The Grandmaster: DVD Review

THOMAS DEEHAN REVIEWS THE VISUALLY BEAUTIFUL THE GRANDMASTER

While some were raised on the works of Jane Austen or the cartoons of Hanna-Barbera, I was well acquainted with Bruce Lee and his antics by the age of 12, a direct result of having a father who is an absolute fanatic about martial arts. The consequence of all this is that I’m quite particular in what I expect from a martial arts film, which allowed The Grandmaster to simultaneously surprise and disappoint me.

The Grandmaster is certainly not the first film to tackle the story of Ip Man, the legendary Wing Chun master who brought the style to the masses, and it definitely won’t be the last. When you read into the man’s life it’s not hard to understand why, as he suffered great turmoil at the hands of the Japanese during their invasion of China. Arguably, though, he remains best known as the man who taught a very young Bruce Lee. Some of the more popular examples of film depicting this intriguing figure are the imaginatively titled Ip Man (2008) and its sequel, Ip Man 2(2010). While these films focus almost exclusively on the life of Ip Man, The Grandmaster takes a different approach to separate itself from the norm.

While The Grandmaster does spend a great deal of time with Ip Man, as the ambiguity of the title might imply, he is not the only major character. Instead we are treated to the visual trials and tribulations of the femme fatale Gong Er, and her father, Gong Yutian, arguably the original Grandmaster of this tale. Their story is certainly an intriguing one, as it depicts a fall from grace due to the Japanese invasion, and Gong Er spends most of the film trying to reclaim her family honour from the adopted son Ma San who betrayed her father. The use of multiple story-lines prevents The Grandmaster from rehashing the same Ip Man story that has been told before, particularly with the fight between Gong Er and Ip Man that sees the latter lose (albeit by a very small margin), a refreshing take on a man who had otherwise been portrayed as utterly invincible up until this point.

The epic nature of this fight should not be underestimated, and it is here that you’ll find the film’s greatest strength. All of the fight scenes are expertly choreographed and you can sense a genuine respect for martial arts as the camera closely follows arm movement, and frequently depicts foot movement in order to coherently show the various stances that are being used. This respect for technique is only further emphasised by the accompanying dialogue that explains the origin of certain moves and why they are used. All of these aspects combine to make some of the most engaging fight scenes I have ever seen.

For all of my praises for the fight scenes, The Grandmaster falls flat when it comes to editing and conversational dialogue. The slow-motion effects which characterise much of the fight scenes feel redundant within the rest of the film. This attempt to try and add grandeur to the film also extends to most of the dialogue, in which it’s less of a genuine conversation and more of an exchange of fortune cookie phrases in an attempt to try and appear more intelligent than the other person. It just gets old really quickly and makes the film unnecessarily preachy.

For all its missteps, I still feel compelled to recommend seeing The Grandmaster, if only to truly appreciate a good fight scene. By all means, fast forward the scenes in between to save yourself from boredom. The Grandmaster may be visually beautiful but it is narratively confused.