“What’s your style?”
The Grandmaster
Directed by Wong Kar Wai
A review by
Ernest M. Whiteman III
The Grandmaster
Directed by Wong Kar Wai
A review by
Ernest M. Whiteman III
I usually peg on pretty quickly
which movie has become my favorite for the year the instant I walk out of the
theater. The movie has to engross me with its story and characters, it needs to
thrill me with its innovation, it needs to inspire me to make my own movies and
it needs to have me grinning like a fool just thinking about it as I walk out
of the theater and long afterwards.
The Grandmaster, the latest film
from Wong Kar Wai, did just that. In a sea of same-looking blockbusters that
did nothing but take the money from your pocket, “The Grandmaster” offered a
unique visual style, keen action sequences and a touching love story at the
heart of its non-linear narrative.
I know, I know, Donnie Yen,
Badass, blah, blah, blah. “The Grandmaster” elevates itself by not playing to
the pretense of a kung fu movie but by being a movie about kung fu. Styles are
discussed and displayed, how these styles reflect the philosophies of how the
practitioners live and use their martial arts is reflected by the character
conflicts within the broken narratives.
The great Tony Leung (In the Mood for Love, Hard-Boiled, Red Cliff
I & II) takes the role of Ip Man, a renowned master in the fighting
form of Wing Chung, is selected to display the Southern Style of kung fu before
the Northern Grandmaster, who is not portrayed as a rival or an enemy. Instead
of a huge fight, which we would have gotten with the Donnie Yen series, we get
a philosophical showdown between to competing masters with Ip showing how his
flexibility in form matches his flexibility in philosophy and life. Seeing his
vision for kung fu limits, the Grandmaster cedes his title to Ip Man.
In revenge for defeating her
father, Gong Er (Zhang Ziyi, Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero, House of Flying Daggers) challenges Ip Man to a
duel to regain, not only her father’s honor, but also the honor of their house
and kung fu philosophy. In a moment of concern, Ip Man loses the duel but sets
off a long distance infatuation that spans the rest of their lives. Here, at
the core of this movie about kung fu is a story of unrequited attraction – we
are in Wong Kar Wai territory now and he makes the story his own.
Most audiences are satisfied with
“balls-to-the-wall” action of modern cinema, the brutality of one person
beating another, the show of dominance. Movies are not supposed to try and
elevate above that; movies are entertainment, they are not meant to provoke
thought but only to give you something to do for a few hours, give you
something to cheer. But, “The Grandmaster” elevates the themes of Style of
Life/Self above its king fu roots. That is what I loved about it.
We quickly follow Ip Man’s life
through the Second World War and his move to Hong Kong to make a living after
losing his family’s fortune. Here he reconnects with Gong Er and his desire to
see her skills in a rematch are thwarted due to a long-ago promise she made.
The film then shifts to Gong Er and of the sacrifices she makes to reclaim her
father’s kung fu legacy after his prized student usurps the claim of
grandmaster, resulting in her father’s death. What follows is an inspired
showdown at a train station as Gong Er “takes” back her family’s legacy. Then,
we catch up with Ip Man again as they reunite years later and Gong Er is ready
to tell Ip Man how she feels because she cannot do more, the same as Ip. Two
people dedicated to their life’s philosophies and cannot move beyond their
friendship. We then see why Gong Er cannot do so. Ip Man moves on in his
instruction of his students, in voiceover, tells us the ending of Gong Er’s sad
story.
In the end, I am sure “The
Grandmaster” will not sway many fans of martial arts movies. Many enjoy the
harsher films that are about the winning of fights and the razzle-dazzle of
awesome fight sequences, when all this is completely counter to the
philosophies of kung fu, which is more of a method of self-discipline and
control. It is not what martial arts movies diverted kung fu to be, what MMA
and UFC diverted kung fu into – the winning of fights, the show of physical
dominance over an opponent, all the things counter to what Ip Man, as well as
Bruce Lee espoused, both of whom followers of MMA and UFC ironically idolize.
