Ip Man

Ip Man (also known as Yip Man) is a Chinese martial arts master who has left a strong mark on Chinese history for his involvement in usage and teaching of the Chinese martial art Wing Chun which he passed on to several students throughout his life, one of the most infamous being Bruce Lee himself. Clearly showing that he had an extensive enough life and impressive track record to be a popular figure, his name and life story has been portrayed in several different movies and TV Show. One of the most successful and critically enjoyed version of this martial arts legend came in the form of a franchise that is made up of five films and is still ongoing to this day. The one of focus today is the one that started it all in 2008. During the mid-1930s, in the city of Fo Shan, the most skilled martial artist, Ip Man (played by Donnie Yen) enjoys his wealthy life with his wife and child while protecting his community from outsiders looking for a fight. This enjoyable status quo is destroyed by the Second Sino-Japanese War when the Imperial Japanese Army took control of the city and forced Ip and his family to relocate. Now living in squalid conditions and forced to literally dig through dirt to earn money, a new opportunity arises when General Miura (played by Hiroyuki Ikeuchi) asks for participants to fight in his competition in order to earn rice. Those that agree to fight don’t always make it out alive, and this grabs the attention of Ip, who Miura finds interesting and wishes to get him to teach the Japanese his Chinese martial arts. Realizing the situation is worse than expected when his family is threatened and with Chinese bandits raiding what little work is left from the Chinese populace, Ip will use his martial arts knowledge to educate the needy and overwhelm his oppressors. The last film to be distributed by Mandarin Films, Ip Man makes for a movie that balances between an engaging action flick as well as a dramatized biopic of a scary incident in China’s history and of a very important man of the time period.

This particular movie about Ip Man was originated back in 1998, but after the production company making the film closed down, the project was continued by successive producer, Raymond Wong, who got Ip’s sons and several martial arts masters on board and did a lot of research on his life. It was clearly a project that had a lot of love put behind it, time dedicated to capturing the mood and spirit of the person and seemed to have a lot of the right people in front of and behind the camera. Director Wilson Yip had been attached to several Wuxia (Chinese martial arts) films and Ip Man seemed to fit in the style of one that could be a basic action flick, but one that could work with his comedic styling as well. It’s a film that does benefit from the tone not feeling fully realistic and down-to-earth, it has the energy and even pacing of an action film and has a plot structure that feels like something akin to a Bruce Lee film. It goes to show how someone of Ip Man’s like is something akin to an action hero that would be seen in Westerns or basic action films in the West, it just so happens that this man was a real-life figure. The second half of the film’s inclusion of the Japan-China war and the consequences that came from that take-over do take this film to a new interesting level; with the screenplay by Edmond Wong and Chan Tai-lee effectively breathing a nice sense of reality this mostly fun escapist action flick by talking about the racism that came from the Imperialistic stance from the Japanese army, the circumstances that the Chinese populace were forced to do in order to adapt from a once-prosperous to a now unfit lifestyle, and how something like martial arts can still have merit in an environment of war and expanded artillery. While it is clear that a lot of the movie took some liberties when it came to the real person’s life, it seems to capture the spirit and ideology that he followed. While the movie is well-paced and does keep your interest as a fun action flick, it could have used a bit more moments of realistic intrigue to give it that nice push into something more than a straightforward Wuxia film. Also, the film has a very anti-climactic finish that doesn’t pay-off what it felt like it was heavily setting up.

All the characters in the movie are surprisingly memorable and distinct despite a lot of them not getting a lot of screen-time. They really feel like they connect with a lot of what the movie’s themes and real-life event tie back to and they become more interesting through the situations that come in the movie. Sometimes good people from China can buckle under the pressure of Japan’s reign and do shady things due to fear and hunger, and others will do what they can to fight against that oppression despite not being incredible fighters. While the main character is clearly based on the real-life person, a lot of the other character are either completely fictitious or dramatic versions of people connected to Ip himself. Donnie Yen does a really good job as the titular character; carrying a sense of calm composure that really sells that he is a martial arts master, but he also has enough humanity to him that makes him feel like a real individual and just a larger-than-life superhero (although he could have lost a fight or two). The villain is really fun; Hiroyuki Ikeuchi’s portrayal is so wonderfully intense and confidant while still being malicious, it leads to a great character also helped out by his weaselly second in command played by Tenma Shibuya being pretty enjoyably unlikeable. Other actors like Lynn Hung, Gordon Lam, Simon Yam, Xing Yu and Wong You-nam work as great support and give a lot of character through their bit parts, it turns out to be a really engaging cast, and while they aren’t portrayed as the deepest characters, they are defined.

For a movie like this based on one of the greatest martial arts masters of the modern era, it’s a movie that is really going to rely on its fight sequences to be good, well laid out and eye-catching. The martial arts choreography was designed by Sammo Hung, who helped reinvent the martial arts genre and was known for helping choreograph actors such as Jackie Chan, so he is clearly a talent in the department and the right choice for a movie like this. The fighting in this film isn’t quite on the same level as the fast and energized stunts that Jackie Chan has pulled off in his films, or the patient, but aggressive fights featured in Bruce Lee’s work, but it’s more taking advantage of the movements and precise actions of the people to make them feel like they are constantly trading blows with each other in a real duel. The actions look real and feel and sound just as hard and painful, the extenuated movements and sound effects make the moves feel weightier and stronger without going too over the limit. Despite the limited amount in the film (surprisingly), they are great fights to watch and show the strength of the actors and the choreographer (although the final fight could have been a lot better and not as unfortunately one-sided). The movie’s color palette, art direction by Kwok-Keung Cheung and presentation is weirdly lacking color and bright lighting, but it doesn’t feel like a hindrance, if anything it does work for moments in the film. The open spaces and lively colors of the opening act work great as contrast with the remainder of the film with its cramped staging and camerawork done by Sing-Pui O, and lifeless dusty atmosphere and coloration. It proves to be striking in some of the fight sequences and the light and shades of monochromatic color make it almost feel like a black and white movie in moments. While it’s debatable what the original intent was, it doesn’t burden the movie regardless.

Ip Man, despite being a Chinese film that didn’t originally release in most of Europe, is a great film that presents the life of this famous martial arts master in a hyper-realized manner, but one that still feels faithful to his persona. Its fitting that his name feels like something that a superhero or an action hero would be named with, as he feels like a character that would exist as an action star in a film franchise, it just makes it cooler when its realized that he was a real person. The story is a nice mixture between enjoyably fun action film and engaging exaggerated biopic of worldly events, the actors are great,  the characters are memorable, the fight sequences look cool, and the film is surprisingly well filmed despite not having a lot of color in it. Its not a perfect film and it doesn’t feel like it gives a lot of detail about the real-life events or the real Ip man himself (that’s what inserted in text is for), but that’s what the sequels could have covered, and when a real man has enough of a story to become part of a franchise, he clearly has a lot to show the world. Kick your way into this film and see one of the greatest martial artists be realized on film.