film to either of those two, it’s both a biopic and a martial arts film which leads to an interesting mix of styles.
It should be said, I’m not a huge fan of Chinese Martial arts films, I haven’t seen many, but I just really dont respond to the wire work and some of the more outlandish elements I’ve noticed in the martial arts films I have seen. Thankfully The Grandmaster is never as ridiculous as Hero was, perhaps because of its solid, recent historical background. The film opens with a horribly directed fight scene in the streets, the action is sloppy, obscured by torrential rain and clunky editing with not enough context to care about what’s happening. The other fight scenes following this are all better, and the simpler they are, the better, though none of them hugely stood out to me, maybe because I was not engaged with the characters or story for the most part due to some confusing presentation with lots of time jumping and location changing.
It’s a beautifully shot film, but its almost a little chaotic, every shot seems to be trying to prove a point with how beautiful it is but some of the shot changes feel a little unmotivated and it can lacks cohesiveness. This problem bleeds into the fight scenes at points with detail close ups that work to slow down the pace of the action. But some of the shots are just stunning and the costumes and sets are worthy of such a considered lens. The acting is very strong throughout, Tony Leung is great as the lead, Ip Man, its a very internalised performance, lacking many big dramatic beats but there’s a very clear sense of discipline and melancholy that he carries with him. I also enjoyed Zhang Ziyi as Gong Er, the female lead who has some good fight seasons and the strongest driving action which makes her the most interesting. This was a big problem for me getting into the film was that there was much sense of a story or what Ip man wants throughout, towards the end there’s some compelling stuff with him as a man from a different time in a changing world but it’s not quite enough.
I know pretty much nothing about Chinese history and certainly nothing about what was covered in this film, I actually didn’t realise that Ip Man was a real person, so I do feel that a fair bit must have gone over my head. Similarly, some of the traditions escaped me, Gong Er, as part of a revenge takes an oath that she will never teach, marry or have children but I really struggled to understand why she did this or what it would achieve. The film worked best for me outside of the fights, the relationship between Ip Man and Gong Er was compelling as was the melancholy tone that’s found in the back half. I love watching films from other cultures and I’ve loved 95% of the Asian cinema I’ve seen, but this one felt somewhat impenetrable to me, I’m glad I watched it but I can’t really say I liked it much.
Film Musings 