The Grandmaster

[GeneChing]

We've discussed this a little on the Ip Man starring Donnie Yen thread, but now that it's out, this needs it's own stand alone thread. I was thinking of pulling posts over, but that's just too much work.

Gong Li to be female lead in Wong Kar Wai's "The Grand Master"
Xin.sg - Thursday, February 12

Ip Chun, son of Wing Chun's grandmaster Ip Man, said, Wong Kar Wai's version of movie "Ip Man" will start its shooting in June this year and Gong Li may be the female lead of the movie instead of Brigitte Lin. However, Gong will not be acting as Ip Man's wife but a female master of another form of martial art from Foshan.
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In Wong's version of the movie, titled "The Grand Master", Ip Man's wife will not be featured. If this is true, Lin, who was initially rumored to be taking on the role, will not be making appearance. However, Ip Chun was caution with his words during the interview and said that Wong has not finalized his script and Gong's role has yet to be confirmed.

Ip Chun expressed regret that Donnie Yen's version of "Ip Man" was not filmed in Foshan; he also said he will attempt to get Wong to film "The Grand Master" in Foshan so as to drive tourism to the area.

Ip thus invited Wong to Foshan to experience their rich martial arts culture and for research purposes.

Male lead of "The Grand Master" Tony Leung verified in an interview with Hong Kong media that the film will be shot in June. "My current task is to be practicing Wing Chun diligently," he said.

With respect to the comparison between Yen and himself, Leung was humble and said that his skills cannot be compared to Yen. "I believe that Wilson Yip and Wong Kar Wai's versions will be very different as they have different strengths and skills in moviemaking," Leung said

[GeneChing]

Maybe I should pull those other posts over...

Retired Actress Returns to Martial-Arts Film
2009-05-19 16:28:56 CRIENGLISH.com Web Editor: Xie Tingting

Actress Brigitte Lin, who retired in 1994 after playing many impressive roles, is set to make a comeback in a new biopic about martial-arts master Yip Man.

Lin has signed on to star in director Wong Kar-Wai's "The Great Master", Chinese media cited Yip Man's son, Yip Chun, as saying.

"The Great Master" is another film about Yip Man (1893-1972), a master of the Wing Chun style of martial arts and mentor to Bruce Lee. A previous biopic on the martial-arts master, "Ip Man", won the Best Film award at this year's Hong Kong Film Awards.

Known to audiences for her transgender roles in martial-arts movies, Brigitte Lin is likely to play a female kung-fu master this time, although her exact role is yet to be confirmed.

Born in Taiwan in 1954, Lin had been a frequent face in Hong Kong films. She had starred in more than 100 movies over 21 years.

In 1994, Lin married businessman Michael Ying and announced her retirement soon after.

Lin's best-known characters include Dong Fang Bu Bai in Stanley Tong and Siu-Tung Ching's cooperation "Swordsman II" (1991), and Mu-Rong Yin in Wong Kar-Wai's "Ashes of Time" (1994).

Last year, Lin made a rare public appearance in New York, promoting a re-edited version of "Ashes of Time". She told reporters that many of her friends, including Wong Kar-Wai, had been persuading her to return. She said she was waiting for a good play.

The Yip Man biopic is not going to be the sole project on Lin's agenda. Rumors suggest that director Tsui Hark has invited Lin to star in his action thriller "Di Renjie". Tsui Hark is also planning a biopic about Lin herself.

[Shaolinlueb]

gong li may be 43, but she is beautiful. why do chinese always need to redo movies that jsut come out. this isnt the first time i have seen it done.

[doug maverick]

gong li may be 43, but she is beautiful. why do chinese always need to redo movies that jsut come out. this isnt the first time i have seen it done.

actually its not being redone, wong kar wai has been talking about a yip man film for over ten years. but after yip/yens film he kicked it into high gear.

[GeneChing]

Remember 1997 when Volcano and Dante's Peak came out at the same time? I had a buddy working on one of those films and he said half way through, half the production team went over to the other project. What about 1998 when both A Bug's Life and Antz hit the screens? Those were just blatant examples but it happens often in Hollywood too.

[doug maverick]

well as far as bio pics go. they are literally four different films about pablo escobar currently in production.

[GeneChing]

Off one of Cung's fb pages:

Spending the next 3 days with my family before I leave to China to film Grandmaster with director Wong Kar Wai and action director Woo-ping. Already miss them.

[Phil Redmond]

It's common knowledge the Bruce Lee was introduced to Yip Man by William Cheung and was instrumental with Bruce's WC development as was WSL.
In this article by Wong Shun Leung http://www.wongvingtsun.co.uk/wslbl.htm
Wong says that "...Chang (Cheung) brought in an Elvis like youngster..." to Yip Man's school. In the 2nd Ip Man movie William Cheung, who introduced Bruce Lee to Yip Man, was not mentioned because of WC politics. They just show a little Bruce Lee walk into Yip Man's room. Yeah, I know it's not a documentary but only a movie. Rant over.

