Although if you follow the forum here, you probably already know my opinion on this.
Is THE GRANDMASTER the next Crouching Tiger?
Although if you follow the forum here, you probably already know my opinion on this.
Is THE GRANDMASTER the next Crouching Tiger?
Gene Ching
Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
Author of Shaolin Trips
Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart
gonna write a more critical introspective(dont want to call it a review) of this film for my blog.. but needless to say i liked it. it was way better then ip man 2. and unlike the donnie yen ip man movies it wasnt like ip man beats all the foreign devils kind of thing.. we actually see him lose a fight, to a woman no less and he takes it in stride like a true master. it really should be called THE GRANDMASTERS, plural because the story is about more then one master. i loved the baji guy, wish we got more of him, that fight scene was great. the action was typical over the top yuen woo ping fan fair. not as good as sammo's ground fight scenes but much more involved.. yuen has this mastery where he makes you feel every hit. like gene has stated the american cut is superior to the original..sorry purest it just is.
I'd be interested in reading your take on it.
The re-edit has certainly polarized some critics. I suspect that most of the critics haven't seen both versions. Either that, or they are film students who idolize WKW. I respect WKW, but I'm definitely not part of that camp. While I've enjoyed some of his other films, I find most of his stuff long-winded and ultimately boring.
On the side of those purists, I agree that Razor was a great character and there's development of him in the original version. That's probably the main sacrifice of the U.S. re-edit. But then again, the original has a scene of Leung cleaning out his ears that was thankfully deleted from the U.S version. The film was already really long and WKW wanted me to watch that? Sometimes you got to trim the branches to make the tree grow straight.
Gene Ching
Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
Author of Shaolin Trips
Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart
like i said on facebook..this is what happens when you gestate on a film, and you are shooting and shooting, and writing and writing.. and eventually you get lost on wtf the film is about. that happened with out of africa..they just kept shooting and shooting..you lose your way and sometimes you need someone from the outside to look and say hey i found it(the movie).
Whether it be filmmaking, writing, or even composing Kung Fu forms, it's easy to loose your way in the artistic process. That's why there is so much bad art.
Personally, I feel WKW is a different case. He's an artist's artist. There's a lot of film buffs that totally adore his work. To me, it's kind of like good jazz. You really need to know the media to understand what he's doing. That gets lost on the average moviegoer. And the Kung Fu genre, barring a few exceptions like this film, doesn't typically attract the arts set. The appeal of a Kung Fu movie is more basic - good fight scenes. The Grandmaster delivers some good fights, especially when the context of the fights is concerned. But the original version is just too **** long in the end. It's like a Kung Fu flick on morphine. Who, besides those adoring WKW fans, wants to watch that? Surely not fans of action films.
Gene Ching
Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
Author of Shaolin Trips
Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart
And on for Labor Day Weekend. I may just have to go out and see this again to support it. My wife was interested, and any time I can get her to watch a Kung Fu movie is fantastic.
Box Office: Selena Gomez’s ‘Getaway’ Looks to Bottom Out
August 29, 2013 | 02:13PM PT
Disney alum's box office cred isn't expected to improve with modest-tracking 'Getaway'
Andrew Stewart
Film Reporter @Variety_Stewart
Despite “Spring Breakers” becoming a surprise indie hit earlier this year, Selena Gomez has yet to convert her Disney cachet into major box office coin. Her Labor Day weekend actioner “Getaway” is poised to putter past the starting line with a projected debut well under $10 million.
Get Selena Gomez News and alerts free to your inbox
Gomez’s most ardent fans could push the Warner Bros.-Dark Castle film toward $6 million-$8 million over four days, making it the young star’s lowest-grossing wide opening to date. Most teens will be preoccupied this weekend with Sony’s music doc “One Direction: This Is Us,” which looks to win the weekend with $20 million-plus through the Monday holiday.
Attempting to satisfy more sophisticated palates, Focus Features’ adult thriller “Closed Circuit” bowed Wednesday, but will only gross $5 million, at best, in six days. The film started with a paltry nearly $250,000 opening day gross.
Not surprisingly, “One Direction” led advanced ticket sales Thursday, according to one online ticketer, with the Weinstein Co.’s “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” trailing in pre-sales.
After spending two weekends at No. 1, “The Butler” should drop to second place, likely grossing around $12 million in four days. Pic’s totaled nearly $56 million so far domestically.
