In the representations of many people, which, I will not hide, I also relate, oriental martial arts is a special technique of combat, characterized by steep and unusual movements. However, in practice it is a whole philosophy in which a person learns his body, his soul and his mind, honing not only movements, lifestyle, but also a whole code of honor. This idea is masterfully conveyed in the philosophical action movie “The Great Master”.
Synopsis The founder of the old martial arts school, preparing to retire, decides to hold a show fight with the best master of his time Ip Man to transfer his place to him. After winning, Ip Man agrees to a duel with the daughter of the old master Gong Er, who eventually heads the school. However, historical circumstances, including the Civil War and the Japanese occupation, change the fate of the heroes and not for the best.
"The Great Master", first of all, is distinguished by the talented "play of actors". So, I would like to mention Tony Leung Chu Wai for the performance of Ip Man, a wise master of oriental martial arts, for whom combat training is the meaning of life, which was broken by historical circumstances. Also very much liked the play of Zhang Ziyi in the role of Gong Er, who sacrificed family, love and in principle all his life to preserve the honor of his father.
Speaking of directing, the first thing that immediately catches the eye is that Wong Karwai is a Chinese filmmaker whose films are not trivial and broad philosophical outlook. And the "Great Master" in no way can be called a pure fighter. Rather, it is a deep psychological drama, raising themes of honor, family, love and homeland. Episodes with fights serve a different function, allowing you to look at the Eastern martial arts from the other side. The director attaches a lot of importance to the smallest details, movements of hands, legs and even air, thereby proving how complex the art of combat itself is. I also liked how the director in the episodes with conversations between the characters turned to the faces of the characters, leaving the background out of sight.
The script of the film tells about the early biography of the legendary martial artist Ip Man in the 1930s – 1950s and consists of several storylines that reveal the story of a particular hero. The main line, around which the plot of the film twists, tells about the old master, preparing to retire, but before that trying to find a successor first in the person of Ip Man, and then his daughter Gong Er. Without going into the details of the main characters’ stories, the script captures the tragedy of China’s time, including the more than twenty-year Civil War and the Japanese occupation that killed millions of ordinary Chinese. Thus, the writers conveyed the idea that circumstances beyond the heroes literally destroyed their lives.
Result In fact, “The Great Master” can be attributed to the subgenre of an arthouse action movie with elements of psychological drama. The disadvantage of the film is only in unnecessary storylines that do not carry any meaning. However, despite this, I would like to note that the film was shot very beautifully, colorfully and literally resembles some kind of live old Chinese picture. Therefore, I can safely recommend a movie to watch.
The National Art Museum of Belarus has a Hall of the East - that part of the exposition, which consists mainly of objects of decorative and applied art. These are lacquer boxes, vessels, items of clothing. Around this, the eastern hall, in others: Belarusian icon, Western painting. The East, thus, is represented primarily by exhibits that carry in their content not only aesthetics, but also applied purpose.
And this relationship between external (aesthetics) and internal (function) in Eastern art is quite special. And above these relations, a more obvious attribute than “we” stands philosophy – a combination of great teachings.
Films from Asia are films that, as objects of decorative and applied art, reflect the special nature of the relationship between internal and external.
The word kung fu in the East and here, following the example of the East, means martial arts - this word is synonymous with Wushu, literally "military skill". One of the most common, literal translations of “kung fu” is time spent with benefit for oneself, and, with a more specific application, “skill”. Everything is pottery, the skill of a ceramist, an artist, a dishwasher.
In true martial arts, for which kung fu is synonymous, the balance between form and content should be as perfect as the balance between the simple, sufficient beauty of a teapot and its practical convenience.
However, popular culture (especially Western) sees martial arts from a different angle.
And in most of their manifestations in the cinema, the stake is on the effect, on the external, thus hiding the content.
Thus, those who are professionally or amateurly engaged in this or that struggle have a lot of claims: “where is reality, where is reliability, where, in the end, the historical context.” After all, even those characters that actually existed are drowning in the cinematic archetype of the “hero”.
Ip Man, martial artist, great fighter and teacher, was born in the late 19th century. Like any “artist” of his art, Ip Man began to learn from childhood and always sought mastery. He is considered one of the most important figures in his field. His biography is vague and mythological. But whether the chronological table of his life or the contribution of Ip Man is more important to us now. Moreover, in our conditions, individual personality traits and individual facts are all that we can actually get. Yip Man lived in the last century, during perhaps the most difficult times in modern Chinese history – the war with Japan and the Japanese occupation.
Nevertheless, during his 79 years, Ip Man significantly rationalized and systematized his fighting style, in many ways expanded the authority of this style. In addition, he remained an unsurpassed and authoritative master – a teacher, followed by many.
The Great Master is first and foremost a film. That simple thought was worth voicing. Cinema is an art form and, like every art form, it has its own laws.
Surprisingly, the museum does not take into the halls of a talentlessly painted portrait. So it's not incompetent, it's different. And how that can be explained.
So with cinema, there are laws: principles of character construction, compositional principles, editing. These are not even rules, rather a set of mandatory conditions and their number is limited.
“The Great Master” is one of the points of view on the life of Ip Man. One look, one refraction. Actually, the "god" of the tape is the director.
Wong Kar Wai managed to unobtrusively observe the rules of the genre of “combat movies” in the film. In the film deliberately sometimes glass breaks, and people, attracted by the blow, fly farther and jump higher than possible.
However, a realistic reflection of the “combat” reality is not the goal of the creators of the picture.
For the art of the East (China in the case of our film), color is a system-forming element in the formation of aesthetics.
The color solution of the film is in tune with the coloristics of traditional Chinese painting. This refers to the overall tone of the film – the filter that binds together the outside – what the viewer sees. There is a language – a close-up language and a pace game where close-ups momentarily fix the time, fix the gaze. Some shots are separate works of art, sustained in the tradition of classical art of the East. In general, color-centrism is one of the most striking features of oriental cinema. And the great master is an example of this traditional style.
The visual means of the painting “The Great Master” are not reduced to the function of just an instrument. Despite the tangible number of fighting scenes, aesthetics is not lost, does not sink into the dynamics of martial arts. She remains equal in the frame, without her there would be no film, as it would not be without the hero.
Speaking of reliability, you can pay attention to the fact that the fighting scenes somehow convey the features of the style that Ip Man professed. Avarice and rationality of movement. Freedom according to the basic principles of style. Perhaps this credibility is conditional. However, people who are not associated with martial arts, guess in the movements of the cinematic Ip Man these traits.
A great master is a separate work of art. His narrative is woven out of strokes – scenes signify a “silhouette of thought” – do not negotiate, do not impress it. And as in a lacquer box, exquisite and bright, in his performance, the same balance of internal and external - form and content - is observed.
Life is beautiful and eternal only with unsaid stories.
Kar Wai long ago taught me to be shy of sentiment. And tears. Especially since his films can be spoken and written only by them, that is, mutter, whisper, hint.
What compares to the native Karvaev notes of hopelessness? When you see with every cell, you know that no force in the world will return the lost, the past, but it continues to live, to hurt, to shine. And you look in love and greedily at the shimmering sanctuary - the memory of past beauty, giving her soul, cohabiting, affinity.
And it is clear without words.
And speech seems wild, unnecessary, and all words – ancient, wise – drenched in gold of amber, untouchable, mute, heavy. When they fall on the scales of time, they scatter the shadows of an ancient country with butterflies.
And from their languidly dying beauty becomes stuffy.
And around fabulously golden light and smoke, through them you can not make out half-erased stories.
And ringing melodically, tirelessly oozes liquid fire - time.
And inhaling its hot stream with your eyes, you get burns of the heart.
