Song Hye Kyo's Film "The Grandmaster" Gets Oscar Nods

The Academy Award Nominations are in and this year there are two nominations for a Chinese film that stars Song Hye Kyo.

While the film was not nominated in the category of best foreign language film, it did get Oscar nods for William Chang Suk Ping's costume design and Philippe Le Sourd's cinematography. Wong Kar Wei directed the film, which was endorsed by Martin Scorsese. It opened theatrically with the credit "Martin Scorsese presents."

The film tells the story of Ip Man, the Kung Fu master who trained Bruce Lee. Tony Leung plays Ip Man. Ip Man worked to unify rival practitioners of various competitive martial arts styles during the 30s and 40s. At that time China was at war with Japan.

The version shown in the U.S. was 22 minutes shorter than the original Chinese version. Wong Kar Wei said that the decision to cut was one he endorsed. Some cultural references were removed.

"The cultural background is quite complicated even for a Chinese audience," said Wong.

But some original footage cut from the Chinese release was added to the U.S. version.

"We had a contractual obligation to deliver a picture that came in under two hours, so we had to create a shorter version," Wong explained, "But I didn't want to do a watered-down version. In fact, there are so many hidden treasures in our computer, scenes that did not make it to the original version. So the new version has more as well as less than the original."

Song Hye Kyo played Ip Man's wife, Cheung Wing Sing. When Song Hye Kyo was first offered the role she wondered if she should take it.

"His wife was strong, determined and very beautiful," she said. "But I heard that I wouldn't have many scenes."

In the film's final cut she appears in only six or seven minutes of the film. However, she felt the experience was worthwhile and she was glad she worked with the veteran director. And she received praise from an unexpected source.

"Ip Man's son told me that he was really thankful to me for portraying his mother because I was able to bring her beauty to life on the big screen," said Song Hye Kyo.

When the Hollywood Reporter reviewed the film, they said it would have been nice to see more of Song Hye Kyo.

"Song Hye-kyo's Madam Ip has only a cursory presence and is basically rendered invisible in the film's second half," read the review.

The Academy Awards will take place on March 2 at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood. Ellen DeGeneres will host the show again. She previously hosted in 2007.