classicsoncall Review of The Grandmaster

The Grandmaster (2013)

"...no art is higher than heaven, no gift more solid than Earth."

[7/10 · 12 October 2014]

As is my practice, I'll read a handful of other reviewers on the film in question, and in doing so here, everyone I read seemed to have some knowledge of the Ip Man history and the films dealing with the subject. I harbor no such knowledge or background. Quite honestly, I pick up these modern day martial arts films for their visual beauty and skillful presentation of fighting styles and not for the story per se because they're almost always the same. This picture offered some well choreographed fight scenes, many of them on surfaces that should have been a hindrance to maintaining coordination and balance, such as on snow and in the rain. Instead of brightly colored backgrounds, the general rendition here was primarily dark and unappealing. Unlike some other reviewers, I didn't have a lot of trouble following the story as it were; whether it had anything remotely to do with historical accuracy I have no way of knowing. Many times a picture will leave me with the desire to learn more about a subject by the way it sets the table; this movie's failure in that regard left me feeling indifferent.