The Grandmaster
The Grandmaster is Wong Kar-wai’s biopic about legendary Ip Man, best known as Bruce Lee’s kung fu teacher. The master’s legacy continues on with a series of recent movies including Wilson Yip’s “Ip Man” (2008), “Ip Man 2” (2010), and Herman Yau’s in-the-works “Ip Man: The Final Fight.”
Wong Kar-wai isn’t known for martial arts films. His films (In the Mood for Love, Chungking Express) are always artistically shot, and tend to stray from a linear narrative: half the time actors aren’t given scripts. Romantic and emotionally driven, they stay with you well after their two hours are up. For The Grandmaster, Kar-wai worked closely with choreographer Woo-Ping Yuen (Drunken Master, Kill Bill) to create fight scenes everyone can appreciate while still maintaining his critical eye for detail and artistry.
The cast includes Kar-wai regular Tony Leung Chiu Wai (In the Mood for Love, Hero, 2046) who underwent four years of kung fu training for the film, and Ziyi Zhang (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, House of Flying Daggers), who also took on a rigorous training schedule. The Grandmaster starts screening at Nitehawk Cinema this Friday.
Catch this, other kung fu greats, and more films we’re reel psyched about this week.
MONDAY
30th Anniversary of Wild Style + live performances by Busy Bee, Grand Wizard Theodore, The Cold Crush Bros and other special guests.
The golden age of hip-hop was a special time in the South Bronx and this film gives you a close look at what was going on in 1983. Starring hip-hop legends Grandmaster Flash, The Rock Steady Crew, Fab 5 Freddy and subway graffiti artists Lee Quinones and Sandra Pink Fabara, you’ll take a ride though train yards, break dance clubs and more.
East River Park, East River Promenade, Lower East Side; 6 p.m.; Free
TUESDAY
The New Moscow
In 1938, Aleksandr Medvedkin pieced together and manipulated documentary footage of the city’s architectural plan, three years after the General Plan for the Reconstruction of Moscow. Alyosha is a young engineer who has traveled 3,000 miles from his village to develop and exhibit his “living model of Moscow.” Using humor, music and extended shots of a running pig, the movie — which was pulled before its scheduled release in 1939 — reveals an unhappy, confused public in the confines of a totalitarian Moscow.
Light Industry, 155 Freeman St., Greenpoint; 7:30 p.m.; $7
Vice Presents: The Red Shoes
Vice’s Film Foundation Screening Series presents a 35mm print of the classic Hans Christian Andersen ballet film about a girl so in love with her art that nothing else seems to exist. Except for maybe the man she also loves?
Nitehawk Cinema, 136 Metropolitan Ave., Williamsburg; 9:30 p.m.; $16
WEDNESDAY
Never Not Working: Short Films on Labor from True/False Festival
With Labor Day just around the corner DCTV presents a time-appropriate screening of short films about work. Whether it’s a labor of love, necessity or both, we all have to work to pay our bills. Films include A Son’s Sacrifice, about a young NYC muslim taking over his father’s halal slaughterhouse, and El Cerco, about fishermen closing in on their prize and more.
DCTV, 87 Lafayette St, Chinatown; 7 p.m.; free
FRIDAY
Afternoon Delight
Rachel is depressed with her sexless marriage and boring Silver Lake life, and decides to spice up her marriage by heading over to the local strip joint, where she meets a 19-year-old stripper and decides she’s going to “save” her by adopting her as a live-in nanny. Things certainly get interesting.
Sunshine Cinema, 143 E. Houston St, Lower East Side
Passion
Brian De Palma (Scarface, Mission: Impossible) is back with a new erotic thriller starring Rachel McAdams (Mean Girls, Midnight in Paris) and Noomi Rapace (Prometheus, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo). A corporate tale of lust and greed turns deadly when two executives working together begin to compete with each other.
IFC Center, 323 Sixth Ave., West Village; $13.50
Our Nixon
During Nixon’s presidency his aides shot tons of super-8 footage documenting his administration. Almost entirely unseen since the Watergate scandal, Our Nixon combines this footage with the Nixon tapes and newscasts from the era intermixed with contemporary interviews.
IFC Center, 323 Sixth Ave., West Village; $13.50
FRIDAY – SATURDAY
Taxi Driver
“You talking to me?” The Robert De Niro/Martin Scorsese combo can’t be beat (see Mean Streets, Goodfellas, Raging Bull, Casino etc.). De Niro plays a deranged taxi driver hellbent on freeing a very young hooker (Jodie Foster) from her pimp (Harvey Keitel). The world is a disgusting place and he’s gonna fix it. Oh, and Robert De Niro gives himself a sweet looking mohawk.
Sunshine Cinema, 143 E Houston St, Lower East Side; Midnight; $10
SATURDAY
Entire Street Fighter Trilogy
Spectacle wraps up its summer of Street Fighter series, which featured one installment for each summer month. This Saturday they’ll play each one back-to-back for the entire day. Street Fighter, Return of the Street Fighter and The Street Fighter’s Last Revenge.
Spectacle Theater, 124 S Fourth St, Williamsburg; 5, 7:30 and 10 p.m.; $5 each
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