Comparison of Once Upon a Time in China by Hark Tsui and The Grandmaster by Wong Kar-Wai - Movie Review Example

Comparison of “Once upon a time in China by Hark Tsui ” and “The Grandmaster by Wong Kar-Wai” Before the comparison of these two movies I will like to give a short summary of both of these movies; Once Upon a Time in China This movie is showing the period of late 19th century when one of the Chinese martial art heroes Wong Fei Hung stood against the foreign armed forces of America, France and Britain. When one of the character Aunt Yee came from America, her style was quite western and Fei took the position of her guard but this situation became harder when the inflicts starts to increase between the martial arts school of the hero and the foreign as well as local governments and the main concern for the main character i.e. fei was to realize the fact that he is man who knew just Kung Fu but the army against which he was fighting was provided with latest weapons of that time so he tried to discover new techniques to beat this army (IMDb, 2014). The Grandmaster This movie is based on the biography of Ip Man who was the legendary martial arts trainer and he was the man who trained the martial art legend Bruce Lee. The director took extreme care of the cinematography and the role of the hero was played superbly by Tony Chiu Wai Leung, the movies did not just revolve around martial arts tactics but also there is a family of the hero which he lost during the invasion of his country by the Japanese, then he settled in Hong Kong The fight scenes in this film are epic and especially the fight between the hero and the heroin is really entertaining (Zacharek, 2013). In this movie the director Wong has succeeded in extracting the best from the hero as well as the heroin, the costume designing as well as the cinematography is superb which make this film nominated for two academy awards this year in both of these categories. The movie is such a success in itself that it makes you forget the pathetic movie “My Blueberry Nights” which was the directorial debut of the director (Musetto, 2013). The Comparison This is a film based mainly on the kung fu fighting and it is the biography of the legendary Ip man who was a great kung fu master and also the teacher of legendary Bruce Lee. Tony lung has done the justice with his role of Ip man, the movie is set in the middle of 1930s in china when Ip man is chosen to take the role of successor of the grandmaster Gong Baosen, the only individual who can beat Ip man is the daughter of the grandmaster “Gong Er” but she was a female so she cannot be the Grandmaster so in fighting with Ip man they both fall in love with each other so this movie is mainly based on kung fu and a lot of fighting sequences with a tinge of romance between the Ip man and Gong Er. Tony Leung, who has played the major roles in Wong’s multiple projects was trained to look perfect for this role and he took martial arts training for almost four years and in this period he had his arm fractured two or three times. Some scenes of the film were quite difficult for the actor and in filming one of the scenes in the rain, he suffered severe chest infection as a result of multiple takes in the cold rainy weather but his sufferings resulted in a very rare breath taking fighting scene which starts the movie for the audiences. Ziyi Zhang, who played the role of Gong Er who was also the martial arts master and very expert in some of her family’s martial arts techniques like 64 hands. Her fights with Ip man and also with one of the other character Ma Sang are really worth watching. This lady Zhang has taken the dance training before she took the acting classes and her expertise in dance is clearly visible in her fights also in the form of her persona as well as her flexible moves. One of the attractions of the movie is the cinematography as well as the costumes used in the movie. The filming of the movie is done in beautiful places of China and a copy of a train station is used in the film which looks marvelous. The costume designer of the film took a lot of time in search of the materials like laces, ribbons etc for the film and the cinematography was excellent makes the film a real stunner. Initially the movie was of about 4 hours duration and then it was cut to 130 minutes, when showed in the Beijing was further reduced to 122 minutes when showed in Beijing and in America the duration of the film is 108 minutes so some of the action scenes are not in the movie so hopefully those scenes will be in the extended version of the movie. The movie took almost nine years to shoot completely (Stevens, 2013). The movie once upon a time in China is directed by Tsui Hark who is relatively not known by the viewers of Hollywood but he is one of the great Asian Film director and in this film he combined the history of Chinese struggle to fight with the foreign armies of France, America as well as Britain with comedy, martial arts and romantic sequences. In the beginning of the movie, the hero Wong Fei hung opened a clinic in canton which is a province of China and took some staff from the locals to help him out in helping the poor but this became unacceptable to the foreigners and they lit the clinic on fire and then the hero think to take the revenge from the army but soon he realized that it is getting difficult as he just knew the martial arts and the army with which he was fighting was embraced with the latest weapons and armory (Rotten Tomatoes, 2014). So both the movies are based on martial arts and the filming is done in China, the former is the biography of a martial art legend Ip man and the later tells us the struggle of a Chinese hero against the foreign encroachers. As far as “The grandmaster” is concerned, it was nominated for two Oscars in the categories of costume design and cinematography. Though it did not win any of these two awards but in the Hong Kong awards this movie won seven out of