[10][11] Although The Grandmaster was not as popular as others of Wong Kar-Wai's works in the western world, this film was highly-praised and applauded in the Chinese-speaking world for its profound philosophical depth, historical perspective, and break-through of the Kung-Fu film genre, further cementing Wong's "Grandmaster" Status in Chinese cinema.
[13] Wing Chun grandmaster Ip Man (Tony Leung) reflects on the nature of martial arts as he battles a dozen combatants during a rainstorm in Foshan.
Ip wins and experiences flashbacks of his life, from his early training at the age of seven, to his induction into Wing Chun by his master, Chan Wah-shun (Yuen Woo-Ping), and his marriage to Cheung Wing-sing (Song Hye-Kyo).
Ip Man's peaceful existence is threatened by the arrival of Gong Yutian (Wang Qing Xiang), the Wudangquan martial arts grandmaster from northern China, who announces that he has already retired and appointed Ma San (Zhang Jin) as his heir in the North.
The "fight" between Ip Man and Gong Yutian turns out to be an exchange of philosophical ideas using a flat-cake as a metaphor for Chinese unity.
Gong Er refuses to accept this, and instead makes a vow to Buddha to never teach, marry, or have children, devoting her life to vengeance against Ma San.
He meets Gong Er in Hong Kong on Chinese New Year's Eve 1950 and asks her for one more contest while implying that she should rebuild her family's martial arts school.
A voice-over from Ip reveals that the fight with Ma San left Gong badly injured, and she turned to opium to help with the pain.
Ip Man's Wing Chun school flourishes, and he is able to popularize the once secretive and elitist martial art on a worldwide scale.
The site's critics consensus reads: "Though its storytelling is a tad muddled, Wong Kar Wai's The Grandmaster still exhibits the auteur's stylistic flourishes in gorgeous cinematography and explosive action set pieces.
[19] Variety gave the film a positive review, stating Wong "exceeds expectations with The Grandmaster, fashioning a 1930s action saga into a refined piece of commercial filmmaking".
The review also said: "Boasting one of the most propulsive yet ethereal realizations of authentic martial arts onscreen, as well as a merging of physicality and philosophy not attained in Chinese cinema since King Hu's masterpieces, the hotly anticipated pic is sure to win new converts from the genre camp.
"[1] While praising Tony Leung's Ip Man and Zhang Ziyi's Gong Er, calling the latter "more or less complete and coherent", The Hollywood Reporter lamented some of the more underdeveloped characters, stating that "the same can't be said of some of the other characters, such as Chang Chen’s Razor, an expert of the Bajiquan school who is supposed to be another of the grandmasters.
[22] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote: "the film, despite a few splendid fights, is a bio-historical muddle that never finds its center.
The version released by The Weinstein Company is a more linear 108 minute cut that includes explanatory text for the benefit of Americans unfamiliar with the story,[28][29] Wong wrote in The Huffington Post that he was "never interested in telling a watered down version," but one that was tighter and provided greater historical context: As a filmmaker, let me say that the luxury of creating a new cut for U.S. audiences was the opportunity to reshape it into something different than what I began with -- a chance one doesn't always get as a director and an undertaking much more meaningful than simply making something shorter or longer.
"[31] Manohla Dargis at The New York Times wrote: "Too bad that the American distributor didn’t have enough faith in the audience to release the original.