Like a phoenix rising from the stagnant pre-New Year's Eve cesspool of news, here comes the teaser for the new Wong Kar Wai martial arts film The Grandmasters, with Tony Leung kicking and punching his way through...what's that? There's no kicking or punching in the teaser? Oh. There's almost no indication of what the film looks like, you say. That seems about right for today. But here at Movieline HQ, this teaser made us wonder: Is this one-minute blast of calligraphy really any less revealing than the unexplained imagery in the much-drooled-over Tree of Life trailer?
Sure, that one has things like actors and images from the actual film -- Brad Pitt! Baby feet! -- but does the cryptic voice-over and montage of Malick-y home videos (punctuated by images of waterfalls and trees, natch) really amount to more? (I think we all knew that Malick's film would look amazing over two years ago when we found out he even made another movie.)
Kar Wai, meanwhile, gets the edge for music -- which definitely gets me pumped to see Leung do martial arts and (probably) get his heart broken. I don't know what any of this calligraphy means, but the way it flies across the screen over that sludgy background sure looks cool. Anyway, here's the teaser (as well as Tree of Life for comparison). Translations are welcome -- real or made-up.