ten awards including the best picture as well as the best actor and the best actress awards (Tingting, 2014). The Grandmaster is a great movie from Wong Kar wai which helps us forget the miserable “My blueberry nights”. This movie proves to be a milestone in the films of the Hong Kong film directors as gives them a place in the commercial cinema as well as a ticket to th academy awards. This movie did extraordinarily well at the Chinese box office as well and the Chinese customers like the movie a lot. Despite being a martial arts film, it stood alone and stood high from the other movies of its genre and of its time, the strategic fights in the movie are a class of its own. The movie depicts the life of Ip man in a great manner. Glimpses from both the past as well as the time of the Ip man’s romantic life are well narrated in the film. In this movie, the director simply depicts the history on the silver screen with excellence. All the movies which are made on the life of Ip man mainly concentrated on the life of Ip man from his birth then his background, his migration to Hong Kong, making of a school where kung fu was taught, these movies also emphasized on the anti Japanese stance of Ip man. But the Wong Kar Wai work is different, he took us into the dream world of love and romance and there is tragic element as well. He is describing history but in a different manner and he is combining past with the present of the main character. This is a new concept in the commercial cinema which will have implications in the future in a positive way. The Grandmaster focuses on the life of Ip man with some additions to make the movie worth watching. The movie starts with Ip man being known as a master of Kung Fu of Foshan and at that time the grandmaster Gong Yutian retires and announced to have a successor in the south through a tournament. In the match Ip man beats Ma San who is the student of kung fu master Gong which is unbearable to gong’s daughter i.e. Gong Er who then has a fight with Ip man and this fight was won by Gong Er. At that time the Japanese were trying to occupy the southern region of China and Ma San is now with the Japanese forces and has killed the master Gong so Gong Er is wants to take revenge from Ma San which she finally did in an action studded scene at a railway platform, the set of which is a class in itself. Ip man is settled in Hong Kong after his daughter being killed by Japanese. Multiple kung fu action scenes gives a lot to the local spectators to see as the level of fight sequences is too good to be true. The film’s opening scene is a rain hit fight between the Ip man and a bunch of people and it showed the variation of the form of martial arts which is used by Wong as compared to the other directors who made films on Ip man. The technique is different and most of the shots of this fighting sequence are very small as compared to the usual long shots of different movies of the same genre. This technique used by wong enables him to bring a lot of reality in the fighting sequences which is usually uncommon in the other movies of this type. The scene in which the hero beats the old Grandmaster is quite unique in its type that there is no fighting rather some acrobatics where Ip man has to break a piece of cake which Gong Yutian is holding in his hands. This no fight action scene reveals the role of the Wong’s helper and his co-screen writer Xu Haofeng who is a consultant of martial arts films which shows the difference in this film. The scene having the fight between Zhang Ziyi and Tony Lung is the movie’s masterpiece where the encounter between the both shows the fights as well as an erotic and intimate sexual encounter, the sexual part of this scene is the base of romantic drama of the rest of the movie. This movie mainly depicts the life of Ip man and his role in the history of China and the Chinese invasion by the Japanese as well as his life in Hong kong, the movie shows that the Chinese may be divided into south and north but kung fu is the art which joins the nation and in the movie there are depictions of both the north and the south of the China. Wong himself has said in the interviews that he is more interested in the philosophy of kung fu rather than its technique. The main theme is that the kung fu masters wants to pass the techniques which they learnt from their mentors to the next generation and this shows their generosity in which Wong was mainly interested. There are two totally different characters; one is Ip man who stands for the traditions of the kung fu masters i.e. the continuity of the martial arts and its survival in the future. On the other hand, Gong Er is buried fury and she wants to take revenge from the murderer of her father and so she ends up the thoughts of marriage and a family and she refused to pass on her family technique of sixty four hands to anyone outside the family. What kung fu means is a main matter in the understanding. The simpler meaning would be that one person is the winner and the other is the loser but on a deeper note it can be assumed that the nations can be divided and are divided on geographical basis like the north and south of the China so as the love story of Ip man and Gong Er where Ip man wants to forget the history in order to compose himself and get ready to pass on the talent he had and Gong Er was deeply buried in vengeance and the paths of both were separate but inseparable so as our worlds in which we live are divided on the basis of sects, language and so on (Kraicer, 2013). No matter what the China is doing as a rival to America in economy or in the cold wars when china sent a spy plane of America in pieces to United States but if we take the geopolitics out of the question even then China is exerting a strong impact on the Hollywood by redefining the action zone of Hollywood. One of the major example is the 2nd time release of Once upon a time in China in America which does excellent business at the