From KCRW, Santa Monica and KCRW.com, this is The Treatment.

Welcome to The Treatment. I'm Elvis Mitchell.

Director Wong-Karwai made his feature film debut in 1989. He's made a few films since then.

In 1994, his film Ashes of Time was his first take on the Hong Kong action film.

He's returned to it now with his newest film, The Grand Master, which may be the most compact title he's ever used.

He is one of the most influential and important filmmakers

of the last 30 years.

One of his crowning achievements

and one of the best films of the 21st century

is a little film called In The Mood for Love.

He is sitting across from me.

It is my honor to finally have you here and meet you.

Thanks so much for being your car.

Hi.

Thank you. Thank you for the introduction of us.

I guess one of the things I would ask you about in terms of doing the Grand Master is it's a real historical piece.

Yes, right.

What made you decide to do a film like such a film this one, your career?

I was always a big fan of Kung Fu film. Oh, you worked on quite a few of them.

No, no. The thing is when I listen to the introductions, there's a difference between Ashes of Time

and the Grandmaster. Ashesus' time is in a Chinese genre. It's more like a lot of the rain,

because there's no historical background, and it's more like fantasy. of the rain because there's no historical background and it's more like fantasy

...