An untouchable classic, "Ip Man" is a glorious and evocative biopic of the man who defied an empire, pioneered the world's most explosive fighting art, and went on to mentor Bruce Lee- the greatest martial arts icon of all time.
Ip Man was Bruce Lee's legendary Kung Fu master, who taught him the tightly controlled Wing Chun discipline that would become the basis of Lee's Jeet Kune Do concept, still practised today. Ip Man is very important in the world of Martial Arts, but is his story intriguing enough to be a film without even mentioning his more famous disciple? Absolutely!
The first part of the film introduces Ip Man (Donnie Yen) as a highly respected and wealthy inhabitant of the Chinese city of Foshan, renowned for its multiple Martial Arts schools and their skilled Masters. Although Ip Man is recognised as the most skilled of all, he leads a quiet life, respectfully refusing to run a school or take a disciple. Still, he gets a lot of attention, much to the annoyance of his wife and young son. Soon he is forced to help rid the city of an arrogant bandit who had been challenging and embarrassing the local Masters. Life returns to normal for Ip Man, but the film picks up his story again years later during the Japanese occupation and finds him stripped of his wealth. Foshan is in poverty and the occupying General puts on cruel tournaments to test his soldiers against Chinese Kung Fu. Ip Man refuses to take part, believing his Martial Arts skills to be impractical for supporting his family, but once more, he is the only one capable of defending the honour of his friends.
To be fair, a lot of the tale is likely to be more legend than truth, but that suits the genre and works as a tribute to the Grandmaster. Martial Arts is a form that thrives on recognising its history and teachers, so a film such as this can get away with telling a few porkie pies because it's about paying respect to the man and what he represents to the students of Wing Chun and JKD today.
The first half is great fun and works as a pure Kung Fu movie, straight out of the same stable that Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and so many others made their name from. It gleefully subscribes to the same faintly ridiculous plotting to join together the fight scenes. That isn't a criticism. Director Wilson Yip simply demonstrates he knows his audience (while the shrewd screenplay has an ambitious second half up its sleeve anyway). The action sequences, choreographed by the legendary Sammo Hung, are superb; exciting and violent, but accurate with plenty of wow moments that don't resort to the slapstick that can occasionally creep into this kind of film. It's properly bone-crunching, breathless stuff that also avoids using too much wire work. This isn't one of those silly films where people fly around after being kicked! That would be disrespectful of the elegant close quarters Wing Chun style anyway, which Donnie Yen has clearly become very proficient at.
The film looks fantastic in its attention to period detail and the sets are incredible. It's essential to see this on Blu-Ray to fully appreciate the depth of that detail and photography. This is an impressive and sumptuous film that keeps you enthralled, even when the characters aren't scrapping. Apparently there was some controversy over the title because Wong Kar-wai was also developing a bio-pic about Ip Man. That film has yet to transpire if it ever will, but while Wong is a truly great director, I can't imagine the look or tone could be improved on. Wilson Yip has crafted a production to be proud of, as it confidently straddles the pure fun of Kung Fu movies and a character driven drama. Occasionally it gets out of shape when trying to sidestep clichés on both sides, but sidestep them it does.
Ironically, by doing that it actually does become a bit predictable in one sense at least. Ip Man is clearly too good. Donnie Yen plays him brilliantly and his skill is astonishing, but the character might as well be a brick wall for all the good his opponents can do! He's an immovable force and seems invincible, so where's the peril? A hero has to overcome adversity and normally that means losing once or twice, or bravely overcoming an injury, Karate Kid style, to prevail in the end. In the second half, the story cleverly gives Ip Man an awful crisis of confidence. So what if you're invincible? Kung Fu is no good in a war. What are you going to do, kick the Japanese army of town one at a time? No, of course not. Ip Man is going to do it ten at a time!
Ok, I'm being silly, but in all seriousness, despite a pissed off Ip Man challenging ten Japanese at the tournament making for the most awesome scene of all, it's still a small part of a much bigger situation he feels powerless to deal with. There is the peril, there is the adversity and it doesn't get much more thrilling.
While it occasionally over-reaches itself, the ambitious narrative is a refreshing flying kick up the back-side for the Martial Arts genre and should be seen as one of the best of its kind because while it hits the essential ingredients of being great fun and thoroughly entertaining, it can also be moving. It is so respectful of the illustrious Ip Man and the Wing Chun style, it defines the very point of Kung Fu and legitimises why these films are so popular as probably the finest form of the action genre. The naïve amongst you might see Kung Fu b-movies as poorly dubbed grown men in their pyjamas slapping each other and so Ip Man is the perfect film for you to jump on board and see how good they can be.
The Blu-ray includes an effective demonstration by Dan Inosanto (Bruce Lee's senior student) of Wing Chun and its relevance to Jeet Kune Do, as well as interviews of cast and crew including Sammo Hung and Ip Man's son, Ip Chun.
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Please note this is a region B Blu-ray and will require a region B or region free Blu-ray player in order to play The celebrated Kung Fu master of Bruce Lee Multi award winning semi-biographical account of IP Man the first martial arts master to teach the Chinese martial art of Wing Chun IP Man garnered 12 nominations for the 2009 HK Film Awards in both the actingdirecting and technical categories - though it really stands out as a killer Kung-Fu Film and consequently won for Best Action Director and Best Film IP Man (1893-1972) is the expert in the fighting style of Wing Chun and is the mentor of the Legendary International Kung Fu legend Bruce Lee As there has never been any previous film record of IP Man this film produced by Raymond Wong and directed by Wilson Yip will be the very first This is the first in the Trilogy with filming commencing on IP Man 2 in 2009 Starring Donnie Yen as IP Man (Dragon Tiger GateEmpress & Warriors) Action Direction from Sammo Hung long time Jackie Chan collaborator IP Chun - IP Man&39;s son was a consultant to the movie
Wilson Yip directs this action drama based on the young adulthood of renowned martial arts teacher Ip Man, purveyor of the art of Wing Chun to students including film star Bruce Lee. Set in 1930s Foshan, a Chinese town famed for its many martial arts schools, the film tells the story of Ip (Donnie Yen)'s growing reputation as a Wing Chun master against the backdrop of the Japanese invasion that robs him of his personal wealth and status.
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