And the raw strings of rain, like surgical threads, sew you to legend, to legend, to dreams.
And all earthly things are exhausted. The past is not his.
And memory embraces oblivion in love.
And the beginning of the fairy tale desperately seeks the end.
And, of course, it doesn't.
Life is beautiful and eternal only unsaid and uncrying stories-legends.
And so is love.
Kar Wai once again did not sing, did not finish it. It is present here only as a vision. Two in eternal separation. She's far away. He's not coming. The salt of romanticism is to seek and not find everything. Its salt is airiness, dream, limitlessness, unattainability. And no life. And no fighting.
Not warriors and fights, but gentle romantic poetry - that is the soul of the "Great Master". Light, immortal touches of love through time. Their music trembles about only one thing: Yip Man and Gun Er still dance in battle, kissing with rain and snow. A faithful knight of beauty and a nun of perfection.
Ip Man lived a long life as a ruler, and his quarrels with the world were free and peaceful, like the immaculate water of rain. Gung Eer chose to become the focus of the idea of the perfection of justice, and became a slave to the vow, and the leaky, dead eyes of revenge, grinning at her. Her love didn't come true. Life didn't come true.
And it didn't happen all without her. Halfway. Left without a button... But are we to judge? “Unknown, inviolable. Come in."
And you know, the same dance as Yip Mann and Gung Er, performed in this movie Kar Wai and his greatest love – China ... and the past.
P.S. We look at our past differently today. "Horde", "There Once Was One Woman", "Siberian Barber", "Tsar", "Weary of the Sun" ... “Everything goes straight into the eyes, lumpy, gaggy, swollen” (A. Blok). Bloated from blood, then from megalomania. We very much lack the confident and unassailable love for our homeland that Kar Wai China loves. An idealizing heart, not an order.
You can forgive a murderer, you can’t forgive a traitor. – Chinese Proverb
Yi dai zong shi / The Great Master
Premiere Date: January 8, 2013
Countries of production: Hong Kong, China.
Directed by Wong Kar-Wai.
Screenplay: Wong Kar-Wai, Jingzhi Zou, Xu Haofeng.
Operator: Philippe Le Surd.
Genre: Oriental martial arts.
Starring: Tony Leung Chu Wai, Zhang Zii.
The promise was made. Even 10,000 mountains cannot separate us. ? C)
Exotic. Master of kung fu and future teacher of Bruce Lee Ip Man 40 years lives in Foshan, not knowing grief, loves a silent beautiful wife, raises two children, goes to listen to Chinese opera singing in an elite brothel. And then one day in 1936, his old teacher Gong Bao Sen, pickling in his ear, decides to retire. His daughter Gung Er, the only successor to the technique of “64 hands”, the technique of “Hidden flower among the foliage”, calls Ipa to a duel, just whose wife successfully moved to her parents, taking the children. The only immortal love is that which remains unsettled, unlived.
Then there will be 36 years of the Sino-Japanese War, famine, the death of family and friends, the opening of their martial arts school in Hong Kong.
And one of the most beautiful declarations of love.
I'll tell you right away. First of all, it's all Asians. Second, two hours of choreographic kung fu. Thirdly, the whole film stretches a sad love mood, there is artistic rain or snow. And finally, in the fourth place, any dialogue in the high-flown oriental philosophical style. And music... Chinese opera singing is very unusual.
The movie came out purely poetic (like many other films of the director), and not everyone likes such a movie. Well, poetic realism, it's one thing, and here the poetic Usia, so to speak. But in fact it is not a wusya, it is rather a historical drama about the philosophy of kung fu in which the author tried to depict different real masters, different schools. I tried, but I didn't. Gathering information, traveling all over China, the film was going to be called "The Great Masters" & #39, not the master. Apparently, something did not set and Kar-Wai decided to limit himself because of what some episodes (as with a hairdresser spy) do not fit into the general outline of the narrative, and the plot itself essentially revolves around a love story. but despite all this, the author here showed his hand to the great master, he made a film that only Kar-Wai could make. Poetic Kung Fu Movie Where Have You Seen This? But this is probably the most obvious form for a film conversation on this topic.
P.S.
What a beautiful movie, though.
P.P.S.
And how do all these Chinese actors manage to be such good actors and kungfuists at the same time??
8 out of 10
It doesn’t take many words to describe this movie: it’s an incredibly beautiful picture and disgusting content.
Here you and raindrops, and jumping masters, Tony Leung Chu Wai wildly reminiscent of Neo from the Matrix, and the scenes of fights also resembled the film of the Wachowski brothers. Well, fights and secondary, but they are filmed beautifully. There’s nothing else in the movie, though.
The plot is served by scraps, epic lyrical inserts. It is unbearable to watch, history turns into banality. The film resembles a computer game: a small monologue of one of the characters, and then an epic fight. The story itself is also not very complicated, the entire film, despite the huge amount of time it covers, could be laid out in 10-15 minutes.
Chinese film lovers might like it, but I wasn’t impressed. The movie is worth watching for special effects.
The film shows episodes from the life of Ip Man - the great master of kung fu, born in the late 19th century. He was known to the world community as the teacher of Bruce Lee, but this topic in the film ' The Great Master' almost no time is paid. It shows his battles with other martial artists, his love story for the daughter of a deceased teacher, and his attempts to stay afloat during times of great wars and upheaval.
Everyone's different. And it is not surprising that different directors can make different films, which in turn are designed for equally different viewers. So there is nothing strange about the fact that the film ' The Great Master' could not delight, amaze or touch any strings of my soul. There are many reasons for Tom. First, typically Asian aesthetics, unusual to the eye, 'bred' on American, Russian or, at most, European cinema. The narrative here is ragged, the characters very quickly begin to get confused in the head, the plot is built nonlinearly, and some of the events seem completely unnecessary or even frankly superfluous. Secondly, the central character of the story is Ip Man, who is personally as interesting to me as, for example, Valery Kharlamov to a simple Chinese rice merchant - well, that is, ' I thought I had heard something, well, let's see' And finally, thirdly, a complete misunderstanding of the specifics, traditions and aesthetics of any type of martial arts, be it kung fu, wushu or capoeira.
However, despite all of the above, my rating of the picture ' The Great Master' will still be quite high. Simply because I saw on the screen not only an attempt to reflect and reflect the cultural, social and historical phenomenon, but also to teach it to the audience in a beautiful, aesthetic, pleasing shell. The film ' The Great Master' boasts completely roofing visuals and almost perfect compositional construction of each scene. There is such a common phrase: mol ' although every frame print and hang on the wall '. So this is just the case with 'The Great Master'. And plus to this from the plot, albeit sometimes ragged and indistinct, still draws a certain morality - always be strong, always strive to become the best, never give up, in any situation to be a person and so on.
Thus, in the person ' The Great Master' we have an incredibly beautifully designed eternal and always relevant theme, supported by the historical and social Asian context and biographical events from the life of a real-life character. In general, I advise, although not everyone.
In 2013 the film of the famous Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Vai"The Great Master" was released, from which the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival was opened.
However, for all the merits of Kar-Vai as a film director, his “Great Master” turned out to be an amateur film and deserves a mixed opinion. There are fights, and biography of the great Ip Man, and a love story. But only fights in the frame will not please the tempted Eastern fighting games moviegoer. Here Kar-Wai pays attention to the beauty of the picture, forcing his heroes to fight in the rain, then during snowfall. Watching raindrops fall beautifully in slow motion from Ip Man’s hat is beautiful but exhausting. Therefore, the fights in the “Great Master” look like a work of art – complex and elegant. Yes, one of the main characters was Ip Man – the founder of the Wing Chun martial arts school and Bruce Lee’s teacher. But I can’t call “The Great Master” another biographical tape about Ip Man. First, in addition to Ip Man (Tony Leung), an important role in the film was played by Gong Er (Zhang Ziyi), the fate of which is devoted almost half of the film. Secondly, for the biooptic, events occur fragmentaryly (although the chronology is still traced) and the cause-and-effect relationship is barely captured. Then it turns out strange why Wong Kar-Wai at the last moment changed the name of the “Great Masters” to “The Great Master”, pushing forward Ip Man.
