The Grandmaster (2013)

Original title

一代宗師

Directed by

Wong Kar-wai

Genre

drama film, action film, biographical film, martial arts film

Country

Hong Kong, People's Republic of China

Runtime

2h 10m

Rated

PG-13

Rating

6.6 of 10 from 991 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

The film follows the life of Wing Chun grandmaster Ip Man in 1930s China. It shows his martial arts mastery and personal journey through a time of national upheaval.

elegantcontemplativevisually lushpoeticslow-burnmelancholicintimatemeditative

What happens

The Grandmaster (Chinese: 一代宗师, Yi dai zong shi) is a 2013 martial arts drama film based on the life story of the Wing Chun grandmaster Ip Man. The film was directed and written by Wong Kar-wai. A Hong Kong-Chinese co-production, it was released on 8 January 2013 in China, and screened as the opening film at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival in February 2013. It was selected as part of the 2013 Hong Kong International Film Festival. The Weinstein Company acquired the international distribution rights for the film. The film was selected as the Hong Kong entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards, making the January shortlist, but ultimately did not receive the nomination. Despite this, the film was nominated for Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design. Although The Grandmaster was not as popular as others of Wong Kar-Wai's works in the western world, this film was highly-praised and applauded in the Chinese-speaking world for its profound philosophical depth, historical perspective, and break-through of the Kung-Fu film genre, further cementing Wong's "Grandmaster" Status in Chinese cinema. The film received a record-breaking 12 awards in the 33rd Hong Kong Film Awards, most wins for a single film in history. Zhang Ziyi also received an unprecedented 12 different Best Actress awards for her performance. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

• Ip Man (2008)
• Ip Man: The Final Fight (2013)
• Ip Man 2 (2010)
• The Legend Is Born – Ip Man (2010)
• Ip Man 3 (2015)
• Ip Man 4: The Finale (2019)
• Unbeatable (2013)
• The Final Master (2015)