{ "id": "epcxee4408", "slug": "the-final-master", "title": "The Final Master", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2015-to-2019", "label": "Drama films 2015 to 2019", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2015-to-2019" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2015-to-2019.drama-films-2015-and-2016", "label": "Drama films 2015 and 2016", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2015-to-2019.drama-films-2015-and-2016" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2015-to-2019.drama-films-2015-and-2016.yr-2015", "label": "Released in 2015", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2015-to-2019.drama-films-2015-and-2016.yr-2015" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "China · 2001 to 2020: Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "path": [ { "id": "geo.chn", "label": "China", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001", "label": "China · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" } ] } ], "excerpt": "The Final Master (師父, Shifu, also The Master) is Xu Haofeng's 2015 Chinese martial arts film about a Wing Chun master (Liao Fan) using an apprentice to defeat eight Tianjin schools; Golden Horse Best Action Design winner.", "snippet": "The Final Master (師父, Shifu, also The Master) is Xu Haofeng's 2015 Chinese martial arts film about a Wing Chun master (Liao Fan) using an apprentice to defeat eight Tianjin schools; Golden Horse Best Action Design winner.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2015-to-2019.drama-films-2015-and-2016.yr-2015", "markdown": "# The Final Master\n\n**The Final Master** (Chinese: 师父; *Shifu*, also released as *The Master*) is a 2015 [Chinese martial arts](https://www.edgepedia.org/chinese-martial-arts) film written and directed by Xu Haofeng, in which a [Wing Chun](https://www.edgepedia.org/wing-chun) master travels to Tianjin in the 1930s to open a school and must work through the city's entrenched martial arts establishment to do it.[1](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/about/archive/detail/1283) • [2](https://wellgousa.com/films/final-master) It stars Liao Fan as Chen Shi, Song Jia as his wife Zhao Guohui, Jiang Wenli as Master Zou, Chin Shih-chieh as the grandmaster Zheng Shan'ao, and Song Yang as the apprentice Geng Liangchen.[2](https://wellgousa.com/films/final-master)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title | 师父 (*Shifu*), also circulated as *The Master*; English release title *The Final Master*[1](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/about/archive/detail/1283) • [3](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/the-master-2015-1) |\n| Director and writer | Xu Haofeng, who adapted his own short story \"Shifu\" from the collection *刀背藏身*[1](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/about/archive/detail/1283) • [4](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/2226269/) |\n| Setting | 1930s Tianjin, then regarded as a capital of Chinese martial arts, on the eve of World War II[5](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-final-master/) • [6](https://www.truemovie.com/2016moviedata/Master.htm) |\n| Release | Mainland China December 10, 2015; 109 minutes; Mandarin[6](https://www.truemovie.com/2016moviedata/Master.htm) • [1](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/about/archive/detail/1283) |\n| Awards | Golden Horse Award for Best Action Design (2015); nominations for Best Supporting Actress and Adapted Screenplay[1](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/about/archive/detail/1283) |\n| Critical scores | Metascore 72 from 13 critic reviews; 67% on the Tomatometer from 21 reviews; 6.8 on IMDb[7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-final-master/) • [8](https://static.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_final_master) • [3](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/the-master-2015-1) |\n| Chinese box office | 54.74 million RMB[6](https://www.truemovie.com/2016moviedata/Master.htm) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot and premise\n\nChen Shi (Liao Fan), a southern master of Wing Chun, arrives in Tianjin to fulfill his own master's dying wish of establishing the art in northern China.[5](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-final-master/) • [9](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-final-master-2016) The city's rules require an outsider to defeat the champions of eight rival academies before he may open a school, so Chen takes on a local apprentice, the hot-headed laborer Geng Liangchen (Song Yang), trains him, and sends him to challenge the schools while keeping the apprentice ignorant of what the arrangement is meant to produce.[5](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-final-master/) • [10](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-final-master-review-20160531-snap-story.html) Chen also marries a disgraced local woman, Zhao Guohui (Song Jia), and adopts a puppy, both of whom prove loyal.[11](https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/the-final-master-is-a-smart-and-stylish-martial-arts-film/2016/06/01/9af9d654-2385-11e6-8690-f14ca9de2972_story.html)\n\nThe plan entangles Chen in the city's power structure: the grandmaster Zheng Shan'ao, the underworld figure Master Zou, who holds a monopoly over Tianjin's martial arts schools, and the local military leadership all have interests in who may teach and who must leave.[2](https://wellgousa.com/films/final-master) • [5](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-final-master/) Reviewers repeatedly describe the resulting story as a web of double-dealing and factional realignment; the Washington Post's critic found the fighting more lucid than the plot.[5](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-final-master/) • [11](https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/the-final-master-is-a-smart-and-stylish-martial-arts-film/2016/06/01/9af9d654-2385-11e6-8690-f14ca9de2972_story.html) The Los Angeles Times noted that the film leaves its characters' fates, whether compromised, cornered, or dead, deliberately ambiguous.[10](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-final-master-review-20160531-snap-story.html)\n\n## Action style\n\n**Grounded choreography.** The fight scenes avoid wire work and stay on the ground, and Xu Haofeng choreographed the action himself.[9](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-final-master-2016) • [11](https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/the-final-master-is-a-smart-and-stylish-martial-arts-film/2016/06/01/9af9d654-2385-11e6-8690-f14ca9de2972_story.html) The combat is built around weapons rather than bare fists: butterfly swords, the paired blades associated with Wing Chun, along with broadswords, curved knives, battle axes, and halberds.[10](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-final-master-review-20160531-snap-story.html) • [8](https://static.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_final_master) Chen's stated aim in the duels is \"to maim, not to kill,\" and although few characters die, many combatants end up sliced or mangled.