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| Directed by: Wong Kar-wai Story by: Wong Kar-wai Starring: Tony Leung, Zhang Ziyi Music by: Shigeru Umebayashi, Stefano Lentini Cinematography by: Philippe Le Sourd (Seven Pounds) Editing by: William Chang Running Time: 130 mins (Chinese Cut) |
This is the first Wong Kar-wai film I have watched and I was excited. So I clicked the remote and hit PLAY with high expectations. The first scene (and Razor's, somewhere in the latter half of the film) I thought was very reminiscent of the Matrix trilogy - I even half-expected Agent Smith (or Agent Chang, whatever lol) to appear out of nowhere to kick Asian Neo in a fedora in the butt. Of course, I discover soon that Yuen Woo-ping is the action choreographer for both The Grandmaster & The Matrix.
Onto the review. I'm all for non-linear films, I've seen big head scratchers like that, but this one just takes the cake with all the icing & the big fat cherry on top for being the most unnecessarily disjointed narrative I've seen so far! And it didn't even need to be that back & forth, up & down, round & round complicated with the flashbacks, timeline and all. It's not confusing if you pay attention, but it does take you out of your comfort zone once in a while when you try to follow with the timeline. But yeah, The Grandmaster is a beautiful film, no doubt about that. I was stunned by how visually and even thematically appealing it is to me. I love how Kar-wai has given depth to his characters. Though I think he overindulges himself sometimes.
