25 Jan – Renowned auteur and director Wong Kar Wai revealed that he changed the title for his latest martial arts epic, "The Grandmaster", from "The Grandmasters" after his son asked him why.
"My son asked me why my film is titled "The Grandmasters" when it was originally called "Grandmaster Ip Man", then "The Grandmaster". He said 'wasn't I making a film about Yip Man', so I got to thinking that although my film was about the many grandmasters Yip Man meets, ultimately, it is about a state of mind," said Wong during his visit to Singapore with actor Tony Leung Chiu Wai recently.
The 54-year-old went on to add, "There can be many grandmasters, but not all of them truly deserve the title of THE grandmaster."
Meanwhile, the title was changed from "Grandmaster Ip Man" to "The Grandmaster" after it was discovered that Wong's film and another Ip Man film were being made at around the same time.
As its title suggests, the Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Zhang Ziyi starrer is inspired by the life of Yip Man (Ye Wen), who mentored the legendary martial arts star Bruce Lee. However, Wong stated that his film will illustrate that there is more to martial arts than violence.
"The stories of martial arts films consist only of fighting, but actually all the martial arts styles showcased are well-founded."
"The Grandmaster" will see a wide release in Singapore on 31 January 2013 but is currently undated in Malaysia.
