I, of course, saw the truncated version of this film, with half an hour lopped off for the benefit of us guilo who can't be expected to sit through a two hour movie with subtitles. What I saw was, in a very quiet, Wong Kar-wai understated way, entirely spectacular.
In this film, Wong has uncharacteristically spun a fairly straightforward, conventional narrative: we see Ip Man stating his case to unify the divided martial arts worlds of the North and South, we see Gong Er defeating him to avenge her family's honor, we see the disruption of the martial arts' world brought about by the Japanese occupation, we see the protagonists' exile in Hong Kong, and we see the differing paths taken by Ip and Gong. Reading the reviews here, I fail to grasp why people can't seem to figure out the structure; heaven forfend that these people are exposed to Ashes of Time or 2046: their brains might hemorrhage!
Within this simple (for Wong Kar-wai) structure, the details are all simply ravishing. Tony Leung Chiu Wai plays Ip Man as the ultimate stoic; he's jowly, and his face rarely changes no matter the circumstances in which he finds himself. Every so often he will allow himself that devilish twinkle in the eye, the slight suggestion of a smile. Zhang Ziyi does an excellent job with her role as Gong Er, humanizing a rather arrogant, humorless character who has made huge sacrifices in the name of honor. Yuen Wo Ping's fight choreography is typically stellar, maybe some of his best. And Phillipe Le Sourd's cinematography is absolutely gorgeous, colder perhaps than Christopher Doyle's classic camera work on Wong's films, but that is a function of the colder climate, both meteorological and emotional, of this movie.
Now, when am I going to get a chance to see this film? I feel like there's half an hour missing from my life.
In this film, Wong has uncharacteristically spun a fairly straightforward, conventional narrative: we see Ip Man stating his case to unify the divided martial arts worlds of the North and South, we see Gong Er defeating him to avenge her family's honor, we see the disruption of the martial arts' world brought about by the Japanese occupation, we see the protagonists' exile in Hong Kong, and we see the differing paths taken by Ip and Gong. Reading the reviews here, I fail to grasp why people can't seem to figure out the structure; heaven forfend that these people are exposed to Ashes of Time or 2046: their brains might hemorrhage!
Within this simple (for Wong Kar-wai) structure, the details are all simply ravishing. Tony Leung Chiu Wai plays Ip Man as the ultimate stoic; he's jowly, and his face rarely changes no matter the circumstances in which he finds himself. Every so often he will allow himself that devilish twinkle in the eye, the slight suggestion of a smile. Zhang Ziyi does an excellent job with her role as Gong Er, humanizing a rather arrogant, humorless character who has made huge sacrifices in the name of honor. Yuen Wo Ping's fight choreography is typically stellar, maybe some of his best. And Phillipe Le Sourd's cinematography is absolutely gorgeous, colder perhaps than Christopher Doyle's classic camera work on Wong's films, but that is a function of the colder climate, both meteorological and emotional, of this movie.
Now, when am I going to get a chance to see this film? I feel like there's half an hour missing from my life.