First Poster For Wong Kar-Wai’s Ip Man Biopic, The Grand Master

Despite a production that not only started back in December, but found its producers still casting just this June, it looks like we may not be far off from seeing Wong Kar-Wai’s (Chungking Express, In The Mood For Love) long talked about film, The Grand Master.

That assumption comes thanks to Twitch, who has our first piece of promotional material for the film, Wong’s hyped biopic based on the life of Ip Man, a martial arts legend who later became best known as the mentor to the late Bruce Lee.

The film, staring Tony Leung, will be the first real film of this style from Wong, whose distinct style, that of a visual poet or lyricist, will be an interesting combination with the martial arts storyline.   While he has done romance film after romance film, this very singular style should prove to be a rather stylish match with the plot.

Now, with a Cannes 2011 premiere seeming more and more likely, we still don’t have a release date yet, but it does look like it’s going to be sooner, rather than later, which is always great when it comes to a new Wong Kar-Wai film.

What do you think of this rather gorgeous new poster? I love the look of it, but what about you?

Source: Twitch

Don’t forget: Ip Man 2 will be screening this next week at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas. It will be screening on Sunday September 26th, and Tuesday September 28th.

This is the summer blockbuster you’ve been waiting for. Everything that was good about IP MAN, is better in IP MAN 2. Everything that was big, is bigger. It’s a career highlight for all three of the creative forces involved: star Donnie Yen, co-star and action choreographer, Sammo Hung, and director Wilson Yip. It’s a rousing Canto-fable, a Hong Kong empowerment movie, a return to old school martial arts filmmaking with AVATAR-era production values, and on its opening weekend it beat IRON MAN 2 at the box office like a redheaded stepchild.

No knowledge of IP MAN 1 is necessary. Driven out of Foshan by the Japanese, we pick up the Ip Man story in 1949 as Master Ip (Donnie Yen) arrives in Hong Kong. Wife pregnant, money short, friends scarce, he sets up a martial arts school but no Hong Kong people want to study with the weird, tea-sipping dude from China. It doesn’t take long to figure out the problem: Master Hung (Sammo Hung) runs the martial arts schools in Hong Kong with an iron fist, extorting ‘fees’ and paying off the corrupt British cops. But nobody puts Donnie Yen in the corner, and soon enough he’s standing on a rickety table in a tea house, putting down masters one by one in order to purchase his right to teach wing chun with payments made in nothing but knuckles. Wing chun is the sissy kung fu, invented by a Buddhist nun and long derided in the martial world. Fluid and graceful, IP MAN 2 makes the case that while wing chun may have been invented by Buddhist nuns, these particular Buddhist nuns were not fooling around. (Subway Cinema)