The Grandmasters Plot Synopsis Revealed

The Grandmasters press release via the American Film Market:

Cast:Tony, Chiu-wai LEUNG, Zi-yi ZHANG, Chen CHANG, Hye-kyo SONG, Ben-shan ZHAO, Xing-chang WANG

Director:Kar-wai WONG
Producers:Kar-wai WONG, Jacky PANG

Synopsis:

With martial arts getting more popular in the Thirties, more people seek to learn them via the professionals at Foshan in Southern China. Some of the experienced masters like to challenge their counterparts and undergoing battles. To have their whole concentration, it is their practice to lock up the venues and no one is allowed to leave during battles. No food and no rest before reaching any results.
Ip Man is a young rich man extremely talented in martial arts, but he chooses to keep a low profile. Yet this doesn’t keep him out of these troubles ahead. One day he is trapped in this battleground so he has to use every means in order to get out of there. The masters are amazed by his abilities. Master Kung and his daughter Kung Yi are amongst, and the latter is attracted to this newcomer.
A high warlord is assassinated by his own guard Yi Xian Tian. All masters in Foshan vow to take Tian down no matter what….

http://www.thefilmcatalogue.com/catalog/FilmDetail.php?id=10435
http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2010/11/02/casting-news-first-images-and-a-plot-synopsis-for-wong-kar-wai%E2%80%99s-the-grandmasters/
Official Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Grandmasters/
If this synopsis is accurate then it sounds like the plot is fictitious rather than based on fact.

The Grandmasters Sales Art

Movielicious has sales artwork for Wong Kar-wai‘s biopic of Yip Man, now titled The Grandmasters.
The posters appeared at the American Film Market (AFM) in Los Angeles.

http://www.chongweikk.com/2010/11/two-official-promo-images-for-wong-kar.html
http://twitchfilm.com/news/2010/10/official-sales-art-for-wong-kar-waies-the-grandmasters.php
Hi-res pics: http://slide.ent.sina.com.cn/slide_4_704_15257.html

UPDATED:

Wong Kar-wai’s first kung fu film The Grandmasters (Yut Doi Jung Si) is still in production. The film company has kept cast costumes and content confidential. The first two film posters were unveiled at Los Angeles’ American Film Market on November 1. The costumes of Tony Leung Chiu-wai who played Wing Chun master Yip Man in the film and lead actress Zhang Ziyi appeared for the first time and immediately became the focus of the foreign media.
In it Tony Leung wears a white straw hat and long black coat in the night rain. The foreign media were very interested in his look and even described it as the birth of a Chinese Dark Knight (Batman). In another promo image, Zhang Ziyi is in the midst of using Ba Gua Zhang (the eight diagram palm technique) – her eyes were full of self confidence. Foreign media pointed out that in a white straw hat, Yip Man was completely different from the image of Yip Man that has appeared in films before. Everyone was the most surprised that without any kung fu background Tony Leung actually had unspeakable kung fu power.
Wong Kar Wai fans could not wait to put the poster online and received a lot of responses. Some online even compared Tony Leung’s Yip Man look and Zhang Ziyi’s heroine feel with classic American comic book super heroes, saying that the U.S. had Superman, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Catwoman, Yip Man in the poster definitely was China’s super hero. Some even suggested making Yip Man’s English name into “Yeah Man” in order to be a part of this group of super heroes.
Since the film started production, everyone has been the most curious about Tony Leung abilities. After a year of training, his figure could be seen on the poster for the first time. Even foreign media described him as looking radiant. The film’s action director Yuen Woo-ping even described Tony’s current condition as “the peak”. He said that he never worried about his agility because Tony had a high ability to comprehend and absorb quickly. Although he and Donnie Yen played the same character but they each had their own style. He greatly praised Tony’s current status for the film’s action scenes. “I never worried about him,” he says, “Talking about body figures, Tony looks better than Donnie Yen. It is unbelievable that there is strength in Tony’s kicks. He does have the potential to film action films.”
Tony Leung in the past year suffered a lot too. Responsible for instructing, Wing Chun Grand Master Yip Man’s disciple Duncan Leung Siu Hung admired Tony’s spirit to overcome hardship. He pointed out that Tony’s progress was slower than the average student, half a year more than expected. During the period he stopped training for awhile due to his arm injury. However he recovered and returned to form very quickly. Unlike Donnie Yen who had a kung fu background, Tony Leung had an advantage that Donnie Yen did not have. He was able to start from zero like a blank piece of paper. Tony gradually and clearly absorbed the spirit of Wing Chun kung fu completely. Every one of his moves now is very naturally convincing, whether punching or with a staff he was able to perform the Wing Chun school feel. He also pointed out that director Wong Kar-wai at first asked Tony to truly spend time to train and made him understand that slow and steady wins the race.

http://dailynews.sina.com/bg/ent/film/sinacn/20101031/14121955496.html

MMA Fighter Cung Le Appearing in The Grand Master

Vietnamese mixed martial artist Cung Le will be appearing in The Grand Master.
Earlier this month the former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion spoke of the possibility of working with director Wong Kar-wai:

Any additional Hollywood plans at the moment?
CL: I just got an offer to go to China before this shoot, and they’re willing to work around my schedule, to work with the famous director Wong Kar Wai. He’s a pioneer, and a very interesting artist.