The film is very difficult to understand. But, nevertheless, without understanding the language of Kar-Vai, it is impossible to say that the film is bad. Just trying to please all moviegoers, the director chose a very difficult way for himself - he shot a movie where everything would be: fights, love, and philosophy, and in the end the aesthetes were satisfied. So if you want to see a biopic about Ip Man, then I recommend watching other movies (for example, Ip Man with Donnie Ian). If you like Asian kung fu fighting movies, watch them. “The Great Master” is first of all a touching love story, a philosophical epic, which is as ambiguous as the film itself.
6 out of 10
Spoiler is a kind of drama, not a Chinese fighting game, don't tat time!
Pseudohistorical, pseudophilosophical, costumed, patriotic Chinese pseudo-drama with elements of martial arts.
What the Chinese wanted to copy this time: They fought for their homeland, Gone with the Wind, Lawrence of Arabia is absolutely irrelevant, because it turned out what the Chinese always get when copying - not like the original at all, but with a bunch of gleaming tinsel falling off, glued along the way from different sides of forgotten details left over from the disassembly of the original, and completely inappropriate, idiotic improvements. Some folklore chants on a bench in a brothel, called the opera of what are worth. And the brothel itself as a place of cultural leisure of the nobility and rich citizens, where the wives and daughters of the nobility are calmly brought by that scenario find. The director and screenwriter read about Europe, did not understand a single letter, blinded that it turned out exclusively by color pictures.
Don’t waste your time, watch something from a young Jackie Chan or Hero if you like costumed Chinese. It is better to torture students in Beijing in patriotism lessons.
To embody the next essay on the screen about the life of the great martial arts teacher from China Ip Man, Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai gathered a very worthy team of masters. Visually everything that happens is fascinating. Flying raindrops are effectively combined with honed blows, snow falling on the ground as if continuing the lines of graceful movements of rivals. The viewer immerses himself in an unusual costumed performance with a beautifully selected musical series and scenery about masters of martial arts.
Unfortunately, the skill ended there.
The plot mosaic woven by the director crumbled into pieces, the narrative is more like a cutting from newsreels about the history and culture of China. Complex plot interweaving, excess of secondary characters (already one agent of the Kuomintang is enough for such an impression) and their philosophical instructions create an unbearable overload for the imagination that you want to quickly forget about everything that happens.
Everything aesthetically significant in this film fit into two episodes of a fight in the rain at the beginning and on a snowy platform.
“The Great Master” is a dark decadent story about two martial artists, a man and a woman, who carried love for each other through their entire lives, to the empathy of which we are pushed. The main characters are not up to this. The girl Gong Er is passionate about preserving some wonderful knowledge about 64 palms, as well as revenge for the murderer of her father. Hero Yip Man after 40 years of comfortable life, “spring”, leaving his family, gets used to a new life in Hong Kong. Time is running away from them.
Honestly, I wanted to see this film because of the already beloved Zhang Tzui, known to us from the films House of Flying Daggers, Crowding Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Memoirs of a Geisha, etc. To tell the truth, as a girl, I am not very interested in the topic of martial arts, but it only seemed to me.
The film ' The Great Master' so carried me into the world of kung fu and vin chun to the point that I wanted to master at least one of the techniques. It is impossible not to praise the work of the director and operator. Accuracy, as you know, is in the details. From the very first minute you feel involved in the world of martial arts. The trick of shooting is that first you are immersed in the atmosphere of action, rapid hand movements, and then literally for a few seconds everything slows down so that even the most skeptics could see how to take a blow away and strike back. Such a reception shows us that everything is real, no deception. After that, everything speeds up again, starts spinning and spinning. No wonder the work of the operator in this film was nominated for an Oscar!
I cannot but note that the scenes of fights are very qualitatively staged. You look and you can't come off. The movements of the brushes seem somewhat unreal, even magical. Bravo to the directors!
In my opinion, the film inspires feats. There is no limit to perfection. No one has fully understood the full potential of the human body. The movie is magical and you don’t believe it’s ordinary people. It feels like they have superpowers.
If you are not familiar with kung fu and vin chun, be sure to watch this movie. You will discover a new, magical, unknown world!
8 out of 10
When you start watching the film “The Great Master”, you should remember that this is first of all a film by Wong Kar-Wai, and only then – a film about Kung Fu, Yip Man and everything else.
In the center of the story, as always, a man and a woman who can not be together and can not be happy separately. Everything else is just scenery, the background of the era and distracting factors from the main topic. Kung Fu is a ballet, a dance designed to better reveal the characters of the characters (and in some cases even achieve this goal).
The composition of the film as a whole is confusing. It remains unclear for what purpose certain lines are introduced, and the motivation of the heroes, forcing them to perform certain actions, one can only guess. We are only hinted that there is motivation, that there is some code to which the characters proudly follow, that there are vows and some unknown honor. And all this should justify the heroes who rush through life, as if mentally ill in their ward, finding neither happiness nor peace. It’s as if the director is trying and can’t go beyond the world he’s made up of so many times. A world in which all that remains for the heroes is loneliness and bitterness. Therefore, the idea of the film remains blurred and not completely understood.
But do we love Wong Kar-Wai for a slim script? Does the stern idea and gripping plot make us watch his films, however depressing they may be, to the end? I think not. And I think it's time to talk about the picture and all those artistic techniques that only Wong Kar-Wai can master. No one else knows how to create such a completely surreal atmosphere on the screen, so richly filled with metaphors and symbols that it does not matter where the plot goes. This atmosphere draws the viewer into itself and at the same time fills with itself. Just giving in to the visual series, fused with music into a single whole, is an extraordinary pleasure. Just to watch something as rough as a duel become a gentle dance of lovers, then again a duel and again a dance is fascinating. So, from the point of view of visual range, sensory perception, the film is verified with rare, almost unique thoroughness.
From the above, we can conclude the following. If you are a fan of Wong Kar-Wai or a keen connoisseur who can love a film not for the unity and harmony of all its components, but for any one magnificently executed reception, this film is for you. If you like driving action movies like Reid, then the “Great Master” will cause you only yawning and regret about wasted time.
'A true martial artist doesn't live for anything. He just lives.' Bruce Lee
The Great Master - ' short' Wong Kar-Wai about the fate of several martial artists in China in the middle of the 20th century. The story is mainly told Ip Man - master of Wing-Chun style, later one of the teachers of Bruce Lee. Yip Man has long been unknown to a wide audience not only in the West, but also in China itself. And now Chinese cinema makes up for this omission. There are enough films about Ip Man, showing him as a national hero of the war with Japan and confrontations with the colonialists. This film is closer to his real biography, and here he is not the main character.
In my opinion, the main character here is Gong Er, played by the beautiful Zhang Ziyi. Perhaps she was the only one to play convincingly young, 10 years later and addicted to opium. Although the makeup was far from perfect, Asians are aging quickly, and she could not look the same after 20 years. It is the story of her father, school and life that is the basis of the plot. It is possible that ' the great master' is exactly her. Ip Man is shown as one of the possible threads of her fate.
The history of Yip Man covers several difficult years from the history of China: the time of the last dynasties, the first republic, the military dictatorship, the Japanese invasion, the Second World War and the Civil War. One version of his move from Fo Shan to Hong Kong is told. Naturally, the main version that Yip Man was one of the enemies of the party during the Civil War, and that it was this that caused him to part with his family, is not said in the film, and it is not customary to remember in China. There is nothing to say about the other heroes.
