THE GRANDMASTER

Yi dai zong shi

Director Wong Kar-wai / 2013

"A scintillating mix of explosive action choreography and suppressed emotion ... contains some of the most dazzling fights ever seen onscreen." – Hollywood Reporter

Years in the making, Wong Kar-wai's long-awaited martial arts epic is exactly what you'd expect from the great auteur: a giddy swirl of breathtaking cinematography, stunning set pieces and ethereal atmospherics bound together by an eloquent, yearning romanticism.

A hallucinatory biopic of the legendary Ip Man (Tony Leung) – Bruce Lee's teacher – The Grandmaster sees Ip embroiled in a feud-turned-affair with Gong Er (Zhang Ziyi), the scion of a rival kung-fu school. Torn apart by war and their duties to family, they offer a beautifully realised study of unrequited love, the shifting face of honour and the savage grace of true martial arts.

With input from regular Wong collaborators William Chang (editor/art director), Shigeru Umebayashi (composer) and Yuen Woo-ping (legendary stunt/action choreographer), The Grandmaster is a glorious cinematic experience and should not be missed on the big screen.

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