http://thegarv.com/Cung-Le-speaks-on-future-and-current-movie-roles.html

On 25th October Cung Le tweeted:

“At San Fran International airport waiting to leave to Hong Kong. Get to work with Wong Kar Wai and Master Woo-ping at the same time! UsH!”

http://twitter.com/CungLe185

The Garv relayed an e-mail received from the MMA fighter:

“I am in China right now filming a movie with Director Wong Kar Wai and Action Director Woo-ping for a few weeks and will be back in the states on Nov. 7th to start Dragon Eyes a Joel Silver and After Dark production for seven weeks in New Orleans. I go back to China after Christmas to finish Grandmaster with Wong Kar Wai and Master Woo-ping for a week or two.”

http://thegarv.com/Cung-Le-Speaks-on-Future-and-Current-Movie-Roles.html
The mixed martial artist and actor has had supporting roles in Pandorum, Fighting, Bodyguards and Assassins and True Legend.

Song Hye-kyo Meeting with Wong Kar-Wai, Confirmed to Be Playing Yip Man’s Wife

Actress Song Hye-kyo met with director Wong Kar-wai on 19th October 2010 to discuss the progress of filming The Grand Master. Paparazzi managed to film the secret meeting and were able to capture exclusive images of reference photos shot for the film.
The first photo on the right is Song Hye-kyo with Zhang Ziyi (wearing a man’s suit).
The other one is Hye-kyo, Tony Leung (as Yip Man) and the actor playing their son. This pretty much confirms that Song Hye-kyo is playing Yip Man’s wife.
Wong Kar-wai began reshoots of the film starting in mid-September.

Credit: wloi @ Soompi.com

See the video shot by the paparazzi at the following link:
http://hk.sw.nextmedia.com/template/sw/art_main.php?iss_id=796&sec_id=1000863&art_id=14602421

UPDATE: Larger scans added (click to enlarge).

The Grand Master undergoing reshoots?

With the release of a promotional poster for The Grand Master it was expected that the film would be finished sooner rather than later.
However, a person purporting to be a crew member on the film has been tweeting messages on their Weibo account (Asian version of Twitter) which suggests otherwise. According to the staff member, they have recently been shooting scenes with both Tony Leung and Song Hye-kyo in a secret location in Guangzhou.
They were shooting past 4 a.m. as the child that Hye-kyo has been carrying was crying non-stop, and they needed to re-shoot it many times.

A photo of the meal schedule for the 21st of September for The Grand Master crew:

Breakfast: 06:30-08:00
Lunch: 12:00-14:00
Supper: 18:00-20:00

If the report of reshooting is true then it would certainly push back the intended release date for the Lunar New Year, making a Cannes 2011 premiere more likely. Director Wong Kar-wai has a habit of reshooting scenes as he spent three days re-shooting the final kiss in My Blueberry Nights.
Song Hye-kyo is scheduled to begin work on a new film (directed by Lee Jeong-hyang) in October.
However, Tony Leung won’t start work on his next film (directed by Derek Yee) February of next year.

http://t.sina.com.cn/1527186771
http://tieba.baidu.com/f?kz=897058853
Credit: wloi @ soompi.com

UPDATE: They were filming in Chikan Movie and Television City.

Carina Lau challenges The Grand Master

At a promotional press conference for Jiang Wen’s film Let The Bullets Fly, actress Carina Lau predicted that this film would be this year’s Mainland box office champion.
Without any fear of her husband Tony Leung‘s holiday film The Grand Master (Yut Doi Jung Si), Carina said, “I am very willing to defeat him!”
A reporter asked her to predict the box office of Let The Bullets Fly. Carina confidently said, “Definitely this year’s best.” What if The Grand Master made the holiday slot? “First, I felt The Grand Master wouldn’t make it. Wong Kar-wai’s film production is truly too slow. Even if it would make it, I would be very glad to defeat them. I believe Wong Kar-wai would gladly watch the character that I create to be very successful.”


http://news.xinmin.cn/rollnews/2010/09/18/6905122.html

Tony Leung talks about The Grand Master at a Cartier event

Tony Leung attended a Cartier event in Shanghai.
Lately busy with the Wong Kar-Wai directed The Grand Master (Yut Doi Jung Si), Tony said, “Before the shoot, I have already begun to study Wing Chun. The production has been rather tough, I was also injured and hindered the progress.” Did he fall for Wing Chun because of it? Tony honestly said “No, my favorite is still running!”

http://eladies.sina.com.cn/news/p/2010/0920/07171019340.shtml

Bruce Leung Siu Lung to appear in The Grand Master

Martial arts actor Bruce Leung Siu-lung aka Bruce Liang (Gallants, Kung Fu Hustle) confirmed in an interview that he would be starring in The Grand Master.

CSB: You’ve done a lot of comedies since your comeback. Do you want to tackle some more dramatic roles?
Bruce Leung: Since Kung Fu Hustle, I’ve actually done 12 or 13 films in all different genres, not just comedies. I’m actually going to go to Shanghai to shoot a film with Chow Yun-Fat that does not require me to do any martial arts. And there is another one with Tony Leung Chiu-Wai. I will also be in Wong Kar-Wai’s movie about Ip Man, playing one of the masters.

http://www.cinemastrikesback.com/?p=2681