Ip Man (2008)

Everyone knows who Bruce Lee is, as arguably the most famous of all movie martial artists dead or alive, Bruce’s legacy transcends time and will not be fading anytime soon. So the opportunity to hear… well better yet, see the life of the man who taught Bruce Lee is an appealing one to put things simply. Ip Man was a master of Wing Chun who lived a life of privilege that was interrupted when war erupted between China and Japan, resulting in his developing a successful Martial Arts school and teaching many students.

Ip Man stars Kung Fu action movie badass Donnie Yen (Blade II, Shanghai Nights) as master Ip Man a rich and extremely humble practitioner of Wing Chun. Ip Man lives within the walls of Foshan, a city so filled with Martial Artists that every day the streets were filled with schools challenging one another to display their prowess in order to attract new students. The town being so filled with competition no doubt held legendary masters but none as infamous as Ip Man, who coincidentally was the only Master who lacked a school.

Doting on his wife and child, Ip Man would entertain guests for private duels and conducted exercises and training with his selected students. Ip Man’s style Wing Chun, derived from a princess whose technique involved close combat strikes and speedy focused blows. When Master Liao (Chen Zhi Hui) visits Ip Man and spars with him in private, the duel is witnessed by a mischievous boy from the town who then spreads the rumor of Liao’s defeat all over. The dilemma of having his reputation tainted this way almost ruins Master Liao as he confronts Ip Man in public to clear his name. Luckily the boy’s older brother (Ip Man’s student) steps in and pulls the kid’s pants down to embarrass him while telling everyone that he shouldn’t be trusted. Prior to this occurring, Ip Man was ready to secede defeat to Master Liao in order to help him save face – this was the kind of individual that Ip Man was.

So with the introduction of this legendary humility in the master we are given a contrast later on in the movie after the Japanese invade and begin pitting the Chinese masters against their soldiers for sport. In 1937, the Japanese invade China, Ip Man’s house is taken over and becomes the headquarters for the local general and Ip Man is forced into a decrepit house and made to mine coal. The Japanese is led by a Karate master General Miura (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi) who offers rice to the Chinese for every Japanese karateka they defeat. We see a touching scene of the hungry Master Liao take a bunch of these men down before the General’s trigger-happy partner shoots him down. When Ip Man’s student loses his life in a similar fashion something snaps and he takes on 10+ soldiers simultaneously and destroys them.

Let me talk a bit about this scene. The scene where Ip Man takes on the ten soldiers is one of the best multi-person choreography I have ever seen in a kung-fu movie. Normally in scenes such as this the men would take turns at the single opponent, giving him time to take them out one at a time. In Ip Man, the men come at him convincingly and he uses their bodies against one another, ending the final aggressor’s life with a series of rapid fire punches that takes him from standing all the way down to the ground. The intensity in Donnie Yen’s otherwise calm face as Ip Man was the biggest selling point in Ip’s fury and although the fight between he and General Miura was very well done similarly, this fight was the shining light of the movie.

With interesting characters, a larger than life protagonist and the overall tie-in to Bruce Lee, Ip Man is a must-see for martial arts practitioners and movie lovers. The ideal of the ultimate peaceful, charismatic and focused martial artist is a bit much in the portrayal of Ip Man who is a faultless master of privilege. Like Chinese Connection, Fearless and Jet Li’s Fist of Legend, the anti-Japanese, Chinese patriotism is very evident and strong in this one. This movie is not realistic by any means, not in the fighting and not in the narration of Ip Man’s life but only in an abstract fashion. Ip Man’s support base of his loving wife and child, along with his lifelong friend are extra bonuses between the kung fu action, so as a whole it’s a nice package to witness.