THE GRANDMASTER – The Blu Review

If you watched the Oscars Sunday night, you may have wondered what that movie was, nominated in two categories – Best Costume, and Best Cinematography – that you hadn’t heard of..…THE GRANDMASTER. It won neither award but you’ll have the chance to catch up with this Chinese martial arts epic when it gets a Blu-ray release March 4th.

THE GRANDMASTER is the story of Ip Man, the Wing Chun martial-arts legend who trained Bruce Lee, and it was directed by the acclaimed Wong Kar-wai. There has never been a more visually stunning kung fu movie than THE GRANDMASTER. It’s a true feast for the eyes with its rigorously choreographed fight scenes captured in slow motion and bathed in golden light, in silvery curtains of rain, and snow-swept landscapes. The porcelain-like faces of the women, palatial brothels, bustling saloons, forests and shoreline are rendered like paintings. Then there are the martial arts. The fight scenes — choreographed by Yuen Wo Ping — have two speeds: slow-motion or quicksilver blur, but both are equally athletic and balletic.

When Jim Batts reviewed THE GRANDMASTER here at We Are Movie Geeks back in August he wrote: “Let’s get settled in for a high-kicking, bone-snapping, trek through Eastern history.” Read the rest of Jim’s review HERE
http://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2013/08/the-grandmaster-the-review/

Now THE GRANDMASTER has been released on Blu-ray and the MPEG-4 AVC 1080p transfer in its 2.35:1 aspect ratio boasts bold colors, razor sharp details, and a healthy sheen of grain across the image that gives it the kind of filmic look that can only be found in quality Blu-ray discs. The audio is just as good, razor sharp with crisp dialogue and potent background and effects sound. The THE GRANDMASTER score also sounds beautiful from the first frames of the opening credits. Anchor Bay offers the original Cantonese in a DTS-HD 5.1 track, as well as Mandarin DTS-HD and English DTS-HD tracks. I only sampled the Cantonese track, but it sounded awesome.

Completists may be disappointed that this is not the original 130 Chinese cut of THE GRANDMASTER but the version released by The Weinstein Company that runs at 108 minutes. But Anchor bay has made up for it with a healthy batch of  extras:

A Conversation with Shannon Lee, Daughter of Bruce Lee runs 7 minutes

The Grandmaster According to RZA runs 6 minutes. RZA is apparently a rapper with a band called Wu-Tang Clan who likes martial arts films. I think I heard him do a commentary on another Kung Fu movie once and wasn’t impressed then either.

The Grandmaster: From Ip Man to Bruce Lee runs 23 minutes. The cast, the crew, martial artists, actors, and critics all offer their insight into the film and discuss the fight choreography and filmmaking techniques.

The Grandmaster Behind the Scenes runs 50 minutes and is Chinese with English subtitles. It goes into detail about Wong Kar-wai’s decade-long adventure bringing this story to the big screen and there are interviews with stars Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi who discuss their characters and their martial arts training.

THE GRANDMASTER Blu-ray kicks into retail March 4th and has a suggested retail price of $29.99 (it’s well worth it but I’ll bet you can find it cheaper) – Stay tuned here at We Are Movie Geeks for a GRANDMASTER DVD giveaway later this week.