It's been a long time in production, but Wong Kar-Wai's martial arts epic The Grandmasters is finally inching towards completion and release, with this brief trailer just arriving online.

The Grandmasters is a biopic of Ip Man, the famous Wing Chun teacher who trained Bruce Lee, among many others. He's also the subject, obviously enough, of the Ip Man films, but Wong's version, on the evidence of the breathtakingly beautiful clip, will be rather different to Donnie Yen's. We look to be in for some seriously artsy ass-kicking here, although admittedly, with all the rain and the green, we can't help but be reminded of the climactic Smith fight in Matrix Revolutions.

The Grandmasters stars Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi, and has already done some rounds for potential buyers on the festival circuit. Reports earlier this year predicted it wouldn't be finished until the end of 2011 though (making it a two-year shoot). Has Wong wrapped earlier than he thought, or is this just designed to drum up some advance excitement? It's working for us...