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| The Grandmaster rain scene. Tony Leung: 'The rain was very slippery and freezing cold.' |
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| Tony Leung: 'In real life, it's trying to be in harmony with nature and not trying to oppose a big wave.' Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze |
Anne-Katrin Titze: There is the beautiful symbol of the button Ip Man keeps from his old life. Did you get to keep the button?
A coat button Ip Man nails to the wall in 1950 Hong Kong for keepsake remains the only physical currency of his past.
Tony Leung (with a big smile): I do not steal any props!
No one in cinema films embroidery as majestically as Wong Kar Wai.
AKT: I suppose you weren't training in full costume. Did you feel a change when you first performed in the elaborate costumes?
Ziyi Zhang: William Chang, our costume designer, he's the best! Every single detail. Because it's winter, he used a real fur coat. It's heavy like a suitcase you put on your body. And when you start fighting it's hard and it doesn't keep you that warm.
In Dheeraj Akolkar’s documentary Liv and Ingmar (2012), Liv Ullman describes a similar freezing scene with her director Ingmar Bergman. A clip from their movie The Shame (1968) shows her and actor Max von Sydow in a lifeboat, freezing for hours.
TL: I haven't put on the costumes during practice because I knew I would have a lot of time to get used to the costume… The opening sequence, that fight in the rain, was the most difficult scene in my acting career. I needed to do the master shot first. It's not easy and Kar Wai made it more difficult - with the rain it was very slippery and freezing cold.
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| Ziyi Zhang: 'Our dear director picked the coldest place, every night the weather was minus 20 to 30 degrees.' |
Leung continued to explain how he prepared to play the legendary Ip Man and how the philosophy is almost more important than the physical execution. Emotional courage supports the brilliant choreography.
TL: I was lucky because I have a real character to work on this time. Kar Wai showed me a lot of books of the martial arts form in the new Republic period so I'd have a chance to understand the culture and the customs. And he asked me to merge Bruce Lee's character into Ip Man, too. Of course I didn't know - how can I merge Bruce Lee and Ip Man and then fight? But he asked me to, so I studied. Because Bruce Lee left us a lot of books of his vision, the philosophy, and his understanding of kung fu. This really helped me to build up confidence to build the soul of a grandmaster.
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| Tony Leung as Ip Man and Song Hye Kyo as his wife Zhang Yongcheng in The Grandmaster. 'I was lucky because I have a real character to work on.' |
It's so amazing, how can people look like that with that difficult life in Hong Kong? I wanted to know how he could do that. So after all this study, I know that kung fu is not just fighting technique but also a way of training the mind, kind of like meditation in Buddhism. How to keep your mind free from emotion and desire. Actually the goal of kung fu is not to oppose your opponent or to give way but to be harmonized with your opponent's movement. In real life, it's trying to be in harmony with nature and not trying to oppose a big wave.
ZZ: I didn't have any books because the character is not real. I used to be a dancer and I trained for six years professionally. I see what Tony says, it's not only to train your physical body, that's what I learned from the dance background. For this movie I didn't think that much, I didn't do any research. I don't want to think too much. I didn't know my character at all and Wong Kar Wai didn't tell me that much. I think we built up the character together as we were shooting.
"In life as in chess, a move once made stays on the board", the man says to the woman. The Grandmaster ends audaciously in the second person singular, with the fictional version of the master, who became the teacher of Bruce Lee, looking straight into the camera.
TL: The only student of Ip Man I had a chance to talk to was my teacher. He told me the greatness of Ip Man was not his physical ability but his wisdom and knowledge of kung fu. He also told me a lot about his life in Hong Kong. He didn't even have a blanket in the winter time. You cannot imagine a guy like him who came from a wealthy family with no worries before that dramatic fall in the 40s from heaven to hell. He lives in Hong Kong and he has to trade kung fu for money. That's very sad for a kung fu great like him. How can he have that dignity?
Wong Kar Wai played music on the set of The Grandmaster.
TL: He used to work without a screenplay. But this time I had a real character to work on. So it was very different for me. I was very confident the first day on the set, because I knew who I am. I'm the lucky one. This time he played a lot of music during shooting. I don't know why. I don't feel quite as easy with that. It's kind of like being bound by something. It's strange. He might have a reason, you should ask him, maybe for the camera movement or for the mood, I don't know. (Read Wong Kar Wai's answer here)
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| Ziyi Zhang plays Gong Er in The Grandmaster: 'We built up the character together as we were shooting'. Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze |
ZZ: I have so many injuries from a long time ago, from [Ang Lee's] Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I hurt my neck. After three years of this one, first of all, my body cannot take more. Also, I think nothing can really surpass this kind of level of acting and craft.
TL: I really don't mind doing another kung fu movie. If I can do it with Wong Kar Wai, I can do it with anybody. He is the most demanding director in the world to work with. I told him many times, a few months before we finished, I cannot do it any more. I'm really exhausted. But he looked more pale than me.
The Weinstein Company is releasing the film theatrically in New York, Los Angeles and Toronto on August 23 and nationwide in the US on August 30. As yet, no UK release date for the film has been set.
