The Grandmaster (2013): A martial arts masterpiece butchered by Harvey Weinstein
22 minutes were cut from the international release of Wong Kar Wai's elegiac epic—and so was everything that makes it special
There are many reasons why Harvey Weinstein should rot in hell, and whilst it obviously won’t appear at the top of the list, the way in which he mishandled The Grandmaster must certainly be one of them. Weinstein’s insistence on cutting the films his company acquired, especially foreign language ones, was infamous. His handling of Wong Kar Wai’s martial arts epic, however, is one of the most egregious. The 130-minute version of The Grandmaster opened to acclaim in Chinese-speaking territories. When it later received a similarly rapturous response at the Berlin International Film Festival, the Weinstein Company bought its distribution rights for an international release. Nevertheless, Weinstein insisted that Wong Kar Wai cut 20 minutes out of the film. Wong didn’t put up much of a fight. After all, more successful filmmakers than him had stood up to “Harvey Scissorhands” and failed, from Martin Scorsese to Bong Joon Ho. But whilst a decent film still emerged out of Scorsese’s stripped-back The Gangs Of New York, and Bong's uncut version of Snowpiercer was eventually released under a different distributor, the version of The Grandmaster distributed by The Weinstein Company is a unwatchable disaster. In the UK, this is sadly the only version you can watch on either streaming or physical media, but there is a region free, English subtitled version of the 130-minute cut available to import on blu ray from China that is more than worth the cost.
In both versions of the film, martial arts grandmaster Gong Yutian (Wang Qing Xiang) announces his retirement, appointing Ma San (Zhang Jin) as his heir for the North and Ip Man (Tony Leung) as his heir for the South, much to the dismay of his daughter Gong Err (Zhang Ziyi) who believes her family name has been dishonoured. How each version explores this story is markedly different though. In the longer version, we chart several turbulent decades in Chinese history, spanning the Second Sino-Japanese War and the closing of the Hong Kong border, to discover how the country’s changing cultural identity rendered martial arts and its grandmasters obsolete. It is an elegiac tone poem with a non-linear structure, spiritually sharing more in common with Wong’s In The Mood For Love than a traditional martial arts movie. In the western release, by removing 22 minutes of footage, the movie equally loses its thematic density. This version of The Grandmaster is a simplistic tournament film in which the narrative is dominated by Ip Man’s vying for heirship and Gong Err’s rivalry with Ma San. Its simplicity extends to the structure, which is mostly chronological, as well as how it depicts China’s 20th century history, with patronising title cards standing in for scenes that infer historical context.
The Grandmaster’s fight scenes, choreographed by Yeun Woo-Ping, famous for The Matrix and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, are the perfect metaphor for how each version differs. They are ravishing in both, with Philippe Le Sourd’s expressive use of light and shadow combining with Shigeru Umebayashi’s gorgeous score. But in the 108-minute version these sequences cut noticeably faster and sharper. They accelerate the pace to not only keep its running time down but also to appeal to the typically shorter attention spans of western viewers. Their emphasis is on forwarding the plot. However, this deprives the scenes of the grace notes that make them so spellbinding in the 130-minute film: the stillness between movements, the gliding of feet, the facial expressions which underscore the emotional stakes. There is a poetry to the martial arts in the Chinese version, which has been removed from the western cut. And this is true of the movie at large. The 130-minute The Grandmaster is a mournful requiem for times that are a-changin’—one that is rich in character, emotion and style. Shredded by the meddling hands of Harvey Weinstein, its butchered international release is a shadow of itself.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Directed by Diao Yinan. Written by Diao Yinan. Produced by Li Li. Starring Hu Ge, Gwei Lun-mei and Liao Fan. Green Ray Films and Maisong Entertainment Investment. Distributed by Memento Films. 113 minutes. China/France.