The Grandmaster (2013)
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Why watch this film?
Selected to open the Berlin Film Festival in 2013 and nominated for two Academy Awards (Cinematography and Costume Design), this movie marks the return of Hong Kong's great filmmaker, Wong Kar-Wai, to martial arts cinema after his first (and until then only) foray into the genre with the film ''Ashes of Time'. Inspired by the life of the legendary martial arts master and mentor of Bruce Lee, 'Yi dai zong shi' is by far the most expensive movie in the director's career, and although it shares its protagonist with the 'Ip Man' movie series, it presents a totally different approach. The action sequences are equally spectacular, but one can perceive the director's trademark, from the involvement of actors like Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi, to the captivating visual style and fragmented narrative to portray a period of Chinese and Hong Kong history that has been left behind, through the perspective of its protagonists.
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The story of martial-arts master Ip Man, the man who trained Bruce Lee.
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Where to watch?
Available at home
From the same director
In the Mood for Love
It would be technically correct, albeit limiting, to say that 'Fa yeung nin wah' is one of the most beautiful films about love and heartache in cinema history. Released with the arrival of the new century - and millennium - but set in the crucial decade of the 60s for modern Asian history, 'Fa yeung nin wah' is not only a postmodern ode to the desire for intimacy, but also to the inevitable transience of all that exists, whose remains are nothing more than intangible, unattainable, and increasingly blurred memories. Director Wong Kar-Wai manages to capture in the film the one thing that remains in the end: displacement, the feeling of being in a time and place that no longer exists and to which one always yearns to return.
Chungking Express
Depending on who you ask, 'Chung Hing sam lam' can be considered the third or fourth feature film of the great Hong Kong filmmaker, Wong Kar-Wai ('In the Mood for Love'), as it was made during a break in the production of 'Ashes of Time', and was released at the beginning of the same year. What is certain is that the movie marked his first undisputed success in Hong Kong and attracted greater attention from the international audience, with a markedly own visual and narrative style, emphasizing disconnected and fragmented stories about love and sorrow through hypnotic cadence images. In total contrast to his previous productions, 'Chung Hing sam lam' is a film that brings out the best of his vision, filmed by pure creative impulse of an independent spirit in less than a month.
Ashes of Time Redux
Released in 1994 and selected for the Berlin Film Festival that year (where it won the Best Photography award, by Christopher Doyle), 'Dung che sai duk' was only the third feature film directed by Wong Kar-Wai (fourth if taking into account 'Amores Expressos', filmed during a brief hiatus in production and released earlier), commissioned to finance his other projects. Although it is a movie classified as "wuxia" (fiction of martial arts in ancient China), the director has a very unconventional approach, with a fragmented narrative and even difficult to follow at certain points, although this disposition to break with conventions helped to put it in the sights of the Western audience. In the face of criticism, Wong Kar-Wai released a new version in 2008, entitled 'Redux', with a slightly shorter duration. However, as it was not re-released from an original copy of the movie, 'Dung che sai duk Redux' suffers from lower image quality and color treatment, although it still provides beautiful images. It is, without a doubt, one of the most overlooked and least appreciated works of the filmmaker.
Action
Furies
An exclusive Vietnamese action and revenge thriller on Netflix that thematically will remind you of "Promising Young Woman", but in action and style it is more reminiscent of "John Wick" and "Kill Bill". Although it is not as refined (or interesting) as its references, "Furies" will leave genre fans satisfied. The plot is somewhat scant: three furious and violent female vigilantes join forces to take down a sinister mafia that has made them victims. There is more substance in the action sequences than in its premise, but if you're looking for something visually impactful and entertaining, you'll like it.
Demon Slayer: To the Swordsmith Village
After his family is viciously murdered, a kind-hearted boy named Tanjiro Kamado resolves to become a Demon Slayer in hopes of turning his younger sister Nezuko back into a human. Together with his comrades, Zenitsu and Inosuke, along with one of the top-ranking members of the Demon Slayer Corps, Tengen Uzui, Tanjiro embarks on a mission within the Entertainment District, where they encounter the formidable, high-ranking demons, Daki and Gyutaro.
