"The Grandmaster"

[Aspiring Mogul]

I just saw "The Grandmaster", a semi-true biopic about Ip Man, the master who taught Bruce Lee how to fight. The director, Wong War Kai, may be a good visual director, but he seems to focus too much on telling, not showing, and the essence of movie (or any other artistic genre) is to show, not tell.

Many online reviews seem to like it, but many also feel, like I do, that it's mediocre. So I'll give it a C+ or B-.

That said, it's inspiring me ever more to be a film producer.

 

[IndiePaul]

True.

I did enjoy the movie though but I was hoping for more.

 

[TheArtist]

How does it compare to Ip Man and Ip Man 2 which were both fantastic ?

 

[Aspiring Mogul]

How does it compare to Ip Man and Ip Man 2 which were both fantastic ?

I've been wondering about that, because I didn't watch either - I think there's a bubble in Ip Man biographies.

 

[TheArtist]

You should watch them. Ip Man 1 has one of the most beautiful kung-fu battle scenes cinema has been graced with.

And Donnie Yen is amazing in his role.

 

[IndiePaul]

You should watch them. Ip Man 1 has one of the most beautiful kung-fu battle scenes cinema has been graced with.

As good as the ones in Jet Li's Fearless? The Fearless fight choreography blew me away.

I'll rent Ip Man 1 this week.

 

[TheArtist]

I said "one of the best" instead of "the best" to avoid tricky comparisons .

But in my opinion, Ip Man fights are less "crazy" and more realistic. At least for the first one as the second one has some wild action.

Anyway, I don't want to spoil it for you so just watch it, you won't be disappointed.

 

[IndiePaul]

I said "one of the best" instead of "the best" to avoid tricky comparisons .

But in my opinion, Ip Man fights are less "crazy" and more realistic. At least for the first one as the second one has some wild action.

Anyway, I don't want to spoil it for you so just watch it, you won't be disappointed.

Will do. Am looking forward to it.

I'm also looking forward to:

Man Of Tai Chi (2013) - directed by Keanu Reeves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd5WUn2oM8Y

And if you have not seen the 2004 Arahan, try to get yourself a copy.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0404777/

Arahan is a contemporary martial arts movie set in Korea. It's one of my favorite little-known martial art movie gems. The story is quite unique, has some humor etc and I actually very much enjoyed it. It does not take itself too seriously but the writers did a lot of research into martial arts, meditation, chi etc and that's reflected in the story. Some may hate it. I loved it. Note there are various 'trailers' for it out there - some are terrible and badly reflect the movie.