Films Sometimes Take A While

Last year at the London Film Festival, I went to the surprise film. It was Wong Kar Wai’s long awaited new film – The Grandmaster.

Well I say, “new”, but actually I was watching it in October, when the film had actually come out in China in January 2013. The film had experienced a somewhat tortured history anyway, with various versions being screened to different audiences. There were stories that Harvey Weinstein had been fiddling with the version that would be right for western audiences.

I wasn’t completely convinced by The Grandmaster, but as I said at the time, it’s always worth seeing a Wong Kar Wai film.

One way or another, it has taken over a year since that screening for the film to finally get a release this coming Friday – nearly two years after its Chinese release. That’s a very long time for a new film by an important director. I’ve no idea what edit we’ll be getting this time, and it’ll be interesting to read the reviews.

Just before The Imitation Game at the weekend, I saw a trailer for another forthcoming film – Kon Tiki. Here’s an odd thing. This too is a Weinstein Company release, and I saw it too at last year’s London Film Festival.

This film actually debuted in Norway in August 2012. So when it’s released later this month, it’ll be nearly two and a half years after it first came out! I seem to remember that in a Q&A last year, the star of the film already looked back on making it in the dim and distant past. It’s not a great film, and it’s not a terrible film.

Quite why it’s getting such a belated release, like The Grandmaster, I don’t know. Perhaps both films slipped down the back of the metaphorical filing cabinet, and they’ve only just found them…


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