A short film can be called because the number of scenes shown in slow motion is more than half of the film. The picture is beautiful, at the height of modern Chinese cinema, films for internal screening look like this now. Good scenery, at least for the Western audience, looks quite convincing. But without the mention of Ip Man, this film would not have been shown abroad. In the choreography of fights from the very first movements, the hand Yuen Heping is recognized, apparently he does not know how to do otherwise.
The film is not adapted for Western viewers. Absolutely not explained, most likely understandable to the Chinese, plot twists. Neither traditions nor conditions nor decisions are understood. Many speeches with allegories, the meaning of which is not clear. It is not clear how the legacy of the school is transmitted, what are the rules for its return. Why was it necessary to swear an oath of life? Because of the long period of time, the film is heavily cut into individual scenes, and even in time jumps, then forward, then back, the connection of the narrative is lost.
In the end, to distinguish this film from many others is absolutely nothing. Other films about Ip Man look better, love stories are more interesting, there are few fighting scenes, the complexity of wartime is also not particularly shown.
'The Great Master'. If I’m asked to describe this movie in one word, it’s probably beauty. It's everywhere. In landscapes, in dialogue, in music, but most of all in battle scenes. In this film, combat is presented not as a banal fight, but as a kind of code of life, as another art form. No wonder all the fights in this picture are more like a dance, not a fight.
In addition to beauty, there is drama, but unfortunately, it can only be felt in the second half of the film. The actors played convincingly. Especially Jang Tzu. This woman made a strong impression on me many years ago, when I first saw her in the film ' House of Flying Daggers' To this day, she continues to play very talented.
Despite all the advantages of this picture, I was missing something in it. I can't call it a masterpiece. But good and talented cinema not only can, but must.
This picture is deservedly put forward at ' Oscar' from Hong Kong.
Not so long ago, an extensive list of films was published, which various countries nominated for the competition ' Oscar' in the category ' Best Foreign Language Film'. ' The Great Master' was the third film on this list I've seen. Danish 'Hunting' Kar-Waya loses. First of all, it is inferior in drama and topicality to those touched upon in the film.
But the Ukrainian film 'Parajanov' 'Master' surpasses absolutely everything.
8 out of 10
Many people say that “The Great Master” is not a typical film for Wong Karwai, but it is not. In 1994, in parallel with “Chungking Express”, the director directed “The Dust of Times”, a philosophical parable about ancient China and fearless warriors conducting a dialogue with the help of the sword, where the fights are staged with the same choreographic perfection as in “The Great Master”. It is worth saying that Karvai is an extremely integral director who develops a single idea in his work. In this sense, all his films are scenes from one piece.
In "The Dust of Times," he said, "Love is a contest." For Karvai, this “competition” cannot end in victory, because victory is an illusion. All that is required is to live, for “the true master does not live for anything; he simply lives.” – Bruce Lee If the director’s previous films did not stand out because the real action took place invisibly inside, then the latest film breaks this tradition. In "Happy Together" there is a wonderful image of a waterfall shot by a bird's eye view rapid. It seems to symbolize Karvayev’s love: an unspeakable giant of seething water, rapidly falling down to become the surface of an invisible mountain river. Love is impossible for one who has not become a quiet stream flowing into the endless sea. It is not for nothing that Wong Karwai focuses on the memory that brings suffering to the lover. "The more you try to forget, the better you remember," says the hitman from The Dust of Times. To love you must forget yourself.
The hero of the films “Love Mood” and “2046” writer Shaw Moo-Wan (Tony Leung) dreams of writing a novel about martial arts, but always postpones. "It's hard," he says. The novel becomes something unrealizable, too complicated: “Everything is possible in it.” But Carway's heroes seek to find the unchanging. “Is there anything in the world that doesn’t go bad?” asks a police officer from the Chungking Express. Love sufferers take the train to 2046 because nothing changes there. The ideal is to make love unchanging. Unfortunately, this is impossible, because “love is a competition.” Kung fu becomes a metaphor for love where anything is possible.
“The Great Master” is a novel written by Shaw Moo-Wan and, most likely, the quintessence of Wong Karwai’s entire work: he sought to achieve the unattainable, working on the film for 10 years (!). Martial arts are the perfect form for his basic idea. The director develops in the mainstream of Chinese philosophy, where the basis is the doctrine of yin and yang, the indestructible opposites from which the world is composed. How is unity between yin and yang possible, between North and South, cold and heat, man and woman? Opposites are united by love, but love in Carway is something cosmic and unattainable for an individual, so the sad ending of the novel cannot be remade. Love is something inhuman. To touch it for a second, you have to give up (too) human. It transcends all boundaries: “Beyond the mountains there is a whole world,” says the great master. You just have to conquer yourself: reveal your secret.
Wong Karwai’s heroes remain lonely because love is so great that it becomes impossible. This is what each of them strives for, but loses it forever. And in this loss lies its true acquisition.
This film, like a silk thread, is also light, also beautiful. To be honest, I came across this film quite by accident, when it had not yet appeared in theaters, I immediately wanted to see, sometimes I like oriental cinema. I like that it is different from ours and Hollywood. Our film, how to live badly, how to survive, and Americans, on the contrary, you should not turn to life’s adversity, eating grief with a hamburger and going to the store.
The film is so easy in its essence, not burdensome that you want to watch and succumb to the flow of life, the philosophy of those people who speak in this film. In this picture, little dialogue, more beautiful shots, more music. Phrases are based on life principles.
I like how beautifully shot, faces, costumes, fighting scenes. Yes, this is probably a fuzzy biographical film that I would like to see all people who loved Ip Man. At the same time, I would like to recommend the film, it leaves a slight sadness and a lot of good emotions.
Chinese director Wong Kar-Wai is one of the few Asian directors who have achieved success not only at home but also abroad. Along with Korean Kim Ki-duk and Japanese Takeshi Kitano, Kar-Wai is perhaps the most prominent figure of Eastern cinema, whose films are known and loved around the world. And the jury of various film festivals are no exception – Kar-Wai is regularly nominated for the Cannes Golden Bough and other prestigious awards. At the same time, as well as Kitano with Kim Ki-duk, he won recognition by not deviating from the signature motifs of his work and not following the lead of Hollywood businessmen, like, for example, the same John Wu. A distinctive feature of Kar-Vai’s films is a touch of light melancholy and life wisdom, supplemented by a stunning video sequence. Like no one else, Kar-Wai finds the perfect shots and extracts beauty from wherever no one else can see it. Perhaps that’s why his paintings are available to viewers all over the planet – they are shot in the universal language of cinema and cannot but impress.
So it happened with the new, first, in the last 7 years, the film director “The Great Master”. It would seem that the European viewer can be hooked by a story about an absolutely legendary, but on a local, Asian scale, martial artist? Before Kar-Wai, the story of Yip Man’s life was filmed half a dozen times – and none of these adaptations managed to reach the heart of non-Asian audiences. But this time it was different. There is an opinion that telling ordinary people about those who left their mark in history should be a person who is at least slightly close to his hero in talent. And this time, that's what happened. Kar-Wai approached the story of Ip Man much more ambitious than its predecessors, not for nothing, the filming took almost a decade. “The Great Master” is not so much the story of one person as a portrait of an era transmitted with the help of martial arts and the one who had a decisive influence on their development. There can be no question of any national barrier - the characters of the film go through trials that happened to overcome any power in the world, and their own culture helps them in this. Thus, the oriental color is naturally noticeable, but it serves only as a highlight, not interfering, but helping perception. At the same time, Kar-Wai still has his ability to shoot perfect, beautiful shots that can be photographed and sent to exhibitions. Shadows, colors, splashes of water, the wobble of bright earrings – Kar-Wai plays so skillfully with all this with the help of the camera that it is sometimes difficult to believe that such mundane things can look so fascinating. In the sixth decade of his life, the director not only did not use up his talent, but on the contrary, managed to find a new use for him, making a film in the genre that he seemed to diligently avoid before. It remains only to rejoice for him, the benefit of the “Great Master” to such emotions we have, and wait for what else Kar-Wai can surprise us, because someone, and he will be able for sure.
