Movie Review: Ip Man

Ip Man (Yip Man)
Director: Wilson Yip
Starring: Donnie Yen, Simon Yam, Xiong Dai Lin. Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, Lam Ka-Tung
Mandarin Films Distribution Co. Ltd. Hong Kong, 2008.

Ip Man was a legendary grandmaster of Wing Chun kung fu style and also a mentor of Bruce Lee. Lately there has been quite a flood of movies with Ip Man as main character. The handling is often quite similar to Wong Fei Hung movies (Once Upon a Time in China series) with high entertainment values but quite low historical accuracy. Likewise the strong Chinese patriotism is also present in Ip Man.

Donnie Yen as Ip Man

Ip Man is set in 1930s Foshan, where kung fu schools test their skills against each other. Ip Man (Donnie Yen) is the most skilled martial artist but his wife Cheung Wing-Sing (Xiong Dai Ling) does not like it because she feels that he is neglecting his son Yip Chun (Li Chak). Therefore he is at first reluctant to fight Northern Chinese challenger Jin Shan Zhao (Siu-Wong Fan) who is challenging and humiliating local kung fu masters.

A challenger appears

After Japanese invasion, Ip Man's house is confiscated and his family is forced to live in poverty. The Japanese test their martial arts skills and some of Ip Man's friends are killed. Eventually Ip Man is forced to fight against a Japanenese general Miura (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi).

With the Japanese things get serious

The historical accuracy is low but there are also some real accidents adapted, such as Ip Man knocking out the chamber of a revolver using only his fingers. Action legend Sammo Hung who has worked with many Wing Chun films worked as an action director for fight scenes. For the fans of the genre Ip Man is an excellent old school style kung fu film.

Rating:Good