The film I am writing about is The Grandmaster, which I saw at the gish. It was a dramatic telling of legendary kung fu master, Ip Man’s, life. By dramatic I mean lots of action and long takes of people staring at nothing. It was alright but I wouldn’t watch it again. It was a two hour film that made me fall asleep once or twice. Yes an action film made me fall asleep. Despite that the film has appropriate lighting to fit the story. Ip Man says that his life is described as seasons. Spring is the best time in his life while Winter is the worst. He says this because things went downhill for him as time wwinterent on. The lighting affects the seasons as orange represents Spring and blue represents . The lighting affects how the story is.
^For example in this part of the film it has an orange cast on Ip Man and his environment. This is a better time for him as it is orange in color as well as having a smirk on his face. He would fight people he liked and fought to bring honor to his region.
^In this scene it depicts a serious fight as the environment has a blue cast. This a blue color symbolizing a serious scene in the winter stage of his life. These scenes would always indicate a darker time in his life. It was blue when his friend died and when his children died.
There is theme with fighting for honor throughout the film. Ip Man fights to gain honor for southern China. Er Gong, a female martial arts master, fights to restore for her family’s honor. As well as this, fight scenes are done in a peculiar way. In most fight scenes, the fights are done at a wide angle. In The Grandmaster, the fights are done up close. A lot of slow mos in the film show where the impact of a punch or kick lands. I think it is done this way to show how intense the fights are. The fights are what made this film stick out.
Martial arts is also used martial arts as a way to deal with his uses. It was something he cared for and was good at. He spent his whole life fighting. Fighting to keep his family alive. Fighting to bring martial artists together in harmony.
The narrative style uses action scenes and black screens with text to drive the story forward. Lot of the film’s progressions were from black screens that told of what happens in Ip Man’s life. This isn’t a particular good way to tell the story of the film. Fights are cool but dialogue is lacking. When there isn’t any fights, there are people just practicing it with a beautiful score underneath. This provides help to the storytelling by making emotions seem more believable. The acting was good but there wasn’t really any challenging dialogue scenes between the characters. Scenes would just switch locations without explaining why. This made the film confusing.