After the universally recognized masterpiece, the film “Love Mood”, in the career of Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai began a black stripe. “2046” is a very complex, epic sequel to “Love Mood” no one really understood, and “My Blueberry Nights” its English-language debut, on the contrary, was called too pop film, shot in favor of a wide, Western audience. His next full-length project, a film about the most famous Chinese master of kung fu, the founder of the school Wing Chun, Yip Man, Kar Wai shot for five years. During this time, the Hong Kong filmmakers, who went to the box office, managed to stamp at least five films about this master. So the name Ip Man has become a trend, just like Batman and Spider-Man. And the film Kar-Wai, the producers presented as another product with a muzzle about the famous master of kung fu. That is why “The Great Master” (as this film is called) became the highest grossing in Wong’s career.
In general, it was planned that the “Great Master” should please the tastes of various categories of spectators. Fans of martial arts films will enjoy the first-class fights staged by Yuen Wu-Ping himself (probably the greatest director of combat scenes in the history of cinema). And lovers of all intellectual and author’s will find in the picture the most important leitmotifs of creativity, the cult director already. But it turned out in the end, exactly the opposite. Fans of stupid muzzle, spit after 30 minutes of this poetic, aesthetic tape. Intellectuals were not particularly interested in the history of the enmity between the northern and southern kung fu schools. So in our city, for example, in the cinema, until the end of this epic, almost no one sat down, and the film was removed from the box office less than a week after the premiere.
Yes, "The Great Master" is a complex picture because its genre is not so easy to define. This is not a kung fu film in the canonical representation of this genre and certainly not a serious film biography of the great martial artist. Then what is all this? First of all, this is a film by Wong Kar-Wai. The director has formed his aesthetic in cinema, which in significance can be compared with the aesthetics of Tarkovsky, Fellini and Lynch. And who, by his 50s, decided to make a patriotic film about China – one, and about martial arts (the fact that this is the main topic in Chinese cinema, hardly anyone will argue) – two. And that is why it was simply necessary to maintain the scale of the stated topics.
As always, Wong has almost no plot skeleton in this film. The first half, the film tells about the feud of the southern school of kung fu and the northern. The head of the northern school Gong Yutian, decides to retire, but for the last wants to fight the best fighter of the southern school, which is Ip Man. An intellectual duel with Yip Man, Gon Yutian loses, but for the honor of the northern school decides to take revenge on Gon Yutian’s daughter, Gon Er. And she manages to defeat Ip Man. But it is worth saying that all this enmity proceeds very peacefully and respectfully. As we soon understand Gon Er, in general, she is in love with Ip Man and will carry this love all her life. Then comes the war with the Japanese. Gon Yutyan’s successor, the proud and self-loving Masan, gets a post in the Japanese government, for which Gon Yutian is actually banished with shame, but the circumstances have developed that Masan literally kills Yutian’s grandfather with one blow and takes revenge for him, as the proud Gon Er should. At the same time, another important character suddenly appears out of nowhere. A homildan agent nicknamed the Blade, who has absolutely nothing to do with the common history. During the entire film, he has literally three scenes, two of which are combat. The question is, why is he even here? I personally only have one answer. Well, Kar-Wai could not do without his favorite Zhan Zhen.
Difficulties and illogicalities in narrative terms became the main obstacle on the way of this film to the hearts of a mass audience. The fact is that Kar-Wai’s directorial work can be compared to jazz improvisation. He doesn’t have a clear script and what he’s going to shoot today is unknown even to his main cast. As a result, all the footage he begins to cut and bring to the desired screen time. This manner of filming is good when shooting a plotless art house, but for a biopic, it is not very suitable. But, despite all the plot irregularities, it feels like “The Great Master”, the movie is very good. It's the canonical Kar-Wai, and it's got some great fights. The whole film is decided in his usual black and yellow color scheme. At the same time, as always, Wong literally every frame can be safely inserted into a frame and sent to a photo exhibition.
And of course, in a martial arts film, you can not ignore the fight. In the “Great Master” there are quite a lot of them. It all begins with a duel of Ip Man in the pouring rain with numerous opponents. In the final against Tony Leung comes multiple champion in battles without rules Kung Le. The fight with him, despite the raindrops and all the Karvayev poetics, turned out to be tough and brutal, which can not be said about the duel of Ip Man with Gon Er. It is more like a ballet or a Beijing opera. The main condition was not to break anything from the interior. Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi literally flutter like moths in a cramped room. And then comes the best fight in this movie. Agent Homildan Blade fights against a group of opponents, as it should be in the pouring rain and cheerful music. Here all fans of Jackie Chan and Jet Lee, prematurely left the session, can safely bite their elbows. In my opinion, this is generally one of the best fights in the history of combat cinema. And we can say the final fight of Gong Er against Masan at the train station, against the background of rushing trains, is somewhat reminiscent of the final fight in the first “Matrix” put, which was still the same Yuen Wu-Ping. I’m certainly not a big connoisseur of real kung fu, but I suspect that the film fully demonstrates Wing Chun in all its diversity.
But this picture is crowned not by fights, but by the unchanged themes of Wong Kar-Wai’s entire work. A great love that heroes carry throughout their lives, but which never made them happy. Longing and melancholy from the transience of time. And the most important thing is that a person, no matter what, must be able to hold the blows that fate inflicts, as do great martial artists like Ip Man. After all, in our life, as in kung fu, by and large, everything boils down to only two words - lie down, stand up. Leg lost, and while standing, you win.
9 out of 10
Existential Wushu - the beginning of the path to enlightenment
The film liked, first of all, its idea, because Kar Wai had not previously made films that seriously touch the history and culture of China.
The director managed to convey the mysterious world of the East with its sublime centuries-old wisdom, albeit somewhat artificially, with an abundance of computer graphics.
Perhaps in some moments, Kar Wai slightly overdone his usual “dramatism”, but it is Kar Wai, he can’t do otherwise. At least the film does not spoil, but slows down its rhythm.
Wushu (this name is correct in all of China, except for Hong Kong, where the word “kung fu” appeared due to translation difficulties) in China is inseparable from philosophy, since it was created by ancient Chinese philosophers. So Wushu (kung fu) is inseparable from all Chinese culture, so Kar Wai, as a “real Chinese” touched upon a very important topic.
The film is existential through and through, even the fights with the “slow perception of time” are full of existential intra-natural “self-knowledge”.
From the history of ancient China, it is worth remembering that Chinese philosophers - idealists in their convictions, were obsessed with the idea of finding their own charisma (this is what was implied in the concept of Grace). And this quality (charisma) Tony Leung Chu Wai showed without flaw, especially the expression of his face, in the film, really resembles the real Yip Man.
Those who were dissatisfied with the topic of kung fu (wushu) raised by Kar Wai probably expected something like “Happy Together” or “My Blueberry Nights”, but I think that Kar Wai himself still knows what he is interested in 'here and now'
And finally, I want to say that the endlessly beating raindrops constantly reminded me of only one thing, this is a quote from the student of Yip Man - Bruce Lee:
“Free your mind, be amorphous, shapeless like water, if you put water in a bottle, it becomes a bottle, pour it into a glass, it becomes a glass, water can flow, or it can collapse, be water my friend!”
