Ip Man (2008)

Ip Man (2008)

7/10

Starring

Donnie Yen

Simon Yam

Lynn Hung

Gordon Lam

Directed by Wilson Yip

During this lockdown I decided to see some of the best action movies from the Asian side of things and Ip Man to me ranks as one of the best you can see. Donnie Yen is just graceful with his movies as he shows us the might of Wing Chun a martial art developed by a woman name Ng Wui, for a lady named Yim Wing-chun, so she can defend herself without the need of having a muscular build. The way Donnie uses this style of martial art is so beautiful to see.

Donnie Yen is fast, smooth and I have never seen anyone move the way he does. The fight choreography in this movie is tasteful and you will like the way the movie portrayed the character Ip Man as a gentle soul who would rather not fight. Which is the way of the martial art, being relaxed.

This movie is a biographical one on the life of Ip Man who trained the very popular martial art actor Bruce Lee. The movie itself is fiction and the story in it has nothing to do with the real life of Ip Man, but it was done to show that he was that good as a martial artist.

The movie’s plot runs through the Japanese invasion of 1937. It starts in 1930 and introduces us to Ip Man when a martial art teacher wanted to know if he could beat him. After the fight was over, someone saw the fight and told everyone in town that Ip Man beat the popular teacher.

This led to people seeing Ip Man as some to respect. This respect was solidified when some Northern Chines martial artists came to Foshan where Ip Man lives to challenge the martial art teachers there. Their intention was to setup up a school there, and by beating the teachers there, everyone will pay to learn from them.

After the above incidence, the Japanese Invasion devastated Foshan. Ip Man with his wife and son now struggle to get by. The Japanese general in Foshan likes martial art and he is an expert himself, so he offers food for people to come and fight. Now note, both tales makes you think this is a movie about a man trying to stop a raging bull from the North. Or a man going to show case his skills for food, well both instances are not absolutely wrong, but neither is what the main plot is about. So you have to see it.

The movie does not have one fight scene that will make you say, now that is one you should see. Every fight scene in it, is one you should see. There is no explosive ending where he had to defeat all the bad guys, just him trying to get by.

The martial arts choreography was done by Sammo Hung and Tony Leung Siu-hung, which they got accolades for.

The movie did well both critically and commercially which led to a sequel, Ip Man 2 and it won numerous Asian awards.