The Grandmaster

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. 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.

I enjoyed watching the movie when it came out in the theater, so I simply read the subtitles at the bottom of the screen. I remember growing up in Baltimore, Maryland and I would watch karate movies like the movie, "Five Fingers of Death", " Fist of Fury," as well as others back in the 1970's. Back then you had to read the subtitles because most of all of the Fung Fu movies were spoken in foreign language. Today, seems like everyone wants instant or microwave fix.

This movie is very different from all the original IP movies that ever produced. Fighting scenes were overly dramatic, story was slow to begin with, fighting scenes doesn't come close to the original, and half of the movie was a story of the Gang Er girl. There were a lot of scenes that I fell asleep on and that just shows that the movie was kinda boring. They need to bring the same director and actors when making IP Man's movies...