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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.

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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

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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).

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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.

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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

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Song Hye Kyo on a Taiwanese talk show

In a recent appearance on a talk show in Taiwan, actress Song Hye Kyo discussed some recent events in her life, saying she has been filming for Wong Kar Wai’s The Grand Master (一代宗師). “I’m putting in a lot of effort and always learning new things on the scene.” She also added, “It’s not easy, but I get a lot of help from people around me.”Song plays the lead role The Grand Master (一代宗師), directed by auteur-director Wong Kar Wai, and is currently busy filming alongside such renowned actors as Tony Leung, Zhang Ziyi, and Chang Chen.

http://en.korea.com/blog/enter/movie/song-hye-kyo-on-a-talk-show-in-taiwan-keeps-remains-silent-about-hyun-bin/
http://www.tvdaily.co.kr/read.php3?aid=127951718773996002

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Norah Jones on My Blueberry Nights

Norah Jones has a small role in upcoming film ‘Wah Do Dem’.
She talks a bit about starring in My Blueberry Nights in an interview with The AV Club:

AVC: The reception for My Blueberry Nights was pretty rough, and some of the reviews singled you out for your inexperience. Did you have any sort of trepidation about going in front of the camera again?

NJ: No, I don’t. I think I did what I was supposed to do in that film, because the director… There was nothing to prepare for. There was really no script to prepare with. He instructed me very explicitly to not take acting lessons. He likes to place his actors or whoever they are, whether they’re actors or not—you know, whether I was good or bad, or whether people liked it or not, I had a great time. I love film, and I would love to be a part of something that people universally love as a piece of film. Sure. Of course I would. And I would love to take acting lessons, and see that side of it someday. But I’m a musician. These two films I’ve done, I’ve done because even though they’re very different, they’re kind of loose and they seemed interesting. I felt like they were just another way to be creative, both at times in my life and career where I’ve been a little burnt out on doing what I do. So they both kind of have had a similar placement for me.

AVC: I’ll be honest, it’s not one of my favorite Wong Kar-wai movies.

NJ: Oh, mine either! [Laughs.] You know, whatever. [Laughs.]

AVC: Wong was clearly working out of his element, and without a lot of his regular collaborators.

NJ: Exactly. And I think for him, the language barrier—he speaks great English, but I think things are always more poetic on subtitles, so… [Laughs.] But I still loved making the film. I loved working with him. And I also loved, just visually his films are so beautiful. That one was no exception. And that was just really fun.

AVC: And whatever else, you get to—

NJ: I get to be pretty. If you’re a female and you get asked by someone who shoots the most beautiful female scenes to be in their film, it’s kind of exciting. [Laughs.] You know? I don’t usually look good like that, so—

AVC: There’s a lot of anticipation for all Wong Kar-wai’s movies, and that inevitably leads to disappointment sometimes.

NJ: He just has such a cult following. And I think, of course, if he’s going to make a movie in America with some famous movie stars, he’s going to get jumped on no matter what. It was great, though. It was really fun. I mean, some of the actors I got to work with, that was a great acting lesson right there. Watching them take what they were given, which was probably not traditional for what they do either. Even though I was out of my element, I felt like everyone kind of was in that film, which made it interesting from my perspective.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/norah-jones,42847/

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Casting call for The Grand Master

As I suspected filming on “The Grand Master” continues.
Credit to: http://www.soompi.com/

Here’s a casting call for hiring supporting actors/actresses for the film:

*Auditions for a maid, to start filming end June / early July, accommodation will be provided.
Audition to be held on 9 June.
Age: either 13-18 or 25-30.

*4 replacements for Tony Leung, Zhang Ziyi, Chang Chen and Song Hye-kyo, as well as a number of actors for portraying students.
The audition is on 13 June.

http://www.gzucjob.com.cn/showjob.asp?id=1425
http://www.soompi.com/