The Grandmaster
Wong’s big-budget salute to the golden age of Chinese martial arts hits the precise target that so many auteurs miss when taking on genre films: successfully paying homage to the action while still remaining true to their own aesthetics. Wong’s ever-present muse Tony Leung Chiu-wai stars as the legendary Ip Man (Bruce Lee’s mentor), attempting to unite several martial arts factions in a Republican China under threat from Japanese invasion. The locations range from the subtropical south to the snowbound north. Throughout, the film’s “style isn’t reducible to ravishing surfaces; it’s an expression of meaning. . . . A hypnotically beautiful dream” (Manohla Dargis, New York Times).
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