We all know that Harvey Weinstein can't keep his grubby hands to himself, so it's perhaps natural to lay the blame for this 'international cut' solely at his feet. After all, his production company picked up the global rights to the film with the prerequisite that it would be trimmed to under two hours. Considering the original version had already been sliced from a reported four hours down to a fairly reasonably 130 minutes, this is a bit of a strange request. Imagine my surprise, though, when director Wong Kar-Wai stated that this new version isn't "watered down" and actually contains some material not present in the original. The fact that the filmmaker actually supervised this cut is almost unbelievable, because it's by far the worst thing he's produced to date (that I've seen, at least).
That's not to imply that what made it to international screens isn't unmistakably the work of Wong Kar-Wai; you only have to wait mere moments before the director's iconic stuttering slow-motion comes into play, for instance. However, there's a palpable sense that his initial intention has been lost amidst his efforts to make the history surrounding 'The Grandmaster (2013)' more palatable to Western audiences. While trying to present something that people unfamiliar with Chinese history will instantly understand, he's lost almost all sense of heart and - to a lesser but still notable degree - purpose. My mum described the movie as monotone, and that's perhaps the best word for it. It plods forwards in a single register, occasionally stopping to display intertitles that explain elements of the plot instead of organically allowing them to be shown and - more importantly - felt. We don't really see how these events affect the characters, which makes them feel almost entirely irrelevant even though they're the main thing that the 'international cut' wants to convey to its audience. It's hard to get invested in anything because the important stuff - like character and theme - is conveyed too obliquely and the unimportant stuff - like historical events and people's names - is conveyed too explicitly.
Furthermore, the whole film has the aesthetic, pacing and structure of an extended dream sequence. It all plays out in a slightly surreal, stream-of-consciousness style that might replicate the cadence of its lead characters' signature martial art style but also beats you over the head due to its repetitive and unrelenting nature. Things start out quite promisingly, and the overt stylisation is striking in each and every scene, but eventually it becomes hard to stay focused because everything just feels the same. There's no real ebb and flow, no build up to the fights, no calm before the storm. By the time the flick's most interesting elements - including its best fight scene - rolls around, you just don't care anymore. The action doesn't feel like action because it rarely has any real consequences, coming and going just as easily as the elliptical drama. The same sense of inertia applies to the narrative, too. Although it isn't exactly stagnant in terms of what occurs, it plows through its events with an "and then this happened" attitude that makes why a lot of it feel fairly perfunctory. It isn't clear why we're being told this story, and that's even worse when the 'international cut' eventually makes a big stink out of hammering this into a more traditional biopic box with an ending that comes out of nowhere and almost feels like something out of an entirely different affair. What I mean is that you can kind of tell the initial ambition doesn't line up with the final (international) execution, in that what seems to have been a story centred around the kind of elusive connections this director always returns to has instead been retooled as a more conventional 'true story' picture meant to showcase the nuts-and-bolts life story of Bruce Lee's mentor (and it's still too obscure to really do that, no matter how many intertitles it throws at you, because it was never meant to be something that could do that even if it wanted to).
The end result is definitely disappointing, despite being as lavish and visually stunning and slippery as you'd expect from something directed by Wong Kar-Wai. Perhaps the original cut is a major improvement over the one I inadvertently watched, but I can only comment on what I've seen and what I've seen didn't really impress me. It's just really hard to care about anything that happens in the feature, and a lot of it is as confusing as it is boring. As my mum said, it's monotone. Its aesthetic is accomplished and often quite breathtaking, but it's pretty much the only thing to hold on to. I'd be lying if I said I liked it, no matter how much I wanted to. It's not very good, to be honest.
That's not to imply that what made it to international screens isn't unmistakably the work of Wong Kar-Wai; you only have to wait mere moments before the director's iconic stuttering slow-motion comes into play, for instance. However, there's a palpable sense that his initial intention has been lost amidst his efforts to make the history surrounding 'The Grandmaster (2013)' more palatable to Western audiences. While trying to present something that people unfamiliar with Chinese history will instantly understand, he's lost almost all sense of heart and - to a lesser but still notable degree - purpose. My mum described the movie as monotone, and that's perhaps the best word for it. It plods forwards in a single register, occasionally stopping to display intertitles that explain elements of the plot instead of organically allowing them to be shown and - more importantly - felt. We don't really see how these events affect the characters, which makes them feel almost entirely irrelevant even though they're the main thing that the 'international cut' wants to convey to its audience. It's hard to get invested in anything because the important stuff - like character and theme - is conveyed too obliquely and the unimportant stuff - like historical events and people's names - is conveyed too explicitly.
Furthermore, the whole film has the aesthetic, pacing and structure of an extended dream sequence. It all plays out in a slightly surreal, stream-of-consciousness style that might replicate the cadence of its lead characters' signature martial art style but also beats you over the head due to its repetitive and unrelenting nature. Things start out quite promisingly, and the overt stylisation is striking in each and every scene, but eventually it becomes hard to stay focused because everything just feels the same. There's no real ebb and flow, no build up to the fights, no calm before the storm. By the time the flick's most interesting elements - including its best fight scene - rolls around, you just don't care anymore. The action doesn't feel like action because it rarely has any real consequences, coming and going just as easily as the elliptical drama. The same sense of inertia applies to the narrative, too. Although it isn't exactly stagnant in terms of what occurs, it plows through its events with an "and then this happened" attitude that makes why a lot of it feel fairly perfunctory. It isn't clear why we're being told this story, and that's even worse when the 'international cut' eventually makes a big stink out of hammering this into a more traditional biopic box with an ending that comes out of nowhere and almost feels like something out of an entirely different affair. What I mean is that you can kind of tell the initial ambition doesn't line up with the final (international) execution, in that what seems to have been a story centred around the kind of elusive connections this director always returns to has instead been retooled as a more conventional 'true story' picture meant to showcase the nuts-and-bolts life story of Bruce Lee's mentor (and it's still too obscure to really do that, no matter how many intertitles it throws at you, because it was never meant to be something that could do that even if it wanted to).
The end result is definitely disappointing, despite being as lavish and visually stunning and slippery as you'd expect from something directed by Wong Kar-Wai. Perhaps the original cut is a major improvement over the one I inadvertently watched, but I can only comment on what I've seen and what I've seen didn't really impress me. It's just really hard to care about anything that happens in the feature, and a lot of it is as confusing as it is boring. As my mum said, it's monotone. Its aesthetic is accomplished and often quite breathtaking, but it's pretty much the only thing to hold on to. I'd be lying if I said I liked it, no matter how much I wanted to. It's not very good, to be honest.
