Yi dai zong shi 2013

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: However much history informs this movie, "The Grandmaster" is, at its most persuasive, about the triumph of style. Read more

Drew Grant, New York Observer: It's a little like getting Jim Jarmusch to direct a film about Spider-Man. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: For those who aren't ardent students of kung fu's schools and styles, however, the movie is, for most of its length, a lifeless snore. Read more

Soren Anderson, Seattle Times: Writer-director Wong Kar-wai has made a martial-arts movie that is truly a work of art. His "The Grandmaster" is a picture of staggering beauty. Read more

Maggie Lee, Variety: Venturing into fresh creative terrain without relinquishing his familiar themes and stylistic flourishes, Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar Wai exceeds expectations with The Grandmaster. Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: It's hard not to feel that with this, Wong's first feature since 2007's misbegotten My Blueberry Nights, a dear old friend is finally back in the room. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: More than anything Wong has ever made, the movie chokes on exposition, its more poetic concerns stifled by its surfeit of plot. Read more

Randy Cordova, Arizona Republic: The movie ultimately winds up falling between two stools, failing as both a biography and an action film. Read more

Peter Keough, Boston Globe: As a kung fu film, "The Grandmaster," with its exhilarating fighting sequences, won't disappoint. As a Wong Kar-wai film, it rates high. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: The action choreography (by the great Yuen Woo-ping) feels oddly rhythmless; likewise, Wong's depictions of the larger-than-life characters achieve little emotional resonance. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: I've never been a big fan of Wong's phantasmagoric prettiness, but at least here it provides a welcome corrective to the usual martial-arts mayhem. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: "The Grandmaster" can feel stiff at times, and something is doubtlessly lost in translation. But the precision and magic of Wong Kar Wai's camera is so captivating it doesn't matter. Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: It ranks with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero and House of Flying Daggers as one of the most elegant and beautiful martial-arts films to play American screens. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The film, despite a few splendid fights, is a biohistorical muddle that never finds its center. Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: The movie's problems are, in part, those of a great artist trying something new. It's a fine mess. Read more

Clarence Tsui, Hollywood Reporter: A scintillating mix of explosive action choreography and suppressed emotions, but it could have used more work on consistency in tone and character development. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: You'll feel decadent enjoying it, but everything is so tasty, it would be foolish to object. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: The Grandmaster blends right in with Wong's body of work, a gorgeous meditation on the importance of sorrow and lament. This one just happens to have kung fu, too. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: "The Grandmaster" is the work of a director whose work throughout his career has been visually exhilarating, sensuous, even sublime. To that end, "The Grandmaster" doesn't disappoint. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: An exquisite-looking, fitfully moving drama from the director of "In the Mood for Love." Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: Wong extracts magnetic performances from his two stars, and Philippe Le Sourd delivers gorgeous cinematography. Read more

Michael Sragow, Orange County Register: The fights that dot this erratically told story of kung fu grandmaster Ip Man can leave you giddy with excitement. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Wong Kar Wai is an expressionist master. A master of character - deep, rich, truthful character - especially in The Grandmaster, he is not. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: You leave this deeply flawed, deeply beautiful film with no doubt that you've seen an indisputable cinematic grandmaster in action. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: All I know is that I got lost in it, and that I would still have loved it if it were twice as long with half the action. Read more

Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: Beautiful but troubled, achieving in stretches the director's signature dreamy mood but dragged down by narrative confusions. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: A deliriously beautiful martial-arts saga, a mix of exuberant violence and restrained eroticism. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Whereas many kung-fu movies are a feast that leaves us weary with sensations, the tastefully bittersweet "Grandmaster" puts us in the mood for more. Read more

Bill Stamets, Chicago Sun-Times: Granted, "The Grandmaster" is not a primer on Chinese philosophy. Yet it may score as crossover cinema for Wong fans and Lee fans. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: There are sequences in Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai's new film, The Grandmaster, that are as gorgeous as anything you'll see on a screen this year, or perhaps this decade. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Ip Man's story has been told many times before by other filmmakers. Wong builds upon it, establishing the noble fighter as a reflective but still ferocious grandmaster in 1936 in Foshan, Ip Man's home city in southern China. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Still, a butchered Wong Kar-Wai movie is better than most filmmakers' purest work, so even if the plot occasionally zips by at too quick a clip, The Grandmaster is a lush, albeit rushed, meal that's worth consuming on the big screen. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Wong has done this dynamic better in virtually all of his past work; there's a pretty dullness here that shouldn't be confused for mastery. Read more

Scott Bowles, USA Today: An historical opus that is equal parts ballet and biography, though the second component pales in comparison with the first. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice: The 108-minute Grandmaster may not be the shimmering golden epic he originally intended, but it's fleet and silvery in its own right. Read more

Mark Jenkins, Washington Post: The director took great efforts to be true to Chinese martial arts, but he did so without sacrificing his own distinctive vision. Read more