box office. Once upon a time in China is the story of Wong Fei Hong who is the traditional hero of China. He was a martial art expert, a doctor as well as a patriot and live in a country which was hit by the opium surge as well as the foreign armies. In Once upon a time in China, we appreciate the hero serving the ailing Chinese, protecting them from French and the British people bringing the government as well as the corrupt Chinese officials and the people who are bringing the opium culture in the country taking the advantage of the conflicts in the country. The hero must have to understand that the western technology is replacing the traditions of China like the guns making the art of Kung Fu out of the context. This movie is mainly written for Chinese audiences who already know the history of Wong Fei Hong and the difficult era which he saw so the English audience who do not know the background may have some hindrance in understanding. American spectators may feel some resentment as the white rulers of China at that time are shown as cruel and heartless people. American rulers are a bit better than the British. The martial arts sequences shown in the movie are exquisite and behind these is a long training of martial arts and wushu. The talented work in this movie is exceptional. The director Tsui Hark is exceptionally well known for hs work on kung fu and he is comparable in terms of kung fu to what John Woo is in terms of gunplay. The hero “Jet Li” who is the national martial art champion of China and he shows excellence in the fighting scenes of the film. Apart from his acting talent, he is also a good actor and this helps audience to connect with the role of Wong Fei Hong. The film is the rivalry of the good and the evil and it’s a low budget movie as there are no car crashes or bomb explosions in the movie which required heavy budget which is most of the time out of question for the Asian film makers. The purpose of introducing martial arts in the Chinese and Hong Kong films was to ensure thrilling experience to audience in a low budget movie too and this movie is a perfect example of such kind. But due to low budget some of features of the movie suffered a lot like the music, picture quality as well as the dubbing. But regardless of its drawbacks due to low budget, the martial art scenes in this movie as well as the depiction of history is a joy to watch for both the new audiences who wants to see Hong Kong action movies or the familiar viewers who wants to see this piece on the silver screen. The breath taking action as well as Jet Li’s performance makes this film a classic and a must see for action lovers (Park, 2001). Conclusion In the end I want to conclude by elaborating some of the facts; both of the above films are based mainly on martial arts and on the history of this art in China. The role of martial arts in China’s history is imminent in both the films, the difference mainly lie in the time frame and the era when both films are made where The Grandmaster is made in the recent days where technology is on the high and the director Wong used this at its best which is vividly seen in the cinematography and the clarity of voice and action sequences all owe to the use of latest technology and this movie not only show the Martial Arts alone but also the philosophical aspects of Kung Fu as well as the romance and the tragedy associated with the real lives. Whereas in “Once upon a time in China”, the technology was old though the action sequences were superb but the ultimate impact of the movie was a bit less than The Grandmaster due to the latest equipment used as well as the approach of Wong is quite wider in terms of philosophy of love as well as the explanation of the knowledge of kung fu. The Grandmaster is a movie which is meant and is usually enjoyed by a larger number of spectators as it does not depict any particular grudge against any country like America or British in particular so a large number of audiences are expected to enjoy this movie whereas Once upon a time in China is a movie which can provoke resentment in the viewers of western countries which make the main proportion of the Hollywood cinema population due to the role of Americans and British as it is shown in the movie. The main drawbacks of Once upon a time China are namely the bad picture quality, music as well as the dubbing of the movie whereas in The Grandmaster, every technical aspect is dealt in an expert way so the impact of technology is clearly visible in the movie. REFERENCES 1. IMDb. (2014). Once Upon a Time in China (1991) Plot Summary. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103285/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl 2. Zacharek, S. (2013). Berlin International Film Festival: ‘The Grandmaster’ Review. Retrieved from http://www.film.com/movies/the-grandmaster-review 3. Musetto, V. (2013). Chinese Helmer Fights Back in ‘The Grandmaster.’ Retrieved from http://nypost.com/2013/08/23/chinese-helmer-fights-back-in-the-grandmaster/ 4. Stevens, M. (2013). The Grandmaster: 5 Things to Know About the Stylish and Ambitious Kung Fu Flick. Retrieved from http://www.eonline.com/news/452124/the-grandmaster-5-things-to-know-about-the-stylish-ambitious-kung-fu-flick 5. Rotten Tomatoes. (2014). Once Upon a Time in China (1991). Retrieved from http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/once_upon_a_time_in_china/ 6. Tingting, X. (2014). No Oscar Wins, ‘The Grandmaster’ Wins Big at Home. Retrieved from http://english.cri.cn/6666/2014/03/06/1261s816067.htm 7. Kraicer, S. (2013). One Horizontal, One Vertical: Some Preliminary Observations on Wong Kar- wai’s The Grandmaster. Retrieved from http://cinema-scope.com/features/one-horizontal-one-vertical-some-preliminary-observations-on-wong-kar-wais-the-grandmaster/ 8. Park, S. (2001). Film Review: Once Upon a Time in China. Retrieved from http://www.culturekiosque.com/nouveau/cinema/rheonceuponatimeinchina.html Read More