I love Wong Kar-Vaya’s films, so I couldn’t help but watch his new film The Grand Master. In this dramatic action movie we see beautiful scenes of fights of kung fu warriors and the stories of the lives of talented and best masters.
In the films of this wonderful director there is always an interesting and unlike anything atmosphere, it is easy to distinguish and distinguish Wong Kar-Waya films. “The Great Master” is a movie that is filled with sophistication and beautiful, spectacular scenes, but despite all this, I found the film a little protracted and boring. When watching, you want to sleep, and it is not good. To be honest, I expected more impressions and emotions from this film, but maybe the director did not want to make it different, he wanted the movie to be incomparable and calm in his style. Of course, I do not regret watching, but the film turned out not to be a masterpiece, but an amateur.
Tony Leung Chu Wai is one of my favorite oriental actors, and he always plays with the best directors and in the most exceptional and sophisticated films of oriental cinema. The actor is very talented and charming, and he always copes with any role. Zhang Ziyi in this action movie as always beautiful. She's beautiful and sensual. This actress was born to play dramatic roles. These actors are pulling this movie into the world box office, and we can see their duet again.
“The Great Master” is a film for those who love the works of this director and actors of the first magnitude of oriental cinema. There are many beautiful fights in the film, but the movie does not have the features of action, but rather a calm atmosphere, which in places depresses, but the actors’ play is incomparable, and this film can be seen once.
7 out of 10
In his 11th feature-length work, Wong Kar-Wai tells the story of the life of a martial artist. True, the director turned out not quite a typical biographical tape: to a large extent, the relationship between Ip Man and Gong Er, played by the magnificent Zhang Ziyi, is revealed. A lot of time is also given to other masters and other schools of kung fu, but this is not the essence of the film.
In the tape, Ip Man says he teaches "kung fu" (two words, two movements, no "circuit," no "posturing"). Kar-Wai clothes the life of the master in a swift story, told in a very concise form, but uses very rich visual images and light theatricality. There are a few examples of this.
Firstly, the film is not classical, typical for cinema, but rather theatrical structure: instead of 3 acts, the story can be divided into two parts (before the war, after the war). Secondly, each character has his own style, his own “choreography” of the fight, each author gives time, each gets the opportunity to perform his “dance of death”. In the end, it turns out quite a lot of action. In turn, the minimum number of scenes is used to link between action segments, the dialogues contain a minimum number of words, and the fights themselves are quite rapid, the number of movements is again minimized. At the same time, the ratio of slowdowns and rapids is ideal, and the visual images of the environment accompanying the fights (rain drops, falling snow, spilling tea, etc.) are just perfect. Thus, the story is told in quite simple language (from the point of view of the text), but weighted with a very powerful visual that complements it, is an integral part of it. In general, the philosophy of Ip Man is preserved, and the director’s handwriting can be traced in a completely “not ascetic” picture.
What's going on? Ideal form, perfect history, play on halftones, light/shadow ratios, oriental culture (Chinese opera, tea, Asian philosophy and much more). The perfect film about masters of martial arts from the master of cinematography.
9 out of 10
A few years ago, Hong Kong filmmakers delighted the audience with a trilogy about the legendary master of Kungfu Yip Man, who opened the world to the style of Wing Chun and became known as the teacher of Bruce Lee. Von Karwai offers his interpretation of Yip Man’s life, as well as his supporters and rivals. The history of the master is saturated with drama, but also attractive beauty, perhaps, in everything: in infrequent fights, in revealing the images of heroes, in the texture of interiors. And all this is presented against the background of the grand events of the first half of the XX century in China and Hong Kong.
The main role in his film, the director again entrusted the famous Tony Luna Chuvai, and the role of the secret love of Ip Man, who owns the style of “64 palms” Gong Er, the most beautiful actress Zhang Ziyi. They have already starred together with Von Karwai in the futuristic film “2046” (2004). The tandem was again worthy, and the final scene of the meeting of the heroes leads to melancholy reflections. Is it worth remembering the past and trying to return to the old days, when everything in this life is rapidly changing? Perhaps this is the meaning of the film, ending with scenes from the childhood of Gung Er and Yip Man. This is Von Karwai in his guises. So it remains to enjoy his next work about the known, and perhaps completely unknown world.
7 out of 10
How would you make a movie about a man who turned kung fu into a legend, a great master? In the consciousness of a European, a pathos biopic immediately looms, centered on the main character, ready for any sacrifice for the sake of his cause. Sports drama like “Million Dollar Baby”, a spirit-lifting biography like “Legends No. 17”, in extreme cases, a cool action movie in the style of the 90s with Jean-Claude Van Damme or Steven Seagal. But the East, as you know, is a delicate matter, and the cinema is filmed there according to its own rules. Instead of all-consuming heroism, we are offered a modest life story, interrupted painfully by beautiful battle scenes and silent meditation.
It all begins with one of the most impressive scenes of the group bonfire, which proclaims Ip Man as the unsurpassed master of martial arts. Whether it’s something resembling Neo’s fight with Agent Smith or even the dance number from Step Up 2, this will be the only scene in the film where pathos outweighs the philosophy of life. Then begins a laconic, stingy movie, where the beat is not hot, but out of cold calculation and iron necessity.
One rule: you either stand or lie down. Three simple beats, defeating different styles of kung fu, originated throughout China. An unshakable attitude in the head: the struggle is not for death, but for life; not for the sake of internecine strife, but for the sake of preserving the integrity of the country. Heroes do not read slogans, do not make plans, do not call for unity. They enjoy peace when it is, and are merciless to their enemies when they cross their path. They speak eloquently only in battle – body language, punctuation of accurate blows.
A true martial artist does not live for. He just lives. Bruce Lee’s epilogue statement is difficult to understand for a European who is used to setting goals, persistently overcoming difficulties and being proud of achieving results. Ip Man wasn’t trying to be a great master, he was. Kung-fu for him became second nature, a vital necessity. He did not seek glory, but he had to defend his honor. The antagonist of Ip Man was Ma San, vain, sneaky, dishonest. It is significant that the audience will not see the final fight of Ip Man with Ma San, and the victory over the villain will go to Gong Er, the daughter of a teacher who dreamed of combining the martial arts of the North and the South. The image of Gong Er combines the poetic beauty of the deadly kung fu and the spiritual devastation of a man who devoted his whole life to revenge for his father. If in Kill Bill, revenge is the point, then here it is a goal that you burn out emotionally. Gong-er could experience the joy of love and motherhood, but instead died of an opium overdose.
The winner in this whole story was not a particular person, who defeated Kung Fu, who survived despite the fragmentation of their schools, thanks to people like Yip Man. Wong Kar Wai showed Europeans why kung fu is an art, not the art of killing, but the art of living.
7 out of 10
What is expected from viewing this picture from the synopsis? A biographical narrative of IP-Man is expected. Here he is in prison, upset as Jake La Motta or, conversely, calm as Hurricane 39 Denzel Washington. This is his relationship with his parents and other family members. Here's his girlfriends and his crushes. And of course - honed martial arts scenes made in aesthetics 'Once in China' Jeta Lee.
But it's just expectations. Expectations based mainly on American biopics are boring, but biographically accurate and consistent. But the very stylistics of the painting by Wong Kar Wai suggests that he is probably, as well as me, very annoyed by instructive American biopics based on articles from Wikipedia.
Above all, Wong Kar Wai abandoned a coherent narrative structure. We do not know all the main nuances of the biography of the hero - do we need to? Here the attention is focused on something else - on the thoughts that the hero briefly and succinctly stated. And also at the time in which he lived. Torn & #39; quotes & #39; the lives of the hero have no informative component. The director, it seems, was just trying to help the viewer feel certain times, thoughts and situations.
