a5c7b9f00b The story of martial-arts master Ip Man, the man who trained Bruce Lee. Ip Man&#39;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&#39;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. If this movie was a book, the gilded cover would be beautiful and ornate. The first few chapters would be riveting. The way the story was set up was genius. I was ready for an epic. It was going to be a story about a hero. Two heroes! Bruce Lee and his Master. <br/><br/>Sure, Kar Wai Wong pointed to the moon, but he didn&#39;t feed the audience anymore secret understanding once the champions were chosen. The main character became a cardboard cut out. Ip Man didn&#39;t have a voice. Bruce Lee was nothing more than a photograph, a way to wrap up the talethe non-existent-love story fizzled and the anti-heroine died. How could anyone say this was a story about Ip Man? He was only incidental.<br/><br/>This could&#39;ve been a tale about the spiritualism of Native Americans, I mean, 10,000 years of Tibetans studying psychology, I mean, the history of martial arts and how chaos unpacks these traditions it for the rest of us. It could&#39;ve shown how the world clings to what preciousness it can glean from these traditionstheir foundations crumble. Too much time was spent on falling snow and crouching tigers going extinct. There was no larger vision. Ip Man didn&#39;t have a voice. &#39;THE GRANDMASTER&#39;: Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)<br/><br/>Critically acclaimed Kung Fu epic about legendary Chinese martial-arts master Ip Man. Ip Man was the Wing Chun grandmaster and his most famous student was Bruce Lee. This film chronicles the years leading up to his successa martial arts teacher. It stars Tony Leung Chiu-WaiIp Man and Zhang ZiyiGong Er, his main love interest. Kar Wai Wong directed and co-wrote the movie (with Jingzhi Zou and Haofeng Xu). Wong is famous for directing and writing other popular Hong Kong period piece dramas like &#39;2046&#39; and &#39;IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE&#39;. I&#39;d rate this flick about the sameWong&#39;s others; I thought it was extremely beautiful to look at but it&#39;s also a tad too hard to follow and uninvolving.<br/><br/>The story focusesmuch on Gong Er (Ziyi)it does Ip Man and follows a love story between the twothey keep in contact for many years following a fight for Gong&#39;s family&#39;s honor. Ip Man had defeated her father, Gong Yutian (Wang Qingxiang) in a battle that wasmuch about philosophical ideascombat. The film follows Ip Man&#39;s years during the Second Sino-Japanese War, in 1938, struggling through poverty with his family. It also focuses on Gong Er&#39;s attempt at vengeance against the man who murdered her father, Ma San (Zhang Jin).<br/><br/>The story is told in a very disjointed way and it was really hard for me to keep up with what was going on in it. I often find these epic Hong Kong Kung Fu flicks to be dull anyway and wasn&#39;t too interested in seeing this one. It did get mostly good reviews from critics though and it&#39;s nominated for two 2014 Oscars (in Cinematography and Costume Design). It definitely deserves those award nominations and is very breathtaking to look at. I also think Zhang Ziyi is one of the more beautiful and sexy women in cinema today and she gives a great performance here. I&#39;m not sure how I feel about Leung Chiu-Waian actor, he&#39;s not bad in this movie but I didn&#39;t really learn to care for his character much at all. The martial-arts scenes are grand and epic though and I&#39;m sure fans of the genre will be more than pleased.<br/><br/>Watch our movie review show &#39;MOVIE TALK&#39; at: The Grandmaster offers welcome relief from a moviegoing summer spent in sensory overload.
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