Wong Kar Wei once invented a visual style that has been revolutionary. That's quite some time ago. In The Grandmaster it seems to me like he quotes himself, repeats himself, tries to make every scene remarkable and symbolic. With the result that the movie drowns in baroque pictures which do not correspond with the storyline. The camera is moving all the time, always there is something between us an the actors... a curtain, a window, fog... whatsoever. It is no martial arts film, although there is martial arts in it. But it is not a character driven movie as well, because there is to little narration, to little development. I could not integrate the figure of Razor until I read some comments and explanations. And the wife of Ip Man, who seems to be so important in the beginning, just vanishes somehow from the story plot. So do his children. All in all: very disappointing! And so much weaker than the wonderful Ip Man-movies starring Donnie Yen.

Kar Wai Wong tries his hand on martial arts films and trips all over his first movements. That is more or less what happens with "The Grandmaster", which looks amazing, has a confusing story (even if it is a very simple one) and the longest train I remember.The story is simple enough, and follows famous Bruce Lee's master Ip Man and two moments of his life: in Foshan, around 1936 and afterwards, in Hong-Kong. The two parts of the movie are not really well gelled, and the plot wanders and loses itself in the hills.As said above, it looks really beautiful, but Kar Wai Wong just seems to have understood "be water" in the meaning of endless fights under the rain. Which look cool, I have to admit, but empty and shallow. Martial arts films are not only about the fights, but also about the spectacle, the martial arts per se, and the thrill of fighters jumping, falling and breaking bones. Here, it looks as Kar Wai Wong looked at "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and thought that what the movie was lacking was more slow motion.The actors do a good job, even if Ziyi Zhang is not at the top of her game. Tony Leung as Ip Man is, and he shows a lot with just a little bit of his lips curling or an eyebrow raising. But the director is just thinking about making a pretty looking film, not a film with heart. And that hurts the story and the end result.Beautiful and empty.

I can see why some people might not like "The Grandmaster". Martial artists who want an accurate biopic of Ip Man will be as disappointed by this as by the earlier film "Ip Man"; on the other hand, such a film would probably be deadly boring to anyone else. On the other hand, people wanting a straightforward kung fu flick will also be disappointed. This is a kung fu art film, and as such, it excels. Every shot is a picture, and the film should be watched accordingly. If you don't like the kind of film where the camera pans away from a fight to zoom in on some raindrops, don't watch it.The story is a little confusing, not least because it is as much about Gong Er as Ip Man - in fact it should have been called "The Grandmasters" (a title Wong Kar-Wai briefly considered). The understated flirtation between the two of them is a rather thin device to keep the two story-lines together and the main reason I'm not giving this film a ten. Having a real person fall in love with a fictional character just seems pointless. The other thing I knocked off a point for is that the stories of the other masters - Ma San and The Razor - seem to have been mostly left on the cutting room floor. Ma Sen thus comes across as a cardboard "bad student" and The Razor seems superfluous.From a martial arts point of view, it's fun watching the different styles and the disputes between them. Again, nothing actually happened like it did in the film, and the fights are stylised representations of what a fight between masters of different styles would look like, but the moves are recognisable as Wing Chun, Hong Gar, Bagua and so forth. Zhang Ziyi studied a lot of Bagua while preparing for the film, and it shows. A martial arts (or even a martial arts film) background is not necessary to enjoy the film, though; the cinematography alone carries it.

This is a beautiful film to watch full of grace and pathos. Tony Chiu Wai Leung does a fine job as the central character Ip Man, although most of his story is told with voice overs in the English version. Through this character we experience the conflict of Martial Arts politics in the 1920's, the ruthlessness of the Japanese occupation and his life in exile. Starring beside him is the always beautiful and graceful Ziyi Zhang as Gong Er, a young woman forbidden to train, yet trained anyway by her father a master of the arts. The battle scene between Gong Er and her enemy, at a train station, was like a ballet. I was quite taken by the movements, the way the scene is lit, and the wonderful way it was cut together; showing great insight into cadence and rhythm.I am not a fan of martial arts films, but like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon this is a film to be enjoyed not only for its action scenes but for its undeniable beauty.