A charismatic family man and Kung Fu master sinks into poverty as the Sino-Japanese war breaks out.

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1936: Ip Man, a charismatic and formidable Kung Fu master of bare-fisted fighting, lives in the country with his wife and children in the Chinese village of Foshan. One day, the head of the very prestigious Order of the Martial Arts, the aging Grand Master Baosen, arrives accompanied by his daughter to find a successor, who will named at the end of a contest. Falling under the spell of the young woman's charm during a fight that is as action-packed as it is sensual, Ip Man realizes it will be impossible to consummate this budding passion. But the worst is yet to come: as China is attacked and invaded by Japan and the Grand Master Baosen is assassinated by one of his disciples aiming for his crown, Ip Man slides into poverty...

As in his previous films, the esthete Wong Kar Wai focuses on elegance and sensuality by filming splendidly choreographed fight scenes on flamboyant sets. Despite the many Kung Fu sequences, The Grandmaster is more than a martial arts movie - it's a beautiful story of love fated never to succeed, whose melancholic tone is underline by a sample of "Deborah's Theme", which Ennio Morricone composed for Sergio Leone's masterpiece, Once Upon a Time in America.