“The Grandmaster” (一代宗師), the long anticipated epic martial arts film by Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai (王家衛) is finally hitting local theaters next week. The film portrays Chinese martial arts culture in Wing Chun master Yip Man's (葉問) era, featuring Wong's frequent cast members Tony Leung Chiu-wai (梁朝偉), Zhang Ziyi (章子怡) and Chang Chen (張震), as martial arts masters of different schools.

In the world of martial arts, what does it take to be a grandmaster? Champion kung fu (功夫) skills, unyielding perseverance to pass on the torch, or relentless efforts to protect the family discipline? The beginning of “The Grandmaster” (一代宗師) says it all, in a philosophical fashion.

They could have called it “The 38-Year-Old Virgin.” In January, when Ben Lewin's beautiful, funny film about the quadriplegic poet and journalist Mark O'Brien premiered at the Sundance Film Festival — winning two big prizes — it was called “The Surrogate.”

Some movies take days to make, others take years.Hong Kong film auteur Wong Kar-wai (王家衛) is known for the latter. After years of research and at least three years shooting it, his newest film, “The Grandmaster” (一代宗師), finally had its world premiere in Beijing earlier this month. The movie, which hits local cinemas today, will open the Berlin Film Festival next month.

“The Impossible,” based on the devastating true account of a Spanish family's survival of the 2004 tsunami, is an emotionally draining cinematic onslaught. Director Juan Antonio Bayona, known for his bloodcurdling 2007 physiological thriller “The Orphanage,” grips you by the neck and hurls you right into the midst of the calamity.

An R-rated horror action comedy fairytale — how's that for genre bending? “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters” is more Gatling guns and grenades than The Brothers Grimm. It takes the kidnapped kiddies into adulthood, where they've parlayed their fame at cooking a witch's goose into a business. Got a witch problem? Call H & G — the extermination experts.

Even after a relentless, decade-long pursuit that leads to the daring midnight raid of Osama bin Laden's compound, even as she unzips the body bag to verify that the bloody corpse inside is indeed that of the slain al-Qaida leader, Jessica Chastain's CIA officer character is defined primarily by her femininity in this male-dominated world.

David Cronenberg loses himself in the florid soliloquies of Don DeLillo in “Cosmopolis,” the filmmaker's creepy, cryptic and ever-so-chatty take on DeLillo's novel of the Wall Street “1 percent.”

Here's how surprisingly effective “Hope Spring” is: It will make you want to go home and have sex with your spouse afterward. Or at least share a longer hug or a more passionate kiss.

The Bathtub is a place of myths and wonders, a broken down teardrop of Louisiana marsh and mud in “Beasts of the Southern Wild” and the setting for an extraordinary new drama whose fierceness, like its 6-year-old heroine Hushpuppy, grabs on and won't let go.