Nine years after 2046 (2004), Wong Kar-wai and Tony Leung Chiu-wai worked together once again to bring to life the story of Ip Man. Based on copious research by Wong, the film is an imaginative reconstruction of the Republic-era martial arts scene. Leung’s take on Ip is an accomplished martial artist with an elegant, cultured air, serving as a foil to the changing times portrayed in the film and various other personalities of the martial arts world. Through him, Wong explores not only the themes of inheritance and legacy, but also the vicissitudes of life.

The Grandmaster features many different martial arts styles, and action choreographer Yuen Wo-ping takes great care to design highly detailed, grounded, but also unique fight sequences. But Wong’s focus is not so much on the ‘martial’ as it is on the ‘arts’, as well as the related rules, ethics, and spirit of martial practice. In other words, he takes interest in the martial arts as a form of self-cultivation, and in the worldviews incorporated within. Gong Yutian (Wang Qingxiang) uses kneaded pastry as a philosophical metaphor, while Ding Lianshan (Zhao Benshan) illustrates humility with the lighting of a pipe—two most revelatory scenes about these martial artists’ spiritual worlds. Wong uses the martial arts world as a metaphor for the struggles and hardships of the passing on and inheritance of Chinese culture. Hidden analogies abound in the film: the subplot about the divide between northern and southern martial art schools is a commentary on the necessity of generational passage and integration; and the relationship between Ip Man and Gong Er (Zhang Ziyi) highlights how ‘in life, as in chess, a move once made stays on the board.’ The film is full of philosophical musings about life choices: to quit, to persist, to remember. Gong Yutian describes three stages in the practice of martial arts: understanding oneself, understanding the world, understanding all life. These are also the three stages of life.

Photos and footages of “The Grandmaster” by the courtesy of Block 2 Distribution

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