Numerous spectacular scenes are completely opposite to what we see in 'Once Upon a Time in China' with Jet Lee. Although, both films are about the same period and kung fu. Wong Kar Wai shows us a qualitatively different aesthetic of the frame, focusing on the honedness of each movement, and not at all on reaction and speed.
The film is enhanced by a love story. As is typical of the director, he tried to show a complex and quite ambiguous relationship - a relationship based on rivalry, which could well turn into cooperation.
In the end: a very unexpected film, completely does not meet expectations. A film that's done flawlessly. A film that leaves a long aftertaste. A film that formulates a new direction for both biopics and kung fu films
Surprisingly beautiful and concise film about nothing. . .
Before watching, of course, like many, I watched the trailer and read this description: ' The founder of the oldest Martial Arts School intends to retire and hand over business to a worthy successor. But his best student has much more ambitious plans – he intends to unite all the disparate schools into one. To this end, he challenges the leader of each school to a duel and, winning over and over again, unites all schools. The last remains the school of his deceased teacher, to defend the memory of which his daughter goes to a duel, secretly in love with her rival ...'
And looking at the question, in whose inflamed brain was born this description, maybe very bad translation...? The content of the film absolutely does not correspond to this description, more precisely about the great master retiring and fighting with his daughter is true, but otherwise - complete nonsense.
The film is very beautiful, as you would expect from Wong Kar-Wai. The fights are staged and filmed beautifully, combining the latest trends in the rigidity of European and American cinema and beautiful ' fabulous' Chinese tapes. There is also a philosophical component... However, the film leaves a sense of purposelessness. A narrative describing the life vicissitudes of several heroes, some of which seem absolutely superfluous ... and unfinished.
The result is not a biography, not a drama, not a fighting game. As boring as it is beautiful, incredibly long...
It seems that they made two different films, but due to some strange circumstances at the editing made one. Perhaps this feeling was born from the fact that we were offered a broader look at the biography of Ip Man in the time period, but it played a cruel joke with the film. In biopic it is better to choose a specific, small, period, then the story can be revealed to the viewer as fully as, for example, it is done in Ali.
It is difficult to write about the film and not touch the personal feelings of what you saw.
I will only say that when watching you need to be armed with patience and be prepared for the specific narrative characteristic of any director of Asian origin, and especially for Wong. In this vein, perhaps, the film was very expected for me, judging by the reviews the slowness of the plot development, the constant lyrical, and even allegorical digressions, the mystical atmosphere in most scenes is a unique style that I especially like. It turns out that at some moments you watch a movie, at some - listen to a parable or just get an aesthetic reaction from a beautiful picture, and thoughts about the plot - they are born of themselves. And that's great.
What does that mean? The film, despite the scale of the events described (the war with Japan, wandering, parting with the family of the hero) - sounds very chamber. There are almost no shootings, and it is not clear whether they are real. Maybe just the winter scenes. Each frame, which is typical for Chinese cinema, lives its own life like a staged photo. The leitmotif of the film is, by the way, also old staged photos that covertly record the key moments of life. If someone is familiar with the theory of montage, and the psychological component of its techniques, they know what a strong impression is sometimes given by close-ups that are applied appropriately. Wong actively introduces a hyper-close-up plan (or detail) at the same time as the slowhead. So petals fall, frequent emphasis on the hands of the characters, the movement of the feet, objects. They all set the atmosphere and tone in the frame, while not looking deliberately. And the detail, as you know, serves as the best interruption, allows the viewer not ' break' from a quick change of plans in the action, and calmly switch attention from one scene to another. In this regard, many significant events are perceived through a system of symbols. I'm not familiar with symbolism, but you know in your heart that when a pole is stripped of its flag, it's probably a sign of something bad.
Of course, this style of narration on the viewer with a typical European consciousness can drive boredom. Perhaps there should be some experience of watching Wong's films so that expectations are not overstated, as there is no dynamic development. The film, even to me, I confess, seemed drawn out.
I will make a reservation right away, for those who blame the fact that the biography of Ip is not central to the film, as I understood, it even at the box office is not by chance called the Great Masters, making it clear that the author wanted to tell about the environment in which the personality of the hero was formed.
I liked the fights, of course, above all praise, although in some places the creators noticeably overplayed, adding supernatural tricks (one of the main characters throws a blow to the carriage of a passing train, and he swells a couple of meters falls on the platform; wagons crumpled into a flatbread, many frightening details).
I liked that the writers did not exploit the theme of the meeting with Bruce to the right and to the left, it passes simply as a fleeting memory and immediately passes into Ip’s memories of his first lessons.
Very organically, in my opinion, inserts from the chronicles of the wartime appear, and somewhat compensate for the lack of field shooting and the intimacy of all scenes. At the same time, immediately comes to mind a comparison with another film about Yip (Hong Kong), which lacks all the above features. That film is also not bad, in it events are shown rather as a chronicle, in a more familiar way, more calm and unobtrusive.
The acting is also inspiring, Asians do not overplay, so the main mood of the film - a parable, a legend - does not break, the essence of the characters is completed in the mind, nothing interferes with the imagination of the viewer, for me it is rather a plus.
Indeed, it turned out to be an invaluable gift, both for lovers of martial arts and for lovers of the style of Wong Karwai himself.
The old master Gong, who devoted his whole life to the task of uniting the different styles of kung fu into a single school, decided to retire to give way to the young and make one of the best students of Ma San his spiritual heir. Before announcing his decision, he intends to hold a show battle with the strongest master of the South, giving the southerners the opportunity to choose one from their ranks. It was Ip Man's choice. Master Gong was well aware of the Eastern wisdom “The best way to win is to avoid a fight” or “The best fight is the one that did not take place”, so he replaced the physical fight with an intellectual battle in which he decided to admit defeat while preserving his face. Epicurus once said, “The conquered win in philosophical disputes because he acquires new wisdom.” And only the daughter of the old master felt insulted, deciding to avenge the defeat of her father, using the main female weapon - cunning.
In the new picture, Wong Kar-Wai did not deviate one iota from his corporate style. He is still the same perfectionist, demanding and achieving perfection in everything, be it: visual series, musical design, costumes, scenery, camera work, combat scenes turned into real dance numbers. All this makes his films truly artistic, and Kar-Wai himself an artist in a broad sense, as a man of art.
This film is not about kung fu, or rather not so much about kung fu, as one of the types of martial arts, where blows are struck with hands and feet, or paired knives or a long pole. The main thing here is the philosophy of kung fu, based on the “Code of honor of a martial artist”. The basic idea of this philosophy is expressed in the following words: "In martial arts there is no right or wrong - the main thing is to stay on your feet" or, as often repeated in the film, "Only two words - lie down, stand." These words, equally, can be attributed to life itself, which is a continuous struggle, where the main character managed to stay on his feet all his life, unlike the fallen Ma San, for what can be lower than betrayal of his homeland?
This picture can be called a real saga “Once Upon a Time in China”, by analogy with the famous American cinema, since it tells about the fate of a person at the turning point of history. Born under a dynasty, he survived the first republic, military dictatorship, Japanese invasion, civil war, and finally found himself in Hong Kong. Confucius said: “God forbid you to live in an era of change”, and how many of them were in the life of the hero, but he stood firmly, and did not lie down.
This film contributes to turning the real person of Yip Man, highly respected in China, into a legend, so it is understandable that the dialogues of the characters are almost entirely composed of meaningful phrases, not empty chatter to give the spectacle an epic. Here they look quite appropriate and are perceived like poetry, of course, inevitably losing some of their meanings in translation.