[blackjesus]

And Bruce Lee bought Duncan Leung to Yip Man. :-D

[Phil Redmond]

And Bruce Lee bought Duncan Leung to Yip Man. :-D

Duncan was my Sifu so I know a little about what happened. It was after William Cheung had a fight with some sailors on a ship from HK to OZ that made Duncan want to learn WC.http://members.tripod.com/wing_chun/

[blackjesus]

Duncan was my Sifu so I know a little about what happened. It was after William Cheung had a fight with some sailors on a ship from HK to OZ that made Duncan want to learn WC.http://members.tripod.com/wing_chun/

Duncan was my Sifu so I know a little about what happened. It was after William Cheung had a fight with some sailors on a ship from HK to OZ that made Duncan want to learn WC.http://members.tripod.com/wing_chun/

Hi Phil!
I read that article long time ago. But I also read the bruce lee story on the Wing Chun Warrior book (the one about Sifu Ducan Leung - http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/...ad.php?t=32483) but I'm not a Wing Chun student so what do I know?

Chapter 9 (I'm just "translating it form my Chinese editon of the book) said Burce Lee and sifu leung is childhood friend/classmate and one day in 1955 Burce told him he learnt Wing Chun, A kung fu invented by a woman and shown him Siu Lim Tau and they spared. He was punched by Burce many time and that was the 1st time Burce Lee won since they spar. And burce suggested Sifu Leung to learn together. Yip Man asked him if he know Kung Fu.
Sifu Leung shown Yip Man his Hung Kuen. Yip Man said his stance is good and told him to bring 8 bucks and join the school.

[Niersun]

It's common knowledge the Bruce Lee was introduced to Yip Man by William Cheung and was instrumental with Bruce's WC development as was WSL.
In this article by Wong Shun Leung http://www.wongvingtsun.co.uk/wslbl.htm
Wong says that "...Chang (Cheung) brought in an Elvis like youngster..." to Yip Man's school. In the 2nd Ip Man movie William Cheung, who introduced Bruce Lee to Yip Man, was not mentioned because of WC politics. They just show a little Bruce Lee walk into Yip Man's room. Yeah, I know it's not a documentary but only a movie. Rant over.

Common Knowledge yes, but people still will refute it. I have argued with others previously as they beleive the article refers to Sifu Hawkins Cheung.

[Phil Redmond]

Common Knowledge yes, but people still will refute it. I have argued with others previously as they beleive the article refers to Sifu Hawkins Cheung.

Then they don't know their history. It's also common knowledge that William Cheung's father was a high HK Police official as it says in the WSL article. Hawkin's dad wasn't a high Police Official.

[GeneChing]

Anticipated films lock China dates
By Stephen Cremin
Wed, 18 April 2012, 09:15 AM (HKT)
Distribution News

Three long-awaited films have finally locked their China release dates after months of speculation.

WONG Kar-wai 王家衛's martial arts drama The Grandmasters 一代宗師 will open on 18 Dec, WEI Te-sheng 魏德聖's war epic Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale 賽德克・巴萊 on 10 May, and Dayyan ENG 伍仕賢's black comedy Inseparable 形影不離 on 4 May 2012.

The opening of the still-in-production The Grandmasters in mid-December puts it in the midst of one of the most competitive slots in China's releasing calendar. It will likely go head-to-head with Ang LEE 李安's Life of Pi, while Jackie CHAN 成龍's Chinese Zodiac 十二生肖, which opens 12 Dec, is still on release.

Warriors, which opened in Taiwan in Sep 2011 in two parts, was submitted to the State Administration of Radio, Film & Television (SARFT) 國家廣播電影電視總局 in December in its new international version with additional cuts made for violence. Further cuts were demanded last month.

Inseparable, which stars Kevin SPACEY opposite Daniel WU 吳彥祖, had its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival 부산국제영화제 in Oct 2011. It opens in China one day before The Avengers and after a slew of late April films from local directors.

Next week, NING Hao 寧浩's Guns and Roses 黃金大劫案 goes head-to-head with Leon YANG 楊樹鵬's An Inaccurate Memoir 匹夫 on 24 May, followed four days later by the release of GUAN Hu 管虎's Design of Death 殺生. All are competing with each other and Hollywood films.

Alien invasion film Battleship opened at midnight today in China, 18 Apr, two days before originally scheduled. It is itself struggling to secure screening slots from Titanic (1997), which had taken RMB467 million ($74.2 million) by Sunday night after just six days on release.

PRC got Battleship a month before we will? Interesting...

[doug maverick]

im king shocked that titanic made 74.2million...yea no wonder hollywood wants in...lol...battleship hasnt tested well here...so they are releasing it foreign to build up momentum...they did the same thing with thor...