[9](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-final-master-2016) • [11](https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/the-final-master-is-a-smart-and-stylish-martial-arts-film/2016/06/01/9af9d654-2385-11e6-8690-f14ca9de2972_story.html)\n\nThe Los Angeles Times described the duels as staged with the long takes, full-body framing, and rhythmic cinematography usually associated with musicals, with the fights less about contact than asserting dominance at the kill point.[10](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-final-master-review-20160531-snap-story.html) The climax is a duel in a narrow alleyway in which Chen, armed with two blades, faces a series of opponents with different weapons; several critics singled this sequence out as the film's high point.[1](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/about/archive/detail/1283) • [9](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-final-master-2016) • [10](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-final-master-review-20160531-snap-story.html) The choreography won the Golden Horse Award for Best Action Design in 2015.[1](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/about/archive/detail/1283)\n\n## Xu Haofeng and the film's context\n\nXu Haofeng is a novelist, director, screenwriter, and martial arts choreographer, and a professor in the directing department of the Beijing Film Academy.[1](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/about/archive/detail/1283) He shared the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Screenplay in 2013 for co-writing [Wong Kar-wai](https://www.edgepedia.org/wong-kar-wai)'s *The Grandmaster*, and his self-directed films *The Sword Identity* (2011), *Judge Archer* (2012), and *The Final Master* were all Golden Horse nominees.[1](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/about/archive/detail/1283) • [12](https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/camerastylo/article/download/35852/27214/91534) Critics noted that *The Final Master* shares its basic premise, an outsider challenging a city's schools, with *The Sword Identity* and *The Grandmaster*, for which Xu wrote the screenplay.[5](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-final-master/)\n\nThe film is adapted from Xu's short story \"Shifu,\" part of his collection *刀背藏身* (*The Back of the Blade*), which won the Baihua Award from *Novel Monthly*.[4](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/2226269/) Xu has described his fiction as \"martial line\" (武行) writing, concerned with the real professional condition of martial artists rather than the romantic figure of the knight-errant.[4](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/2226269/) The film reflects that interest: the schools guard their techniques even from their own students, keeping power in the masters' hands at the cost of letting their traditions die.[13](https://videolibrarian.com/reviews/film/the-final-master/)\n\n## Reception\n\nThe film earned a Metascore of 72, with 10 of 13 collected critic reviews positive, 2 mixed, and 1 negative, and a user score of 8.3 from 8 ratings on Metacritic.[7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-final-master/) On Rotten Tomatoes it holds 67% from 21 critics and 58% from more than 250 audience ratings.[8](https://static.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_final_master) Positive reviews praised the choreography and the film's divergence from genre convention: the [San Francisco Chronicle](https://www.edgepedia.org/san-francisco-chronicle) called it \"an exhilarating two hours of entertainment,\" and Variety's Owen Gleiberman described it as \"a passionate comic book in which the combat has meaning.\"[7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-final-master/) Negative and mixed reviews focused on the convoluted plot and the decision to skip the apprentice's training entirely, telling the audience of his skill rather than showing it.[5](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-final-master/) • [14](https://www.scene-stealers.com/reviews/print-reviews/siff-2016-the-final-master-movie-review/)\n\nWell Go USA released the film in North America on June 3, 2016, and on home video in July 2017.[7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-final-master/) • [2](https://wellgousa.com/films/final-master) • [13](https://videolibrarian.com/reviews/film/the-final-master/) It later became widely available on streaming services in the United States, including Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, MUBI, and free ad-supported platforms such as Tubi and [Pluto TV](https://www.edgepedia.org/pluto-tv).[3](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/the-master-2015-1)\n\n## References\n\n1. [師父 The Master, Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival archive](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/about/archive/detail/1283)\n2. [The Final Master, official site, Well Go USA Entertainment](https://wellgousa.com/films/final-master)\n3. [The Final Master streaming: where to watch online, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/the-master-2015-1)\n4. [师父 The Master (2015), 1905电影网](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/2226269/)\n5. [Review: The Final Master, Slant Magazine](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-final-master/)\n6. [師父, 電影情報, Truemovie](https://www.truemovie.com/2016moviedata/Master.htm)\n7. [The Final Master Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-final-master/)\n8. [The Final Master, Rotten Tomatoes](https://static.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_final_master)\n9. [The Final Master movie review, RogerEbert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-final-master-2016)\n10. [Involved 'Final Master' is not your typical martial arts epic, Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-final-master-review-20160531-snap-story.html)\n11. ['The Final Master' is a smart and stylish martial-arts film, The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/the-final-master-is-a-smart-and-stylish-martial-arts-film/2016/06/01/9af9d654-2385-11e6-8690-f14ca9de2972_story.html)\n12. [Cinémas stylés: Haofeng Xu's directorial career, Cinémas/Camera Stylo](https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/camerastylo/article/download/35852/27214/91534)\n13. [The Final Master review, Video Librarian](https://videolibrarian.com/reviews/film/the-final-master/)\n14. [The Final Master Movie Review, Scene-Stealers (SIFF 2016)](https://www.scene-stealers.com/reviews/print-reviews/siff-2016-the-final-master-movie-review/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2015 to 2019 › Drama films 2015 and 2016 › Released in 2015*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-final-master", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-final-master.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"The Final Master\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-final-master. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[The Final Master](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-final-master)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/the-final-master](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-final-master). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"The Final Master\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-final-master. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Final Master is Xu Haofeng's 2015 Chinese martial arts film about a Wing Chun master using an apprentice to defeat eight Tianjin schools; Golden Horse Best Action Design winner." }