We love Wong Kar-wai, but I’ll be damned if the man can ever stick to a release schedule. The Grandmasters has (correct me if I’m wrong in the comments) been shooting since before this writer was conceived, and the director may have actually been rolling with some new material last month — on a movie that started production years ago. Sorry if this sounds at all inconsiderate, but, after a certain point, you just sort of get why Christopher Doyle had to part ways with the man, genius though he certainly is.

The larger point being that it, now, looks to have been delayed from a December 18th Chinese opening. Fret not, however, as CriterionCorner  — a Tumblr / Twitter account I could not recommend more highly, by the way — were informed that Wong‘s martial arts epic, recently glanced at here, will arrive in its mainland (only) three weeks late by hitting on January 8th. (The aforementioned work could have only been some very minor shooting, in that case.) We still don’t have a US release date, which is what ultimately matters for almost everyone else, but things are still basically on-track; at this point, a 21-day delay is like the blink of an eye.

Bringing this announcement is a quartet of water-soaked posters, the four of which can be seen below (via Sina):

Is The Grandmasters still on your radar, despite all this fluctuation? What do you make of the posters?