Thanks to Harvey Weinstein, Stateside and Euro audiences for Wong Kar-Wai’s action-charged/poetically-realized bio-pic on mid-20th Century Martial Arts master Ip Man had to make do with his slaughtered edit, trimmed from 123" to 108" with sequences re-ordered for ‘clarity.’ (See: https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-grandmaster-2013.html) An egregious act against a well-established director unequaled since The Ladd Company lopped and ‘linearized’ Sergio Leone’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA/’84 in similar fashion for similar reasons, down from 3'49" to 2'19". That short edit tanked before it disappeared, completely replaced by the fuller cut. Things didn’t turn out as well for Wong Kar-Wai after the Weinstein desecration grossed a bare 6 mill Stateside while the longer/far superior Asian release did better overseas, finally appearing internationally from a different company, though still not much seen over here.* The LINK above to our post on the Weinstein edit remains largely accurate in story description, but everything in this longer cut feels more lived in, more elegiac, more drop dead gorgeous (main scenes shot on super 35mm/special effects mostly digital). Ironically, neither version especially more or less clear in narrative effect. (Hey, it’s Wong Kar-Wai; soul rather than story.) But the relationships feel deeper; the sense of missed opportunity and lost time really register; and the Martial Arts set pieces gain by having more space around them. That banister balancing in the 64 Hands battle about as thrilling as these things get. (Again, for story detail, click on the LINK above.)
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: In the earlier post I was dead wrong about The Weinsteins eventually re-releasing a ‘Director’ Cut,’ happily those rights went elsewhere.
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