http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wong-kar-wai/the-grandmaster-wong-kar-wai_b_3796335.html skrev:

On this coming Friday, my newest film, THE GRANDMASTER, will be released in the U.S. This is actually the third incarnation of the film, which we shot in 22 months over the course of 3 years. While each of our previous international debuts was thrilling, I'm very proud of the latest version that will be screened in American theaters. Perhaps not surprisingly, people have asked me about the reasoning behind re-editing the film, questioning why I chose to alter it from earlier iterations.

As a filmmaker, let me say that the luxury of creating a new cut for U.S. audiences was the opportunity to reshape it into something different than what I began with -- a chance one doesn't always get as a director and an undertaking much more meaningful than simply making something shorter or longer. The original version of THE GRANDMASTER is about 2 hours, 10 minutes. Why not 2 hours, 9 minutes or 2 hours, 11 minutes? To me, the structure of a movie is like a clock or a prized watch -- it's about precision and perfect balance.

We always knew that we wanted to have a U.S. version that was a bit tighter and that helped clarify the complex historical context of this particular era in Chinese history, focusing further on the journeys of Ip Man and Gong Er. While the previous version was more chronological, adding narration and captions to explain certain plot points gave us the freedom to bring more life to moments in the characters' stories. I also aimed to enhance the audience's understanding of the challenges faced between North and South, especially during the Japanese invasion.

All that being said, I was never interested in telling a watered down version of THE GRANDMASTER in the U.S., or just trimming to cut back minutes -- it had to be a creative, sharp and honed vision. I was even able to add in substantial footage -- beautiful footage -- that was not in the original release. Ultimately, I worked to envision the most perfect clock or the essence of marital arts itself; it is all about precision and balance.

http://www.filmbiz.asia/reviews/the-grandmaster skrev:

The "international" version, premiered on 7 Feb 2013 as the Berlin Film Festival's opening movie, runs seven minutes shorter, with several deletions and additions plus minor structural changes that don't, on balance, significantly improve the film. The most notable deletion is

Vis Spoilera beautifully written, irreal scene (already famous for its theatrical lighting of a cigarette) in which Zhao Benshan's character meets Tony Leung's in Hong Kong, establishing a connection between the two and questioning the former's basic attitudes towards martial arts. Equally sad is the loss of actor SHANG Tielong 尚鐵龍's final scene in which he gives Leung's character a box with some of Zhang Ziyi's hair inside. Other deletions are unimportant trims, plus a shorter version of Ye Wen's induction as a child that has now been moved from the front to the back of the movie.

Of the additions, Chang Chen's character is given one short, wordless extra scene — prior to his meeting with his former KMT colleagues — in which he and Zhang's character turn up separately in a Hong Kong restaurant, but he still remains a shadowy figure and dramatically redundant to the film as its stands at present. The strongest addition is a much longer version of Zhang's flashback memories of her youth, strengthening the martial-arts relationship between her and her father.

The most jolting addition is a rapidly cut, rough-and-tumble fight sequence spliced into the middle of the end credits, with a quote (in English only) from Bruce Lee, which not only destroys the film's melancholic finish but looks like a clumsy attempt to attract international audiences with a mention of Lee's name. Until Wong produces a Redux version of, say, around three hours, The Grandmaster will still remain a magnificent torso of a potentially much greater movie.

http://www.film.com/movies/wong-kar-wai-the-grandmaster-ruined-by-american-cut skrev:

Bob Violence (signed in using Hotmail)
Worth mentioning that some of these changes were already made to the "international" version that premiered at the Berlin festival and opened in France, Germany, Japan, and various other non-Chinese markets. That version is less of a radical alteration (it runs 122 minutes and retains most of the Zhang Ziyi and Chang Chen material), but it appears most of the changes were carried over to the U.S. cut--

Vis Spoilermoving Yip's childhood flashback from the beginning to the end, deleting Shang Tielong's last scene (the delivery of Gong Er's hair), adding some explanatory captions, extending Gong Er's final scene, and the modified "Bruce Lee" ending.

This version comes out on Blu-ray in France next month if anyone's interested in comparing.