Note, I stated, “diverted”, not “perverted”, because in that method of
self-control is still a method of building the physical and a system of
fighting in self-defense, these indeed are martial arts. The divergence is in
how these are used.
Are they used to build your character
and how to live a good life or simply to win fights on TV? So, the question
Tony Leung as Ip Man asks in the tag of the film should resonate more than many
will understand, “What’s your style?”
He is not asking your fighting
style. He is asking how did you perceive the movie that came before, as just
another martial arts movie that you were disappointed in, or something that
touches on something deeper about how you live a life overall? Ip Man sticks to
his discipline throughout the film, even in this story’s central attraction to
Gong Er. She has fallen in love with him but he is a principled man and the
only way he can show affection is to challenge her to a duel, because going
further would dishonor himself, his wife, his family and his whole philosophy
of self-discipline.
American audiences and filmmakers
have never understood the philosophies of martial arts, martial arts movies in
particular or Asian cinema in general. Take a look at recent films such as
“Cloverfield” and “Pacific Rim” and their utter failure at attaining what
Japanese Kaizu films are about. To many, it is about a giant monster destroying
a city or a man in a rubber suit crushing miniatures. The Kaizu film began with
“Gojira” (Godzilla) and was an allegory on the destructive might and
consequences of atomic power, which the Japanese knew first hand. Here, instead
we get a might makes right in the destruction of the creatures and that nuclear weapons are the answer.
My best example of this
misunderstanding is Zhang Yimou’s “Hero” which many fans love because of the
stylized fights, yet many more detest for its seeming approval of dictatorships
as a means to peace. This point is sort of apparent because we, as American
audiences tend to forget that China still lives under said dictatorship and
censors its movies heavily, so a message like that would have to seem apparent.
Though, a film like “Hero” still manages to sneak its strongest message in very
subtly, so subtly in fact, that its went over practically everyone’s head. That
message: a message of self-control gleaned from the self-discipline of martial
arts that leads to ultimate peace.
Not about winning or control, but
a philosophy of self. That the first Emperor of China realizes this message of
self at the cusp of his domination that then renders him a virtual prisoner to
his own brutal philosophy of control. Hence the closing shot of him in his
throne room, tiny in the frame, a cell of his own making.
Wong’s “The Grandmaster” presents
the same philosophy of self in the context of the standard martial arts
fighting movie. It is all in the way we see the film. How many movies do that?
Leave it for you to interpret? Trusts its audience to see beyond the trappings
of its genre? “Pacific Rim” didn’t. Which is why that movie failed for me and why
“The Grandmaster” does not.
A couple of things that stood out
to me the times I watched “The Grandmaster”. First, when he readies to face the
Northern Grandmaster he is tutored by three southern masters, the first is a
woman who is a master of Bagua, a circular fighting system. What caught my eye
the second time I watched it, was that she had bound feet. Meaning, her feet
were broken as a child, bound and fit into slippers. To show that she mastered
Bagua despite having bound feet reveals her strength of character and tenacity.
The other thing that really stood
out was a scene late in the film that moved me to tears. I did not think it
would happen again when I went to see the film a second time, yet when the
scene played again, I felt the tears well and was not embarrassed to wipe them
away. It moved me, the scene. There is a great heart underneath the veneer of
this martial arts movie.
In a summer of many, many huge
tent pole films, I find myself saying that Wong Kar Wai’s “The Grandmaster” is
the best movie I have seen this year. It has a heart within that it wears
openly and asks you to trust it in its questioning of your spirit, what is your
style? In doing so, it reveals how you really see cinema. I do not know much
about martial arts at all. I have never studied or took part in the training of
a particular style. But, thanks to Wong Kar Wai’s “The Grandmaster”, I have a
better idea of how kung fu can reflect a Style of Self.
Highly Recommended
2013 Ernest M. Whiteman III