With auds spending much of Labor Day weekend outdoors, the four-day frame typically is one of the slowest at the box office. Genre films targeted at younger auds sometimes overperformed though: last year, Lionsgate’s scarer “The Possession” earned the second-highest Labor Day gross, with $21 million in four days.
“One Direction,” which bows at 2,735 Stateside locations, represents a low-risk project for Sony, budgeted for approximately $10 million. The music doc is dominating in social media, and there’s not likely to be much cannibalization from the “Getaway” aud given the thriller’s 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The $18 million-budgeted thriller, co-starring Ethan Hawke, who had a hit earlier this summer with “The Purge,” is depending on Gomez to help broaden its appeal to younger auds. The former Disney star’s online profile was heightened this week reacting to Miley Cyrus’ controversial performance at the VMAs, which Gomez attended.
Still, Gomez’s highest-grossing live-action film, Fox’s “Ramona and Beezus,” topped out at just $26 million in 2010. March release “Spring Breakers” — which starred another Disney alum Vanessa Hudgens — managed to tap into the youthful demo, reaching $14 million domestic.
Hoping to attract Hispanic adults this weekend, Lionsgate-Pantelion bows family comedy “Instructions Not Included,” starring Eugenio Derbez, at 347 theaters.
The Weinstein Co.’s martial arts pic, “The Grandmaster,” expands Friday to nearly 750 Stateside locations. The film got off to a solid last weekend at seven runs, averaging almost $19,000 per theater. “Grandmaster” has grossed $181,710 million domestically through Thursday.
Gene Ching
Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
Author of Shaolin Trips
Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart
but think about how much dialogue this film has cause vs. say donnie yens ip man. which is more like fights were great it was cool the end... this film you feel a certain way about it and it causes a reaction whether its negative or a positive... people shouldnt feel indifferent about art.. you should like it, hate it, or be confused..lol
In that sense of opening discussion, The Grandmaster truly is an 'art' film. And don't get me wrong. I do enjoy art film. I'm just not a big fan of WKW. That being said, I've seen several WKW films, and you'd think if I didn't like his work, I'd stop. Such is art, right? You're spot on. Here you and I are big fans (and critics) of the genre, and here we are in dialogue about it.
You've fleshed out a point that I should have included in my review. WKW has created an 'art film,' which is quite different than a 'martial art film'. For most martial artists, especially lately, the suffix 'art' in martial art is vestigial. That's where the U.S. version of The Grandmaster succeeds. It transforms an 'art' film into a film that fans of the martial art genre can enjoy. I still think he failed miserably with Ashes of Time for martial artists. That's another staggeringly beautiful film, but I wouldn't recommend it to many martial artists, only the arty ones.
@Raipizo: according to Box Office Mojo, The Grandmaster is being released in 749 theaters for Labor Day Weekend. That's a decently-sized national release. Hopefully one is near you.
Gene Ching
Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
Author of Shaolin Trips
Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart
...and even more delighted if you threw a hyperlink back to KungFuMagazine.com.
It's out all over the SF Bay Area too, all through the multiplexes. It's also playing at a little art theater house that my wife really likes, so I'm going to try to talk her into seeing it this weekend. I'm eager to get her opinion as she's rather critical, especially when it comes to martial arts....I wonder why
Gene Ching
Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
Author of Shaolin Trips
Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart
Haven't seen this yet, but the last few reviews have peaked my interest.
The trailers look a bit, well...how can I see it? the fighting looks a bit too iffy for my taste.
I mean, I am being too snobbish to expect a lead Asian MA actor to be as good as Donnie?
Psalms 144:1
Praise be my Lord my Rock,
He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !
If you think you'll be disappointed because Tony Leung can't fight as well as Donnie Yen, well, you should just stop going to martial arts movies unless Donnie is in them. The choreography and editing makes the fights in The Grandmaster enjoyable, but they don't have any martial virtuosos on Donnie's level. Honestly, how many films can claim that? Donnie is at the top of his game now. I can hardly wait for his next flicks to drop. That's too high of a standard for fight choreography.
There are great martial arts films, and then there are great films that have martial arts in them. The Matrix is a good example of the latter. The fights in The Grandmaster are better than that however, especially if you know Kung Fu. There's some nice showcases of authentic traditional styles. And the opening rain fight with Cung Le is beautifully shot. Martially speaking, it's not a stunning display of fighting skill, but cinematically, it's a great scene.
Gene Ching
Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
Author of Shaolin Trips
Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart