# The Final Master
**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)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| 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) |
| 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/) |
| 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) |
| 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) |
| 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) |
| 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) |
| Chinese box office | 54.74 million RMB[6](https://www.truemovie.com/2016moviedata/Master.htm) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and premise
Chen 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)
The 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)
## Action style
**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)
The 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)
## Xu Haofeng and the film's context
Xu 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/)
The 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/)
## Reception
The 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/)
Well 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)
## References
1. [師父 The Master, Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival archive](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/about/archive/detail/1283)
2. [The Final Master, official site, Well Go USA Entertainment](https://wellgousa.com/films/final-master)
3. [The Final Master streaming: where to watch online, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/the-master-2015-1)
4. [师父 The Master (2015), 1905电影网](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/2226269/)
5. [Review: The Final Master, Slant Magazine](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-final-master/)
6. [師父, 電影情報, Truemovie](https://www.truemovie.com/2016moviedata/Master.htm)
7. [The Final Master Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-final-master/)
8. [The Final Master, Rotten Tomatoes](https://static.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_final_master)
9. [The Final Master movie review, RogerEbert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-final-master-2016)
10. [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)
11. ['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)
12. [Cinémas stylés: Haofeng Xu's directorial career, Cinémas/Camera Stylo](https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/camerastylo/article/download/35852/27214/91534)
13. [The Final Master review, Video Librarian](https://videolibrarian.com/reviews/film/the-final-master/)
14. [The Final Master Movie Review, Scene-Stealers (SIFF 2016)](https://www.scene-stealers.com/reviews/print-reviews/siff-2016-the-final-master-movie-review/)
---
*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*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license