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The Grandmaster

The Grandmaster (2013)

August. 30,2013
|
6.6
|
PG-13
| Drama Action History

Ip Man's peaceful life in Foshan changes after Gong Yutian seeks an heir for his family in Southern China. Ip Man then meets Gong Er who challenges him for the sake of regaining her family's honor. After the Second Sino-Japanese War, Ip Man moves to Hong Kong and struggles to provide for his family. In the mean time, Gong Er chooses the path of vengeance after her father was killed by Ma San.

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Lawbolisted
2013/08/30

Powerful

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Cortechba
2013/08/31

Overrated

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Allison Davies
2013/09/01

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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Juana
2013/09/02

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

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phoenix 2
2013/09/03

Okay, to be honest, I was confused through most of the film. The sudden pause of the sequences and the text "break" were tiring and a little all over the place. And the ending... you will think that it's going to end, but then another sequence appears and another and another. It's like the film makers didn't want to let go. The film is based on real events, though the kung fu fights were so beautiful, they seemed like they were taken from the lovely Chinese war fantasies, with the long swords and the kings, not to mention the air fighting scenes. The way the kung fu move interacted with the natural elements was magical and of course the rain fighting scene was excellent, in my opinion, the best of the whole movie. You can feel the values of the kung fu throughout the movie, with the "schools" of the art and the loyalty towards the master. I think that that was the one thing the movie wanted to come through the audience, and if so, then they succeeded beautifully. The performances, lastly, were nice, though the costumes could have been better. So, 4 out of 10.

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Jeremy Zhang
2013/09/04

I think The Grandmaster is the tribute to martial arts and it is a literary film. Obviously, it is not a story of a master or a story of one style of martial arts. It is the heritage and development of the martial arts of Hong Kong in the era. It also shows audiences the Chinese martial arts and what deep meaning they have. In the movie we saw the three main contents:1. IP man as a martial artist, he does not have a martial arts school and he only teaches people who he likes. Because he does not think learn martial arts likes to buy vegetables in market, he should thinking and take care;2. Gong leaves hometown and living in Hong Kong, she is dispirited and discouraged so she does not want to teach people martial arts any more;3. Yixiantian set up a school of martial arts, and teaches people. They are three common situations of martial arts in that era.In the early China, the word kung fu does not exist. We just call it "martial arts". It is a fighting skill. In the film, before shooting actors to follow the real folk martial arts master learning martial arts, so the martial arts in the film comes from real factions in China. And, different factions have different forms. (Completely different combat skills) that is different in martial arts films. We usually see Kong fu in martial arts film is powerful and amazing, but this kind of kung fu mostly depends on the stunt, it is not real. The design of the many plots in the film contains some "rules" in the real world of martial arts: for example, Gong challenges Ye, narrowly won a little bit, so she cuts her hair and decided not marry. And she challenges to Ma San to revenge--this is the custom of the world of martial arts. In Chinese traditional culture people pay a lot of attention to practice and restrain them. Both of their thoughts and actions. So we can see even if Gong is a woman, she also fight for honour of her family. And Ye is loyal and brave when he faces a troublous country. The director of the film is Karwei Wong. He is a famous Hong Kong director. People familiar with the director should have a similar feeling - his film give person a feeling like they are in the dream. Wong's narrative way is not consistent; he likes the story apart and reassembles. And on colors Karwei Wong likes high strength contrast between cool color and warm color, dark and light. Wong's films always vague. But in The Grandmaster, he takes more serious, sincere and humanistic care. There are lots sentences very significant in the movie. "Encounters:All the encounters in the world seem like reuniting after a long separation." "Even thousands of mountains could not obstruct the way to realize one promise." "There must something keeping in your mind that makes you remember someone." And so on. These sentences expressed the attitude of people in facing love and duty. There are a lot of the audience asked, why Gong and Ye not to be together? Finally, I want to use a Chinese proverb to answer: rather than leave them to moisten each other with their damp and spittle it would be far better to let them forget themselves in their native rivers and lakes. (this sentences from Chuang tzu)I think it means sometimes people should understand all the arts of life is how to holding on and letting go.In The Grandmaster, I love these martial arts most. Because fighting dramas very wonderful in this film. In China, different Chinese martial arts usually mean different thinking. In this movie we can see Wing Chun, Eight Diagrams Palm, Octupole Fist and so on. And it is easy to find that eight diagrams palm is from Daoism, because the concept of the eight diagrams is from Daoism. The glamour of Chinese martial arts is not how fighting skills powerful. It is every different martial arts makes people think about self, think about life and other people. Ye has a sentence" To see myself. To see the world. To see the life." In Chinese traditional culture, people always think about the relationship between people and nature, between people and society, between people and people. We can see many Chinese directors discuss this topic and elements in their movies. (Like Ang Lee and Yimou Zhang) After watching The Grandmaster, I think it is not a typical martial arts film, it show more deeply meaning of what martial arts real are.

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jmpomaha
2013/09/05

This is not your father's martial art film. It is as much an art film as it is a martial arts film. This is the fact and fiction based story of Ip Man, the Kung Fu master who trained Bruce Lee. The story begins before the Japanese invaded China and starting off WWII in Asia. It is a time when China was a society where Western ideals of Democracy were in its infancy and men of leisure and skill spent their days in social clubs practicing the styles of Kung Fu. A lone woman, the daughter of one of the masters, comes in to challenge the status quo and wins the heart of the married family man Ip Man.This is not a happy tale. The Japanese invade China and after the war the Communists take over. He loses both his family and his true love. But in the end you walk away smiling and know that you did not waste your precious time.Though some of the fight sequences turn into Wire Fu, it is done so well that even most fight purists will give it a pass. The story, direction, acting and photography are first rate. I was captivated during the entire film and fell in love, once more, with the enchanting actress Ziyi Yang. Both Yang and Tony Leung give the performances of their careers.

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classicsoncall
2013/09/06

As is my practice, I'll read a handful of other reviewers on the film in question, and in doing so here, everyone I read seemed to have some knowledge of the Ip Man history and the films dealing with the subject. I harbor no such knowledge or background. Quite honestly, I pick up these modern day martial arts films for their visual beauty and skillful presentation of fighting styles and not for the story per se because they're almost always the same. This picture offered some well choreographed fight scenes, many of them on surfaces that should have been a hindrance to maintaining coordination and balance, such as on snow and in the rain. Instead of brightly colored backgrounds, the general rendition here was primarily dark and unappealing. Unlike some other reviewers, I didn't have a lot of trouble following the story as it were; whether it had anything remotely to do with historical accuracy I have no way of knowing. Many times a picture will leave me with the desire to learn more about a subject by the way it sets the table; this movie's failure in that regard left me feeling indifferent.

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