The Grandmaster

Wong Kar-wai's take on the life of Wing Chun master and Bruce Lee's guru Ip Man. It chronicles his early life in Foshan and his flight to Hong Kong after the Japanese invasion. Tony Leung plays the martial artist maestro with his usual relaxed ease. But other than for that and the brilliant cinematography, the film has very little to warrant an addition to Wong Kar-wai's list of masterpieces. The director has definitely lost his touch and his retirement would be welcomed by his fans.

Rating: * *

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Wu Xia

Liu Jinxi (Donnie Yen) leads a simple life as a paper maker in a tranquil village in the Chinese countryside as the country is going through a change from monarchy to republic. Married to the ethereally beautiful Ayu (Wei Tang), Liu’s life is jolted when he “accidently” kills two bandits who try to rob a local store. The detective (Takeshi Kaneshiro) who follows in the wake of the killings refuse to let Liu’s past be and slowly tries to uncover the martial artist behind the simpleton’s mask. Stylistically shot by Peter Chan, the film is a pleasure to view except that the script and screenplay leaves a lot to wish  for.

Rating: * +

Kamui

Terrible movie about a shinobi who absconds from his ninja clan. The hope might have been that the over the top CGI effects and wire works would make up for the lousy action sequences and jerky storyline. Alas it only left me wondering how this pile of krap made it on to my queue.

Rating: *

Ip Man 2

Take Ip Man, replace the Japanese with the Brits, remove all historical context and you will be left with the second film that supposedly peeks in to the life of Bruce Lee’s master. Throw in Sammo Hung for old time sake, but nothing can save this film from inducing coma in the viewers.

Rating: *

Ip Man

The semi-autobiographical take on the legendary master of Bruce Lee, sees Donnie Yen don the role of Ip Man. The film attempts to show the Wing Chung master's life in China prior to his move to Hong Kong during / after WWII and his "resistance" against the invading Japanese culture. That portrayal seems a tad too melodramatic for it to have been real. However it calls for some very enjoyable ass kicking and if the popularity of Wing Chung was on the wane, this film should have brought it back on to the martial art radar.

Rating: * * +

Zatoichi

In Takeshi Kitano's version of Zatoichi, the blind masseur wanders into a remote town that is being held hostage by the yakuza. Like always Ichi decides to lend a helping hand or I should say, helping sword. Though following the regular plotlines of an Ichi flick, Kitano cleverly massages other characters and storylines into it plus his own brand of humor. What you finally have is a very slick flick with blindingly fast sword fights and a cunning background score.

For those who are curious as to why Kitano would make a Zatoichi flick, here is a good article that explains it.

Rating: * * * +

Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior

Ong-Bak, an ancient statue of Buddha is stolen from the village Nong Pradu. The villagers dispatch Muay Thai exponent Ting (Tony Jaa) to retrieve it from Bangkok. Predictably he starts to kick some serious ass, literary with no strings attached. Please be aware that if you sit through this spectacle, you will find it hard to appreciate any other martial art flick forever.

Rating: * * * +
PS: Rated purely for the quality of action.

Throwdown

A drunk ex-judo champion turned scam artist, a pretty girl trying to make it big in showbiz and a man who wants to fight the world. These are the characters that wander around in this melodrama that tries very hard to be a martial art flick. Was made to trouble Akira Kurosawa's soul by calling it a tribute to Sanjuro.

Rating: *

A Touch of Zen

Sambar's choices become more dubious by the day. Couldn't take more than 45 min of this mind numbing shite.

Rating: +