It is absolutely impossible to imagine a picture of Kar-Wai without love and it is certainly here, albeit unrequited, because a man-legend cannot betray his beloved wife, but the daughter of the old master Gong, played by Zhang Ziyi, carried it through her whole life, revealing the secret only in adulthood. The appearance of the Kuomintang agent Blade in the film, with whom, it would seem, could start a serious relationship, only underscored the fact that the heart of the beauty has long been unfree. The actress very well showed all the hidden feelings of her heroine.
The role of Ip Man was played by Tony Leung Chu Wai, a regular co-writer of Wong Kar-Wai’s films. His restrained manner of play and mysterious smile are very convincing, although there is no external resemblance to the prototype. The main character was born and raised in a not poor family from Foshan, in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. He married a girl from the family of the Reich Minister. From the age of 7 he was engaged in kung fu and his main goal was to remove everything superfluous from it, leaving only three movements: kick, injection, protection. Ip Man created his own school, which over the years became the world association of kung fu. One of the students of his school was Bruce Lee, although this is not mentioned in the film, but he is quoted.
For all the undoubted merits of the picture, there is a certain understatement in it, apparently caused by the need to fit into the rigid framework of timekeeping. Perhaps one should hope for the appearance of an expanded directorial version, the benefit of the footage would be enough for another series, but in the presented form the picture is of undoubted artistic value.
What could be higher than the sky?
What could be stronger than the earth?
Quote from the film
When an ordinary person talks about kung fu, they get a fight. When a great master talks about kung fu, he has poetry. Kar-Wai's film is highly poetic. Despite the fact that the time of storytelling is a cruel twentieth century. China has endured much suffering, but it has endured thanks to such people like Yip Man.
The style of Kar-Vai-artist is unnecessary to describe. He is better known to mankind than Wing Chun. The fight is more of a dance, the life of the hero is an ancient fate. But I must admit - the director did not get up to martial arts immediately, preferring to create canvases of a different variety. How not to remember another Chinese classic - Zhang Yimou, whose 'Hero' came out eleven years before 'The Great Master' Hasn't our uncompromising Wong fought with him all these years in the editing room?
Anyway, the essence of martial arts Kar-Wai grasped extremely deeply. The culmination of the film, clarifying this, was expressed in the transmission of the most secret and main covenant of the patriarch of the Gong school. You think it's a secret all-destructive blow? A pile of ancient manuscripts with Taoist recipes? Just one word: 'Return' One student who had high expectations did not understand him. The second student understood, but could not pass on. Because it's not just a word. Coan. Spiritual experience. Insight. Password to enlightenment. 'The Great Return' Nietzsche is of the same number. . .
The secret of high art is not to take away, but to return, not to break, but to preserve. It is no coincidence that the masters in the film agree before a fight in a house full of things: if I break something, I lose. The twentieth century has broken a lot; who can save and collect, but the great masters? Ip Man with a soft smile on his face is like a granite rock. The waves of the century break about him, he does not think about the disagreements of the northern and southern schools, not about who will get the petty state, not about personal well-being and prosperity. In front of him is the universe. And I find it difficult to tell who is the student and who is the master. .
I'll get straight to the point. I probably haven’t seen more desecration of cinema in general and the genre of the historical action film about martial arts – God has mercy.
Wong Kar-Wai, most likely, the last 10 years lay in hibernation, since he seriously counted on at least something, so shooting battle scenes. No, if you completely throw out of your mind the memories of the Matrix, distort your taste in the cinema beyond recognition, transfer in time to 15 years back - then perhaps, at least in some way, you could appreciate this creation, at least without mat. But in 2013, the matrix has long become a classic of the genre and a certain milestone in the history of action genre and staging action scenes. Also, for a long time already known techniques venerable (and not so) directors, when the film is cut into pieces and they are scattered. And also, no one will be surprised by the constant flashbacks and a parallel plot developing in them. But Kar-Wai, in my opinion, was able to surprise everyone in one fell swoop. Well, how to surprise - a person who for no reason on the flat ground falls face to face in a pile of manure, too, in fact, surprises the people. So, to look at the fighting scenes in this film is a kind of act of masochism, a parody, and terrible, of the Matrix and the Hero. Add a little humor to the scenes, and I'd think it was actually a parody. That torrential rain and splashes that make you see nothing. Slow-motion footage and flights, as if filmed by some amateur. Let us add here not what is torn, but to shreds of a tattered narrative, to understand which, probably, only Kar-Wai himself can understand.
Watching this creation is uninteresting and almost impossible. It is very difficult to force yourself to watch a disgusting film. And it is doubly difficult to force yourself to watch a disgustingly shot movie, in which it is also impossible to understand anything.
In any case, Kar-Wai rendered a great service to Eastern (and not only) directors and showed how not to make a movie.
3 out of 10
Following two other living Chinese classics – Ang Li and Zhang Yimou – the film about kung fu was shot by Wong Kar-wai. Why, I wonder? And this is the trend of the Chinese, national. We must assume that not only the fans of the director, but also fans of martial arts reached our cinemas. Who got the most pleasure is a separate question. As far as I know, they have so many different interests that the probability of union in general ecstasy is about zero. While watching, the first comment that popped up in my head, it seems, sounded like this: “I found a braid on a stone.”
Full of pathos epic about the great Chinese master of “vertical position”, in the course of the film personally examines the disparate and numerous schools of martial arts, striking with its equanimity. In the sense that does not make any attempts to capture the attention of the viewer, well, except that skillfully mounted bone-breaking scenes. And all his trademark images, up to cigarette smoke (although the film is kind of “sports”), puts between them, not really caring about their integration.
Before filming, Karwai’s lead actor Tony Leung trained for a full year for 4 hours daily. Thanks to such training, he is quite confident in the frame in the men's scenes, but it is not possible to appreciate his skill, since all fights are mounted through small cuts, like clips. I think it would have taken a little longer for Ip Man to perform properly, like 20-30 years, but thanks to Tony Leung for a year of hard work.
Ip Man in China is known no less than we have Gagarin or Kharlamov, because at least there are more films about him than we have about the aforementioned legends and superheroes. In China, this movie has been waiting almost as long as our last Herman film. But even the lengthy delay didn’t stop nearly eight million Chinese from going to local cinemas. They did not stop even the fact that while Kar-vai hatched this idea, and then worked on it for a long time and painstakingly, in China, another team managed to shoot a whole trilogy about the great master. In Russia, they know much more not so much Man himself as his main student - Bruce Lee, whose meaningful statement "The master does not live for something, he just lives" is placed here in the epilogue of the picture.
The world collection of Kung Fu paintings has several thousand units, it is difficult even for specialists of this genre to remove something new. But Karwai didn't demotivate at all. It seems that he decided to take the beauty of the image, shooting fights in the rain, then during snowfall. And they turned out to be divinely beautiful, even though not the most outstanding cameraman Philippe Le Surd shot them. Most likely, the main merit in this belongs to Woo-Ping Yuen, who previously oversaw fights on the set of “The Matrix” and “Kill Bill”.
This is the least biographical film, and the most - a photo album with moving pictures. They capture not so much the characters of the film (in the original, by the way, it is called “The Great Masters”), and not even the vicissitudes of their fates, but the historical background – mainly the fourth decade of the last century, overshadowed by the Japanese occupation of China. This movie impresses with its scope and some purely Chinese identity, but almost does not touch the level of emotions, at least, the author of these lines. Therefore, two hours with a ponytail were not the easiest for me, and also reminded me of a kind of fight, which seemed to have no end.
It seems that Karwai repeated the same story as Kusturica and Almodovar, who at some point began to copy their own style. The mastery of both still seems to remain, but the feelings and energy have already gone somewhere.