It has been more than two years since Wong Kar-Wai’s (王家衛) the Grandmasters (一代宗師) finished filming. Just recently, Fang Zedong Film announced December 18th as the official release date. It is also announced by Wild Bunch film distributor that the Grandmasters will not participate in this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Venice and Toronto Film Festivals. The Grandmasters has been 13 years in the making. Wong Kar-Wai discussed the film project with Jeffrey Lau (劉鎮偉) as early as 1997 and in 2001 he began to write the script. In 2003, Wong Kar-Wai asked Tony Leung Chiu Wai (梁朝偉) to play Ip Man (葉問). By 2008, Donnie Yen (甄子丹) played another version of the great master Ip Man and the film was a big success at the box office. In the meanwhile, the Grandmasters was still filming. The Grandmasters features Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Zhang ZiYi (章子怡).
Editor’s note: The release date has been edited from April 18th to December 18th.