Best movie of this year hands down!

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Okay, to be honest, I was confused through most of the film. The sudden pause of the sequences and the text "break" were tiring and a little all over the place. And the ending... you will think that it's going to end, but then another sequence appears and another and another. It's like the film makers didn't want to let go. The film is based on real events, though the kung fu fights were so beautiful, they seemed like they were taken from the lovely Chinese war fantasies, with the long swords and the kings, not to mention the air fighting scenes. The way the kung fu move interacted with the natural elements was magical and of course the rain fighting scene was excellent, in my opinion, the best of the whole movie. You can feel the values of the kung fu throughout the movie, with the "schools" of the art and the loyalty towards the master. I think that that was the one thing the movie wanted to come through the audience, and if so, then they succeeded beautifully. The performances, lastly, were nice, though the costumes could have been better. So, 4 out of 10.

Kar Wai Wong tries his hand on martial arts films and trips all over his first movements. That is more or less what happens with "The Grandmaster", which looks amazing, has a confusing story (even if it is a very simple one) and the longest train I remember.The story is simple enough, and follows famous Bruce Lee's master Ip Man and two moments of his life: in Foshan, around 1936 and afterwards, in Hong-Kong. The two parts of the movie are not really well gelled, and the plot wanders and loses itself in the hills.As said above, it looks really beautiful, but Kar Wai Wong just seems to have understood "be water" in the meaning of endless fights under the rain. Which look cool, I have to admit, but empty and shallow. Martial arts films are not only about the fights, but also about the spectacle, the martial arts per se, and the thrill of fighters jumping, falling and breaking bones. Here, it looks as Kar Wai Wong looked at "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and thought that what the movie was lacking was more slow motion.The actors do a good job, even if Ziyi Zhang is not at the top of her game. Tony Leung as Ip Man is, and he shows a lot with just a little bit of his lips curling or an eyebrow raising. But the director is just thinking about making a pretty looking film, not a film with heart. And that hurts the story and the end result.Beautiful and empty.

I think The Grandmaster is the tribute to martial arts and it is a literary film. Obviously, it is not a story of a master or a story of one style of martial arts. It is the heritage and development of the martial arts of Hong Kong in the era. It also shows audiences the Chinese martial arts and what deep meaning they have. In the movie we saw the three main contents:1. IP man as a martial artist, he does not have a martial arts school and he only teaches people who he likes. Because he does not think learn martial arts likes to buy vegetables in market, he should thinking and take care;2. Gong leaves hometown and living in Hong Kong, she is dispirited and discouraged so she does not want to teach people martial arts any more;3. Yixiantian set up a school of martial arts, and teaches people. They are three common situations of martial arts in that era.In the early China, the word kung fu does not exist. We just call it "martial arts". It is a fighting skill. In the film, before shooting actors to follow the real folk martial arts master learning martial arts, so the martial arts in the film comes from real factions in China. And, different factions have different forms. (Completely different combat skills) that is different in martial arts films. We usually see Kong fu in martial arts film is powerful and amazing, but this kind of kung fu mostly depends on the stunt, it is not real. The design of the many plots in the film contains some "rules" in the real world of martial arts: for example, Gong challenges Ye, narrowly won a little bit, so she cuts her hair and decided not marry. And she challenges to Ma San to revenge--this is the custom of the world of martial arts. In Chinese traditional culture people pay a lot of attention to practice and restrain them. Both of their thoughts and actions. So we can see even if Gong is a woman, she also fight for honour of her family. And Ye is loyal and brave when he faces a troublous country. The director of the film is Karwei Wong. He is a famous Hong Kong director. People familiar with the director should have a similar feeling - his film give person a feeling like they are in the dream. Wong's narrative way is not consistent; he likes the story apart and reassembles. And on colors Karwei Wong likes high strength contrast between cool color and warm color, dark and light. Wong's films always vague. But in The Grandmaster, he takes more serious, sincere and humanistic care. There are lots sentences very significant in the movie. "Encounters：All the encounters in the world seem like reuniting after a long separation." "Even thousands of mountains could not obstruct the way to realize one promise." "There must something keeping in your mind that makes you remember someone." And so on. These sentences expressed the attitude of people in facing love and duty. There are a lot of the audience asked, why Gong and Ye not to be together? Finally, I want to use a Chinese proverb to answer: rather than leave them to moisten each other with their damp and spittle it would be far better to let them forget themselves in their native rivers and lakes. （this sentences from Chuang tzu）I think it means sometimes people should understand all the arts of life is how to holding on and letting go.In The Grandmaster, I love these martial arts most. Because fighting dramas very wonderful in this film. In China, different Chinese martial arts usually mean different thinking. In this movie we can see Wing Chun, Eight Diagrams Palm, Octupole Fist and so on. And it is easy to find that eight diagrams palm is from Daoism, because the concept of the eight diagrams is from Daoism. The glamour of Chinese martial arts is not how fighting skills powerful. It is every different martial arts makes people think about self, think about life and other people. Ye has a sentence" To see myself. To see the world. To see the life." In Chinese traditional culture, people always think about the relationship between people and nature, between people and society, between people and people. We can see many Chinese directors discuss this topic and elements in their movies. (Like Ang Lee and Yimou Zhang) After watching The Grandmaster, I think it is not a typical martial arts film, it show more deeply meaning of what martial arts real are.

Rarely have I seen a movie with such a marriage of art and poetry. It seemed like studying a paining at depth while hearing a poet/teacher tell a story of his life. Ip's story and his connection to Gong Er was operatic. I was engrossed to the end by the performances. The direction and cinematography was the best I've seen in a long while. The long, slow scenes were perfect for the story as it was told mixed with a soundtrack that was appropriate throughout. I truly enjoyed this movie and I will add this to my private collection as a movie I will want to return to again and again. Even the fight scenes were more dance or ballet than simple fighting but with technique and flow rarely seen. I highly recommend this film.