Ip Man (2008)
Directed by Wilson Yip
A semi-biographical account of Yip Man, the first martial arts master to teach the Chinese martial art of Wing Chun. The film focuses on events surrounding Ip that took place in the city of Foshan between the 1930s to 1940s during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Directed by Wilson Yip, the film stars Donnie Yen in the lead role, and features fight choreography by Sammo Hung.
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9 films that influenced Ip Man
What critics say influenced Ip Man
From hundreds of movies based around Wong Fei Hung, including the Once Upon A Time In China series, Drunken Master and Iron Monkey films to accounts of Huo Yuanjia (Fearless) and San Te (36th Chamber Of Shaolin) , the references are too numerous to mention, but always dealt with in varying degrees of, shall we say, ‘looseness’ when it comes to facts.
Bruce Lee has Enter the Dragon , Jackie Chan has the Drunken Master , Jet Li has Once Upon a Time in China (both different takes on the same character) and now Donnie Yen can add his name to the list of memorable films with Ip Man.
But the real disappointment is the depiction of the Japanese as villians: all one-dimensional and straight out of a 40s US comic-book, they’re reminiscent of the sort of portrayal we’d have been used to in the films of the early 80s films like The Postman Fights Back and Fist Of Legend (itself a Fist Of Fury makeover).
This kind of general story outline will be familiar to fans of the martial arts genre whose films such as Bruce Lee’s Fist of Fury and Jet Li’s Fist of Legend in 1994 are very often propelled by the feeling of Chinese nationalistic pride and no wonder considering the endless tyrannical savagery that the Japanese people inflicted throughout Chinese history.
20 years later, Jet Li would star in a very similar movie called Fist of Legend (1994).
Bruce Lee has Enter the Dragon , Jackie Chan has the Drunken Master , Jet Li has Once Upon a Time in China (both different takes on the same character) and now Donnie Yen can add his name to the list of memorable films with Ip Man.
It's easy to watch it and get the feel of an old Shaw Brothers movie, or Jet Li's "Once Upon a Time in China" series.
But I, for one, have always preferred the more traditional genre films that just let the martial arts style speak for itself such as the Once Upon a Time in China films and the recent Fearless and Ip Man is one of the most rousing to come along in a while.
He finally swallows his pride to work at the coal mines despite not having the right clothes to wear for the job (echoes here of Russell Crowe’s Jim Braddock during the Great Depression from Cinderella Man).
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Forget the overhyped Ong Bak , think no more of the bloated Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , and if you have Kill Bill on the tip of your tongue right now, swallow those words and hang your head in shame.
Yip’s aesthetics are more muted and traditional than those of well-known florid imports Hero and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
You may remember Sammo from his Rush Hour -like TV series Martial Law that ran during the late ’90’s.
(At least something seems to have rubbed off from Ang Lee’s wonderful Lust, Caution .)
That trend seemed to have diminished in the face of overdone stylizations of martial arts such as Hero and House of Flying Daggers (both directed by Zhang Yimou).
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Forget the overhyped Ong Bak , think no more of the bloated Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , and if you have Kill Bill on the tip of your tongue right now, swallow those words and hang your head in shame.