The life and times of Bruce Lee’s mentor from the world’s most sensuous romantic... On paper, Wong Kar-wai’s latest sounds like a box-office winner: a martial arts movie (like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) that both sexes can enjoy. In practice, it’s more complicated. Where Ang Lee’s epic is smoothly immersive, Wong’s keeps breaking its own spell.
We’re in Thirties China and hero Ip Man (Tony Leung, stoically pensive as ever) isn’t a noble warrior but a confused playboy. Lush set-pieces show him taking on a variety of opponents but we’re repeatedly reminded that he has nothing to throw at his real enemies, the Japanese (and later, inFifties Hong Kong, the Chinese authorities).
Practically everyone blew raspberries at the Hong Kong auteur’s cutesy, English-language debut, My Blueberry Nights (2007). But I found In the Mood For Love (2000), hailed as a masterpiece, almost as lacking in substance. Paradoxically, this biopic has more in common with the auteur’s eccentric, early gems (Chungking Express and Happy Together).
The Grandmaster, through Ip and his rival/soulmate, Gong Er (Zhang Ziyi), touches on the painful gap between our fantasies and the real world. A shame we’re not getting the Chinese version (130 minutes long). The score alone (listen out for a piece from Italian composer Stefano Lentini) puts you in the mood for more.
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