By Amanda Ack, Film Critic
The Grandmaster is probably a wonderful movie, but I wouldn’t know. I didn’t see it.
Instead, I saw a brutally butchered version of Wong Kar Wai’s action masterpiece.
For its U.S. release, 22 minutes were cut, scenes were rearranged, and unnecessary details were added to adjust the film for American audiences.
The result is a choppy, incoherent mess with enough flashes of brilliance to suggest that the original film is a far superior work.
Set in China after the fall of its last imperial dynasty, ‘The Grandmaster’ is based on the life and times of Chinese kung fu master “Ip Man” (Tony Leung), pioneer of an exquisitely simplified form of martial arts called Wing Chun (and, later in his life, mentor to Bruce Lee).
Parts of it are also about “Gong Er,” the daughter of northeastern Grandmaster Gong (Wang Qingxiang), who seeks to avenge the death of her father at the hands of “Ma Shan” (Zhang Jin).
For the most part, the film looks stunning.
Kar Wai is a filmmaking virtuoso, crafting the visuals with such skillful meticulousness that every frame is a work of art.
What’s more, the fight scenes, choreographed by Yuen Woo-Ping, are gorgeous, and vital to the story, providing essential character development through dazzling combat.
The problem is that for all its beauty, the film doesn’t actually make all that much sense.
It’s filled with awkward, clunky transitions that disrupt the flow of the story, creating an uncomfortably disjointed effect.
It also doesn’t have much of a through-line, with the focus switching abruptly from ‘“Ip Man’”to “Gong Er” in the third act.
Had the characters been given equal weight throughout the film, these shifts would have made sense. As it stands, though, the story feels peculiarly unbalanced, with “Gong Er” feeling like an afterthought.
Based on a bit of research, it’s clear that the shoddy storytelling is caused by the aforementioned cuts and alterations and not through any fault of Kar Wai’s.
Thankfully, the performances are admirable.
Leung is a subtle, refined actor, with elegance and charisma seeping from every pore.
As for Zhang, she plays her character with a captivating blend of emotional fragility and steely resolve.
Both Leung and Zhang have extended experience in martial arts films, and they handle their fight choreography beautifully.
I can’t help but find it vaguely insulting that ‘The Grandmaster’s’ US distributor, the Weinstein Company, assumed that the original version of the film would have gone above the heads of American moviegoers.
I also find it disappointing that I cannot bring myself to recommend the version I saw as a worthwhile moviegoing experience.
Here’s hoping that the international version reaches a wide audience when it’s finally released on DVD.
I, for one, will be awaiting it.
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