'Yes, No, Maybe So' Blow-Out Special

Trailers everywhere! At the movies and at home this weekend I saw a whole slew of trailers and realized I hadn't written about any of them. So let's catch up with super quick trifurcated thoughts on five forthcoming features (The Grandmaster, Blue Jasmine, Out of the Furnace, Oldboy, and Runner Runner) via their current trailers.

Are you aching to see any of these movies, eager to avoid them, or withholding judgment until you see reviews? Don't be shy, lurkers. Speak your three-part thoughts in the comments.

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"The Grandmaster"'s First Screening / Press Conference

It seems like we've been hearing about Wong Kar Wai's The Grandmaster for about a decade now. But it finally exists as a "completed" project. No more tinkering. The movie will premiere at Berlinale next month. With a running time of 2 hours and 10 minutes (or 2 hours and 13 minutes depending on which report you read). The movie has now been screened and press conferenced... in China. Here are the stars earlier today at that first post-screening press conference. 

Chang Chen, Zhang Ziyi, and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai meet the press

The entire team at the press conference. Wong Kar Wai, cast, and key crew

Tony, a frequent overseas correspondent among TFE readers, writes...

Very enthusiastic first wave of response! Apparently more straightfoward, no fragmented, mosaic-style narrative structure. Every frame is desktop picture pretty (obviously). Zhang Ziyi's performance singled out. More than one critic mentioned the first 2/3 of the movie is especially fantastic."

Hmmm. I worry about the last sentence. Generally you have to end strong to not win mixed reviews. Let's end with a newish picture of Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (aka one of the greatest movie stars in the universe) in the title role.

Can't wait! Wong Kar Wai and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai haven't made a movie together in so long and with so many masterpieces and/or damn strong pictures behind them (2046, In the Mood for Love, Happy Together, Chungking Express, etcetera...) it'll hopefully be a worthy reunion

"The Grand Masters" Teases

The teaser trailer for Wong Kar Wai's 代宗師 (The Grand Masters), a biopic of sorts about Ip Man, a famous martial arts teacher who taught Bruce Lee among others has arrived renewing interest in the movie.  It's been an easy movie to forget about since the gestation period has been so long. (And, yes, there's already been a competitive movie on the same topic that's already opened and closed.) I can't remember when they started filming but you may recall that one of our favorite movie stars on the entire planet, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai broke his arm early on in the production and we sent lustful sympathies. Here he is in training again after recovery.

Several websites are speculating about when this will be finished and open (late 2011 fest circuit? cannes 2012?) but we're guessing not until 2012. Since it reunites the acclaimed and very long-absent director with his longtime muse, we're excited no matter how long we have to wait. So long as we can remember it exists that is. (Tony broke his arm two whole years ago!). 

 

The teaser isn't much to go on -- your typical battle scene -- and people have been stealing WKW's style for so long that this tiny tease even looks quite derivative but WKW's films are so stylish that there's every reason to hope this will be yummy eye candy. And with Leung at the center, it could be a new classic. They've already made so many great films together: Chungking Express, Happy Together, In the Mood For Love, etcetera.

Bonus Points: Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon's young lovers Zhang Ziyi and Chang Chen co-star, though they don't appear in this teaser.

Confusion: This title is printed differently everywhere you read about it: sometimes singular, sometimes plural, sometimes with spaces and sometimes as one long word "Grandmasters"