The film begins with Ye Wen's self-talk about the trajectory of his life:
36 years ago, before the age of forty, Ye Wen's family was well-off, and he had no worries about food and clothing. Boxing was purely a hobby, and he had a gentle and beautiful wife. . Master Gong, a senior in martial arts from the north, went to the south to find someone for a contest, and with Zhao Benshan, the two chatted a few words and explained a few grievances between martial arts and Jianghu. Gong family apprentice Ma San is violent and arrogant, while his daughter Gong Er is cold and strong. On behalf of Foshan, Ye Wen competed with Master Gong, and it was a moment of beauty. He also learned martial arts with Miss Gong Er, and saw the unique skills of the Gong family's sixty-four hands.
However, things are unpredictable. The Anti-Japanese War began, the Japanese captured Foshan, and Ye Wen was unwilling to be close to the Japanese and puppets. His feelings with Miss Gong Er can only be pinned on a button. They have been with Zeng for more than ten years. It was not until about 50 years ago that he met Zhao Benshan and Miss Gong Er in Hong Kong by chance.
In the clue of Miss Gong Er, the time and space were cut back to Manchukuo in the northeast, and Master Gong's apprentice Ma San turned to the Japanese invaders. In order to obtain the qualifications for revenge, Miss Gong Er broke off the marriage and entered the Tao, vowing that she would never marry or marry, and finally defeated Masan in a snowy night to avenge her father, but she ended up in misery.
During this process, Zhang Zhen, a soy sauce man, seemed to be a military agent who was injured in a conflict with the Japanese on the train. The mainland was occupied, and the military had nowhere to go. They also went to Hong Kong, killed other agents who came to hunt them down, opened a barber shop, and took in the apprentice Xiaoshenyang.
In the end, Ye Wen and Miss Gong Er met in 50 years, and they each told about their own life experiences, but there was no reason for them. Miss Gong Er made a sad and bleak life confession. In the 1970s, I accepted my apprentices to teach boxing, but I never went to Foshan again to meet my family.
The movie is a bit more fragmented than what I've described, but that's about it.
【Script writing, high level】
As far as the plot is concerned, let's talk about the film play of "The Grandmaster". From the overall structure, Wong Kar-wai's always strong personal style has caused the film of "The Grandmaster" to lack the necessary plot elements of a drama film in the usual sense. , such as the confrontation between good and evil, intense external actions and internal conflicts, and plot clues for cause and effect. Therefore, in a sense, "The Grandmaster" is a film with inherently flawed plots and flaws.
Fortunately, the screenwriters are all masters. Sure enough, Jiang is old and hot, and his lines are written very well. Therefore, regardless of the overall film structure, each scene has a certain independent aesthetic value, which makes people watch it. Emotional and personal emotional penetration is also quite contagious, allowing the audience to watch it without feeling boring or dull.
In fact, from the overall concept, "The Grandmaster" is not destined to be a typical heroic plot movie in the general sense. The most well-known plot of Ip Man beating Japanese samurai is not mentioned at all, and the historical background is also more forbearance, and more Most of it is a display of feelings. For individuals, it is to face the impermanence of life calmly. For the feelings of men and women, it is because of fate that they cannot stay together. For the entire "martial arts" and "martial arts", it is the melancholy of a generation disappearing. with sadness. From this point of view, the story loses punches and kicks and hates family feuds, but it enriches feelings and flavors.
Many of the mood and feelings of the film are directly told to the audience by the characters, such as Zhao Benshan's words about face, Tony Leung's words about life, and so on, which reflect the charm of poetry and words.
[Character image, polarization]
The characters in "The Grand Master" are generally successful, with a strong Wang family color, of course there are some regrets. The characteristic of evaluating the characters in the film is that you can't use purely rational characters to foreshadow the rationality of their behavior. It can also be regarded as lack of foreshadowing. The strong film appeal makes up for the shortcomings, but becomes its distinct advantage.
The protagonist, Ip Man, is an overall success. Although he is not a patriotic figure in folklore and audience speculation, he is also a vivid movie character. This is due to Tony Leung being a really good actor. With his face there, he hardly needs lines and foreshadowing, and the character's feeling emerges by himself.
Zhang Ziyi in the movie has no acting skills, because he basically has a serious and slightly lonely face, which can be said to be quite satisfactory. However, under the director's control of the overall atmosphere and the overall contrast of the costume props, it is enough to take on the task of the heroine of the movie.
As for Zhang Zhen's luxurious soy sauce business, the relationship between the characters seems too isolated, and the context and explanation are vague, so the structure seems to be a bit inconsistent with the film as a whole. Although the audience can feel the director's intention to represent it as a sample of a generation, it still seems a little thin from the perspective of watching the film.
It can almost be concluded that the setting and appearance of Zhao Benshan and Xiaoshenyang are completely commercial considerations. With these two hot faces, the commercial box office will undoubtedly be more guaranteed. It's just that if the actor image of Tony Leung and Zhang Zhen is to add points to the movie, as soon as the faces of Zhao's master and apprentice came out, the movie was destroyed. All can't help but laugh. It should be said that this is a failure of the "Grandmaster" movie.
Of course, the topic of "Fisting is divided into North and South, and the country is divided into North and South" is asked in the movie. From the performance of the actors, it can be concluded that the actors in the north will not be able to play the ships in the south for a while.
As for other people who make soy sauce, they can see the obvious taste of Hong Kong slices, which should be said to be basically quite satisfactory.
[The part is beautiful, the whole is a little regretful]
"The Grand Master" still fully shows Wong Kar-wai's personal advantages and characteristics. Wong Kar-wai's expertise in the relationship between the camera and the sound and picture is unreservedly displayed. Those small and dark interior spaces and those pictures of characters with brilliant shapes make the film shrouded in a strong author atmosphere, as if people forget that this is the film. A martial arts movie.
When it comes to martial arts elements, the fighting scenes are also wonderful, not only the high quality of the martial arts guidance team, but also the creator's control of the camera and the rhythm of the picture, as well as the beauty of the scene composition. Some scenes in the film can be used as samples of course materials for research and examples.
It can be said that individual pictures or partial scenes are all flawless, but there are certain unavoidable flaws in the overall collocation. Regarding the issue of narration, I personally feel that even with "personal style", it can't be delayed. The film is tight and loose, and at least 20 minutes of the film's end is procrastinated and redundant. And those time and space are interspersed, and some places are okay, and some places are inexplicable, and there is no direction to dig into the metaphysical realm, so it can only be explained by scattered.
In terms of actors, maybe Zhao Benshan and Xiao Shenyang really did a disservice, and this may also be a compromise made by Wang Jiawei who had to consider commercial issues.
"The Grandmaster" has something to watch, and it is also watchable. It is still a good movie, but it is undoubtedly not Wong Kar-wai's best movie. Personally, I think it is between three stars and four stars. I prefer the angle of narrative and plot, and the evaluation is worse. I prefer the angle of emotion and picture beauty, and the score is higher. Of course, compared with other films before and after the theater, it is still much better. .
We can't maliciously exalt "The Grandmaster" because Wong Kar-Wai filmed it. We have to say that the shortcomings are advantages, but we can't be too stingy. If there is something wrong, we can't let it go, right? Personally, I think Samsung is a good fit.
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