the final master

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THE FINAL MASTER Lands A February 19 UK Release On DVD, Blu-Ray And Digital

In 1930’s China, Wing Chun master Chen She (Fan Liao, Assembly, Chinese Zodiac), arrives in Tianjin, a city famous for martial arts. With plans to open his own kung fu school, he must first train a student to defeat eight of the city’s masters, legitimising himself as a teacher. But when he is caught up in local politics and an underworld power struggle, Chen finds himself at odds with dangerous people and will fight to protect what he holds most dear.

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Watch The Official Trailer For Well Go USA’s Home Release Of Xu Haofeng’s THE FINAL MASTER

Details and visual content remain pending for acclaimed martial arts action auteur Xu Haofeng’s upcoming adaptation, The Hidden Blade now circulating at Cannes. In the meantime, it’s been about a year and a half the director’s most recent celebrated release, The Final Master (as it was titled for the U.S.) hit limited screens from United Entertainment Partners and in the wake of much acclaim earned for its overall fight choreography.

That said, I can honestly attest to my own experience of the film was pretty fantastic given its theater setting. The sound made it much more engaging to watch the fights whilst engaging the overall mood and dramatic tension with actor Liao Fan starring in the title role of a martial arts instructor who finds himself caught up in a deadly whirlwind of upheaval and miltary proliferation in the early 20th century.

In 1930s China, unrest rules the nation. Chen, the last Wing Chun master, arrives in Tianjin to expand his kung fu – but his ambition gets him entangled in a power struggle between Tianjin’s martial arts Grandmaster, a dominant underworld Madam, and the town’s military leaders. Can he protect his family from the dangers of the martial arts world, or will it consume everything he loves?

Expect a full-on assault of some serious bladed weaponry, some of which I had never seen before and might be new to you too if you’re not too learned in Wing Chun; I’m not, which made this film all the more entertaining.

Well Go USA just debut a trailer for its forthcoming DVD, Blu-Ray and Digital HD release on July 25. Check it out below.

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Hey Los Angeles! The China OnScreen Biennial At REDCAT Is Hosting A Screening Of Xu Haofeng's THE FINAL MASTER This November

Co-presented with the China Onscreen Biennial, The Final Master – the third film by Xu Haofeng, famous as the novelist who co-wrote Wong Kar-Wai’s The Grandmaster – relocates its titular martial arts master from Southern China to 1932 colonial Tianjin. Xu’s sarcastic and elegant approach to cinema has been described as what martial arts movies would look like if directed by Straub-Huillet —or David Mamet. Echoing the film’s cultural hybridity is a rare Chantal Akerman short that captures the changing light as dusk creeps over Shanghai, its immemorial waters rippling under neon and gaudy ads, to a cover of “Nights in White Satin.”

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