The Final Master

In early twentieth-century Tianjin, a city noted for its martial arts schools, a Wing Chun practitioner named Chen Shi arrives with the aim of opening a school of his own. To do so he must follow local custom: take a wife, train a disciple, and have that disciple defeat the representatives of eight established schools. He finds a promising pupil in a porter with natural talent and begins preparing him, but the arranged marriage and the need for approval from a senior master draw Chen Shi into the rivalries between the schools and the officials and military interests that stand behind them. The demands of the process place his personal honor in conflict with the dying wish of his own teacher.

Xu Haofeng directed and wrote the film, his first as director before 100 Yards in 2024. Liao Fan plays Chen Shi, with Song Jia as Zhao Guohui, Song Yang as Geng Liangchen, Jiang Wenli as Master Zou, King Shih-Chieh as Zheng Shan'ao, and Huang Jue as Lin Xiwen.

The film runs 109 minutes and was released in China in December 2015. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.8 from around 3,100 votes, and on TMDB 6.9 from a much smaller base of roughly a hundred votes, indicating a modest but positive response from viewers who have sought it out.