The Grandmasters

[Info]

Milk




Mingpao Weekly






The Mingpao article is mainly a recap of the documentary <Road to The Grandmaster>

[hanasan]

A brief summary of the Mingpao Weekly article, which is also a recap of the documentary <Road to The Grandmaster>.

Wong Ka Wai said that the origin of <The Grandmasters> dated back to 1996 when he was shooting <Happy Together> in Argentina. One day he saw Bruce Lee on the cover of a magazine and was enlightened to shoot a film about him. After that, he changed mind to tell the story of Lee’s teacher – Yip Man.

In 2008, WKW, accompanied by Jet Lee’s martial arts teacher Wu Bin, visited 100+ real martial arts masters of different factions, including Wing Chun, Ba Gua, Ba Ji, Xing Yi, Tong Bei and Xin Yi, in more than 10 provinces of China. He was warmly welcome by the masters. Some of them even showed him the secrets of their specific factions. Many of them were elderlies aged 70+ or 80+ and some of them had already passed away now.
WKW brought with him a very thick notebook. The information he gathered from everywhere are all in there. He wanted to know every detail such that even those martial arts experts couldn’t answer his questions.

After the information gathering, it was finally decided that the three leading roles will be the masters of Wing Chun (Tony), Ba Gua "八卦“ (Zhang Ziyi) and Ba Ji ”八極“ (Chang Chen) respectively.

Tony followed Duncan Leung, one of Yip Man’s students to learn Wing Chun. In the documentary, we can see some fragments showing Tony practicing Wing Chun. But beyond the actions, more importantly, WKW wants to reflect the imposing manner of the masters in the movie. In one scene, you can see Tony elegantly patting the dust on his clothes after beating down all the frightened men. This is the charm of a martial arts master in that era.

[Safran]

Dear hanasan, many thanks for your helpful and enlightening translation .....with some very interesting new details

[Tin-Yau]

Thanks info and hanasan!
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Water which is too pure has no fish.

[Jamaica]

Yes! Thank you so much, Info and hanasan, for sharing the article and giving us the gist of it. That's neat that Wu Bin accompanied WKW on that trip, I've heard so much about him, since I started watching kung-fu films. I'm also glad one of Ip Man's students taught Tony, maybe some of the wushu snobs will shut-up about Tony's right to play a kung-fu master.
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"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx

[Frances Chan]

A lot of "Thank" to Info and Hanasan for posting and translating the main ideas of this good article

I love the director work but it seems to be very very hard . The searching journeys of Wong Kar Wai have always been a never-ending source of inspiration to me everytime I watch his movie.
This time looks totally tougher than others 'cause the true martial arts' world hasn't been revealed much so far...(all the films I've ever seen concentrate on how eye-catching the action looks like). The Grand Master may blow me away with the fascinating story, sublime action, great actors and actress...

Tony is ever-excellent in any roles. I strongly trust that
Oh, I miss Tony again
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Nothing remains the same forever! (from "Fallen Angels" - 1995)

[yitian]

Thanks Info and hanasan for the new article and translation . Greatly appreciate your effort......

[Tin-Yau]

Finally a trailer with english subs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKWXnNfAXfM
_________________
Water which is too pure has no fish.

[Safran]

Many t h a n k s

[In The Mood For Leung]

What a convergence of stars (talent) this film is! Three of my favorite actors in the world: TL, ZZ and CC, not to mention who is directing it...
And Song Hye Kyo is like the cherry on top.


Thanks guys

[Safran]

I just noticed ( a bit late ) the title " The Grandmaster" on the beautiful advertisment, Yitian posted on the previous side .

So - no longer in plural "The Grandmasters" ?

[In The Mood For Leung]

^ Good catch Helga

I prefer it in this form- it has more gravitas, so I hope it's not just a typo.
It suggests the story gravitates towards TL's character.
Perhaps, removing the "S" from the title was what was causing all the delays and reshoots heh...

[Safran]

Who knows ......As far as I remember, the movie was called "The Grandmaster" at the beginning.....
later changed to the plural form ( due to some coprights (?) - I guess )
Anyhow, with "s" - or without ....haha.... we will surely enjoy "Our Grandmaster" - whenever

[Eri]

We don't know yet but

Probably the last man standing is the Grandmaster.

[Safran]

......