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When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Wong Kar Wei once invented a visual style that has been revolutionary. That's quite some time ago. In The Grandmaster it seems to me like he quotes himself, repeats himself, tries to make every scene remarkable and symbolic. With the result that the movie drowns in baroque pictures which do not correspond with the storyline. The camera is moving all the time, always there is something between us an the actors... a curtain, a window, fog... whatsoever. It is no martial arts film, although there is martial arts in it. But it is not a character driven movie as well, because there is to little narration, to little development. I could not integrate the figure of Razor until I read some comments and explanations. And the wife of Ip Man, who seems to be so important in the beginning, just vanishes somehow from the story plot. So do his children. All in all: very disappointing! And so much weaker than the wonderful Ip Man-movies starring Donnie Yen.

Kar Wai Wong tries his hand on martial arts films and trips all over his first movements. That is more or less what happens with "The Grandmaster", which looks amazing, has a confusing story (even if it is a very simple one) and the longest train I remember.The story is simple enough, and follows famous Bruce Lee's master Ip Man and two moments of his life: in Foshan, around 1936 and afterwards, in Hong-Kong. The two parts of the movie are not really well gelled, and the plot wanders and loses itself in the hills.As said above, it looks really beautiful, but Kar Wai Wong just seems to have understood "be water" in the meaning of endless fights under the rain. Which look cool, I have to admit, but empty and shallow. Martial arts films are not only about the fights, but also about the spectacle, the martial arts per se, and the thrill of fighters jumping, falling and breaking bones. Here, it looks as Kar Wai Wong looked at "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and thought that what the movie was lacking was more slow motion.The actors do a good job, even if Ziyi Zhang is not at the top of her game. Tony Leung as Ip Man is, and he shows a lot with just a little bit of his lips curling or an eyebrow raising. But the director is just thinking about making a pretty looking film, not a film with heart. And that hurts the story and the end result.Beautiful and empty.

I think The Grandmaster is the tribute to martial arts and it is a literary film. Obviously, it is not a story of a master or a story of one style of martial arts. It is the heritage and development of the martial arts of Hong Kong in the era. It also shows audiences the Chinese martial arts and what deep meaning they have. In the movie we saw the three main contents:1. IP man as a martial artist, he does not have a martial arts school and he only teaches people who he likes. Because he does not think learn martial arts likes to buy vegetables in market, he should thinking and take care;2. Gong leaves hometown and living in Hong Kong, she is dispirited and discouraged so she does not want to teach people martial arts any more;3. Yixiantian set up a school of martial arts, and teaches people. They are three common situations of martial arts in that era.In the early China, the word kung fu does not exist. We just call it "martial arts". It is a fighting skill. In the film, before shooting actors to follow the real folk martial arts master learning martial arts, so the martial arts in the film comes from real factions in China. And, different factions have different forms. (Completely different combat skills) that is different in martial arts films. We usually see Kong fu in martial arts film is powerful and amazing, but this kind of kung fu mostly depends on the stunt, it is not real. The design of the many plots in the film contains some "rules" in the real world of martial arts: for example, Gong challenges Ye, narrowly won a little bit, so she cuts her hair and decided not marry. And she challenges to Ma San to revenge--this is the custom of the world of martial arts. In Chinese traditional culture people pay a lot of attention to practice and restrain them. Both of their thoughts and actions. So we can see even if Gong is a woman, she also fight for honour of her family. And Ye is loyal and brave when he faces a troublous country. The director of the film is Karwei Wong. He is a famous Hong Kong director. People familiar with the director should have a similar feeling - his film give person a feeling like they are in the dream. Wong's narrative way is not consistent; he likes the story apart and reassembles. And on colors Karwei Wong likes high strength contrast between cool color and warm color, dark and light. Wong's films always vague. But in The Grandmaster, he takes more serious, sincere and humanistic care. There are lots sentences very significant in the movie. "Encounters：All the encounters in the world seem like reuniting after a long separation." "Even thousands of mountains could not obstruct the way to realize one promise." "There must something keeping in your mind that makes you remember someone." And so on. These sentences expressed the attitude of people in facing love and duty. There are a lot of the audience asked, why Gong and Ye not to be together? Finally, I want to use a Chinese proverb to answer: rather than leave them to moisten each other with their damp and spittle it would be far better to let them forget themselves in their native rivers and lakes. （this sentences from Chuang tzu）I think it means sometimes people should understand all the arts of life is how to holding on and letting go.In The Grandmaster, I love these martial arts most. Because fighting dramas very wonderful in this film. In China, different Chinese martial arts usually mean different thinking. In this movie we can see Wing Chun, Eight Diagrams Palm, Octupole Fist and so on. And it is easy to find that eight diagrams palm is from Daoism, because the concept of the eight diagrams is from Daoism. The glamour of Chinese martial arts is not how fighting skills powerful. It is every different martial arts makes people think about self, think about life and other people. Ye has a sentence" To see myself. To see the world. To see the life." In Chinese traditional culture, people always think about the relationship between people and nature, between people and society, between people and people. We can see many Chinese directors discuss this topic and elements in their movies. (Like Ang Lee and Yimou Zhang) After watching The Grandmaster, I think it is not a typical martial arts film, it show more deeply meaning of what martial arts real are.

When I was deciding whether to watch the movie or not, i decided to read the reviews on IMDb and finding several positive reviews i decided to give it a shot. However after watching the movie I felt obliged to give the clear picture. First, the story. As you know the movie is based on Bruce Lee's master Ip Man. The story shows snippets of Ip Man's life. However, I did not feel any connection to them and in fact the sub plot of Gong Er and her family legacy is much more interesting. Second, the action. The first half of the movie contains sufficient action and then it sort of dulls over. The action scenes are slightly exaggerated with people flying about. But what I really felt annoying was the slow motion effects. Somehow they just did't work for this movie. Moreover, though the cinematography effects were great, coupled with the slow motion effects they spoiled the action sequences.Finally, since this story follows Ip Man and is presented as a true story it must be compared to Donnie Yen's Ip Man. The grandmaster fails miserably in comparison. The plot, fight scenes, character development every thing was just perfect in Donnie Yen's Ip Man which is probably why I was quite disappointed with The Grandmaster. Even a noob like me could tell the stark difference in fighting styles of each school in Donnie Yen's Ip Man. The moves were choreographed so perfectly that I was literally lost in the martial arts fights. However, the fight scenes in The Grandmaster failed to do so, and lets face it. Most of us watched these movies for the fight scenes. There was no real story in The Grandmaster, just different incidents, whereas Ip Man had a very interesting plot culminating in an epic fight. Donnie Yen also did a mind blowing job as Ip Man whereas Tony Leung did not feel as believable. My Verdict, well as a past time this movie is watchable but it would definitely not stay in my collection. After Donnie Yen's master piece, another Ip Man movie is unnecessary unless it is able to compete with it.