When it comes to mainstream modern martial-arts flicks, Western audiences have become jaded as they expect rapid-fire fight scenes full of downright supernatural moves that defy the rules of physics, while giving the protagonist the kind of dexterity and strength that would be better suited for a superhero. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with a bit of over-the-top escapism mixed with some sort of real-life martial-arts technique, but sometimes we tend to focus on the “martial” part of the whole deal while leaving the “art” behind.
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Writer/director Haofeng Xu’s captivating and fascinating period martial-arts drama “The Final Master” focuses on the calculating and intricate qualities of a fighting style known as Wing Chun, instead of exploiting it to create fast-paced fluff for the easily bored. A meditative martial-arts style that mostly involves a knife in each hand, Wing Chun forces the fighter to carefully analyze every move they make while trying to foresee as much of their opponent’s moves before coming up with a strategy for attack of defense.
Watching the masters fight, where every single move by each party has a carefully thought-out purpose, is like laying eyes on a sublime mixture of ballet and chess. Xu, who was one of the writers of Wong Kar-Wai’s “The Grandmaster,” a similarly patient martial-arts drama with lush visuals, is fully aware of the meditative intensity of the style, so he strips all music and ambient sound effects from the soundtrack during fight scenes, while employing flat and centered camera angles, in order to let the audience take in every deliberate move.
From the low-stakes training fights to the spectacular climactic battle that takes place in a narrow alleyway (seemingly the go-to location for Asian epic fight sequences since “Oldboy”), Xu never falters from his simple yet intense approach to Wing Chun. It’s obviously a style that requires the kind of mastery that would take a lifetime.
In fact, the only one in all of 1930s China who can be called a Wing Chun master is Chen Shi (Fan Liao, whose brooding performance in the terrific neo-noir “Black Coal, Thin Ice” was a marvel), a stoic and private fighter who wants to open a martial-arts school in Tianjin in order to teach Wing Chun to others, since the style will otherwise die with him. For Chen Shi to open the school, he has to first beat the best fighters from the eight other martial-arts schools in the district. As a master, he can’t be involved in the fights, so he’s forced to train an apprentice to perform the fights for him.
In comes the convenient underdog Geng (Yang Song), a lowly book lender with a special talent for Wing Chun. Chen Shi puts Geng through the grinder and turns him into a fighter worthy of his school. As Geng begins to wipe the floors with the best fighters from the other schools, the corrupt powers that be, who are rooting for a military takeover of the city, become worried about this new threat and decide to wipe out Chen Shi, Geng, and Wing Chun as a whole.
The premise of a master having to go through X amount of enemies in order to prove his worth is reminiscent of the episodic structures of ’70s kung-fu flicks, which mostly used this story proposition as an excuse to string as many stylish fight scenes back-to-back as possible, until we get to the third-act big boss who will provide the ultimate challenge for our badass protagonist. While this is superficially the case with “The Final Master,” Xu manages to find an emotional through-line in his story, enough to create tangible character and story arcs beyond the fairly simple premise.
The strong, loving, and loyal relationship between Chen Shi and his melancholic wife Zhao (Jia Song, whose soulful performance provides the film with its emotional anchor) give the story the dramatic heft it needs. Zhao is a tragic figure, a heartbreaking result of Chinese tribalism. Her strictly traditional family cruelly disposed of her son, the result of a relationship with a white foreigner, leaving inside her a longing for the lost child. A tender sub-plot that shows Zhao opening up to the idea of taking care of another creature via her affection for a puppy pays off in a way that might be predictable, but is wholly satisfying. Apart from the theme of finding new love after tragedy, the overall exploration of loyalty against all odds is built up succinctly until it explodes in a grand, rebellious finale.
Fans of high octane, fast-paced martial arts action might be bored with the deliberately calculating style of “The Final Master,” but those who look for a more patient and meditative experience within the genre will get more than their money’s worth. [B+]