A couple of new images have arrived from Wong Kar-wai‘s latest, “The Grandmasters,” but somewhat disappointingly, they continue to simply show the same fighting scene which has dominated all of the film‘s limited marketing so far.
The first trailer for the film dropped last week and has us excited as ever for the biopic of Yip Man, the first martial artist to teach Wing Chun and the man who trained Bruce Lee, among many others. We were hoping that promo will spark more marketing which might show off more of what Wong has been conjuring up; a picture we’re highly anticipating considering the nearly two year production length, not to mention the long-awaited return of Wong Kar-wai.
The slow-moving filmmaker hasn’t made a picture since 2007’s, “My Blueberry Nights,” his English-language debut and a drama that many regard as one of his least successful.
Other than Tony Leung, who stars as the Wing Chun legend, the film also features Song Hye-kyo as Yip Man’s wife as well as Zhao Benshan, Julian Cheun Chi-lam, Chang Chen and MMA fighter Cung Le in unknown roles. Wong’s regular DoP Christopher Doyle isn’t on board this one but it will feature cinematography work from Yuen Woo-ping, which is interesting considering the quick ‘Matrix‘ comparisons everyone seems to be making of the teaser trailer.
Cinephile heiress Megan Ellison has the film’s North American distribution rights and will likely team with a distributor to set out a plan for release, but when will the whole feature be first unveiled? We’re hoping it’ll be included in the Venice line up this Thursday but that could be just wishful thinking and our money is on a Cannes 2012 bow. [WongKarWaiNews]
