Master (2019)

 Master (2019)
Aka: Martial Arts Master
Chinese Title: 大武师
Translation: Great Warrior

 

Starring: Liu Wenhan, Peng Gaochang, Wang Genghao, Zhao Yinglong, Guo Zhihang, Lu Zhuo, Chen Shuke, Kang Zihao
Director: Zhang Tianlei
Action Director: Zhao Yinglong

 

Another day, another Mainland Chinese martial arts film that fails to live up to its potential. The generically-titled Master occasionally threatens to be pretty good, especially during the first act, but throws it out the window in exchange for a badly-told (or edited) soap opera about a man’s relationship with his brothers and whether or not he should follow his father’s final wishes.

The film is set in Tianjin during the Republic Era. The city has a robust martial arts culture, led by an Association of 12 Schools: Tai Chi, Bagua, Lianhuan, Jiangang (or “King Kong,” as in King Kong Palm), Da Cheng, Luo Han, Tong Bei, Da Hong, Xiao Hong, Five Elements, Eight Poles, and Mok Gar. The head of the Mok Gar (or Mo Jia, in Mandarin) school is Mo Shoucheng (played by Wang Genghao) and he has gotten in trouble with the heads of the other schools for reasons that the horrible subtitles fail to explain. Seriously, the English subs on the version I watched were so bad that I was pining for the days of “Fatty, you with your thick face have hurt my instep” and “You always use violence. I should have ordered glutinous rice chicken.” In any case, the Association calls in Master Mo for a trial by combat.

They are unexpectedly joined by the local warlord, who wants to enjoy the spectacle. Master Mo defeats all of his opponents—shades of Ip Man 2 here—but faces a challenge from an equally unexpected adversary: his senior student, Ji Rufeng (Zhao Yinglong, the film’s fight choreographer). Ji is actually the warlord’s lieutenant, which is the blasphemy for the Tianjian Martial Arts Association (called “Wuhang” in the subtitles). By their rules, martial artists—students and teachers alike—are not allowed to get involved with politics and military affairs. We then learn that Ji is the son of a master who had challenged Master Mo a decade earlier. Master Ji Senior didn’t know when to say “when” and kept on fighting until his insides were rearranged to the point where he didn’t make it through the night. So yeah, Ji has harbored ill feelings for his master ever since then. Master Mo and Ji Rufeng have a fight and the latter wins via treachery. The warlord also sends his men to kill Mo’s three sons, but they get away and go into hiding. The army then tops it all off by slaughtering all the students at Mo’s kung fu school.

Ten years later, the eldest Mo brother, Mo Yunlie (Liu Wenhan), is supporting himself and brother #2, Mo Yunfei (Guo Zhihang), by fighting in underground matches. Brother #3, Mo Yunxuan (Lu Zhuo), disappeared during the assassination attempt—we never learn what actually went down—and reappears years later as a popular, effeminate Peking Opera Singer. Probably due to the Mainland censors, the film stops short of making him actually gay, and we know that he has a lot of admirers and gets a girlfriend at one point. I guess. In any case, Yunlie’s fighting abilities get the attention of the local crime boss, who makes him one of his top enforcers.

Sometime later, the crime boss passes away and Mo Yunlie inherits the guy’s empire, including his mistress, Lin Wanru (Peng Gaochang). Some business between Mo and a “business” rival makes front page news in Shanghai, which reaches the attention of Ji Rufeng, who still has a score to settle: kill the rest of the Mo family. Rufeng heads over to Shanghai and starts provoking Mo Yunlie into fighting, which the latter is hesitant to do. You see, before the aforementioned trial by combat, Yunlie had promised Master Mo to not seek vengeance and focus his energies on protecting his brothers. If he fights, he’ll break one vow. If he loses, he’ll end up breaking the second vow. So, what is a man to do in this situation.

Master starts out well with a first act full of fighting. The movie opens with a duel between Ji Rufeng and Mo Yunlei, interspersed with Master Mo standing trial before the martial arts association. It isn’t long before we get the trial by combat sequence, which is intercut with a fight between Yunlie and some hatchet-wielding assassins. Jumping ten years into the future, we get to see one of Yunlie’s underground brawls, too. I had high hopes for this movie. The filmmakers then proceeded to dash them quite nicely.

The second and third acts are mainly soap opera. The movie points out that Mo Brother #3 disappeared during the assassination attempt, but fails to explain (even in the vaguest terms) the sequence of events that led to his becoming a Peking Opera singer. He might have been rescued offscreen by the pedophiliac Peking Opera manager seen in an earlier scene, but nothing in the movie confirms it. Even worse, the reunion between him and his older brothers happens offscreen, too. In one scene, we see Yunlie fighting to support him and Brother #2, then we see his rise through the ranks of organized crime, and suddenly he’s reunited with Brother #3. We don’t know how they found each other. It’s resolved completely offscreen. The eeeevil warlord also disappears from the movie after the first act, so what was the point of that character. So much stuff happens without any explanation that it cannot begin to make up for the lack of action in the movie after the first half hour.

Speaking of which, the movie teases fights here and there after Yunlie becomes a mob enforcer, but never delivers on any of it. It all builds up to a final fight between Mo Yunlie and Ji Rufeng, but the result is a short duel of broadswords. DisaPPOINTING! The film even has the moxy to rip off Hero, in which the two initially stand in battle-ready position while they trade blows in their minds, as evidenced by the sudden black-and-white photography. The worst part of all this is that the choreography was actually decent. I don’t know what Zhao Yinglong’s martial arts background is—the IMDB lists a Zhao Yinglong as a guy who had a small supporting role in Final Master—but he sets up some pretty good shapes fights, especially when the Elder Master Mo takes on the other masters. I’m not sure if the Mok Gar in this movie is anything similar to the real Mok Gar--which is similar to Hung Gar, but with a more extensive kicking repertoire--but I was glad to see it get some sort of showcase. If there had been more and longer fights in the latter two acts, this could have been a pretty good movie. As it stands, it is not worth your time.