You may be aware of plenty of folk / historic heroes who had been introduced by Chinese movies all these years. A hero who had been depicted a hundred times, may be Wong Fei Hung, portrayed by martial arts stars Kwan Tak-hing, Jackey Chan, Jet li, Vincent Zhao etc. Others may include Huo Yuanjia, Chen Zhen(fictional) etc. But not too many films have been there to tell us something about the legendary grand master of Wing Chun, who lived with us until early 70’s. Westerners or Indians may not be much familiar with this name; they are of course familiar to the martial art legend Bruce Lee who is the most famous disciple of Ip Man.
But in 2008, an epic movie hit the theaters loosely inspired by the life of Ip Man, a semi biographical film in which Donnie yen starred as Ip man. Followed by this, consecutively two other films have come up in the year 2010, one of them being a direct sequel to Ip Man 1 known as IP Man 2 , whereas the other, known as “The legend is Born : Ip Man “ starring Dennis To as Ip Man, which has nothing to do with Donnie Yen starrers,but still lot of similarities which makes it an independent prequel to the Donnie Yen films. The similarities are the following.
- While the Donnie yen films introduce IP man as a family man at his mid 30’s, the Dennis To starrer movie depicts the childhood and younger life of Ip Man ending with his marriage.
- · Dennis To has a stunning resemblance with Donnie Yen.
- · Few actors such as Sammo Hung and Fan Siu-wong who acted in Ip Man 1 & 2 are appearing in Dennis To version also.
- · Sammo Hung worked as action coordinator in all the three films.
IP MAN 1 – Life in Foshang and encounter with Japanese.
Ip Man 1 released in 2008, directed by Wilson Yip. Ip Chung, son of Ip Man, was a consultant for this film and also trained Donnie Yen, in the art of Wing Chun. Movie generally depicts Ip Man’s life in Foshang, known as the city of martial art then, during the Sino-japanese war, and it also give us a brief picture of the Japanese invasion and it’s impact on the Chinese people.
It starts with showing Ip Man as a peaceful family man living with his wife and child. Lot of incidents shown might be fictional, but the basic outline of the film would be true. Ip mans relation with his family, other kung fu teachers in Foshan, his friends and his troubles during the war. Wilson has succeeded in making the film such a way that the spectators would be in the edge of their seat, most of the time, with stunning visuals, thrilling wingchun fight scenes.
Fight choreography by Sammo Hung is one of the plus point in the film. He has tried his best to incorporate 100% wingchun techniques, still I have noticed some flashy visuals of high kicks by Donnie Yen here and there. Even though the film deals with teh life of a martial art master , It is actually a biographical movie which only concentrates on Ip’s life and certain incidents. Cinematography gives a special feel to the eyes, which takes you to the early 20th century. The theme music is also beautiful.
Technical aspects of the film are too strong. But the credit goes to Wilson Yip who makes this an epic in total. The Japanese, as usual, were shown the brutal villains. But the general Miura, even though being the main antagonist, is shown as a honored man who is dedicated to martial arts and has high respect to the China men who comes to participate in the martial art tournament. He even cares not to injure his opponents, until one of them provoke him.
Donnie Yen was awesome as Yip man, the rare thing happens in martial art movies, that an actor is completely taking the form of the character. This is one of his best performances ever. Overall, a classic movie experience in biography / martial art genere. 8.5/10
IP MAN 2 – Migration to Hong Kong
Okay!! Ip Man 2, I would say, may disappoint you to an extent, but if you can forget about the first part, it is still enjoyable. This film starts right from where the first film ends. It would have been another classic if the makers could make it as they intended to do originally. The sequel was actually supposed to depict the relation between Ip Man and his world famous disciple Bruce Lee, but unfortunately it didn’t happen due to some legal issues with Bruce Lee’s descendants. The film deals with Ip Man’s life in Hong Kong in early 1950’s. In the first part Japanese were the antagonists, where in this film, the Bristish.
Ip Man and family migrate to Hong Kong. The financial status of Ip Man was so bad that he even can’t pay the house rent. The scene in which Ip man’s wife preventing him from opening the door and hide inside home when the landlady was knocking, outlines his pathetic state. That is one of the nicely scripted part of the movie. He eventually starts a martial art school and some incidents followed by this, end up him in a boxing competition with a brutal British boxer, making the film to an ordinary “blood sport” series type movie from a timeless classic.
As usual, the fight choreography was excellent just as in the first part, especially at the climax. But the climax fighting is one of the negative aspects of the film at the same time. It has been shot and choreographed in such a way to thrill the audience; of course it is successful in that sense. The negative part is that, Ip Man, being an expert in Wing Chun, would never struggle so much to defeat a boxer whose attacks are stereo typed. The basic principle of Wing Chun is forgotten there in order to achieve some cinematic effect. Obviously if IP could knock out the boxer too fast, the climax would never be an appealing one. All other technical aspects are in keep with its prequel. Cinematographer is Poon Hang-sang, while in the first one it was O Sing-Pui. The tone difference can be explicitly seen, would have been purposefully done, but very much compatible to the theme.
Donnie Yen ,reprising his role in the sequel, has yet again delivers a stunning performance strongly supported by Sammo Hung whose portrayal of the Hung Gar master is exceptional.
In the final scene, a little boy comes and asks Ip Man “ I want to Learn kung fu. How much “. Ip smiles at him and asks taking a chair and having himself seated, “what is your name ? “.. The kid replies “ I’m Bruce Lee” . Ip asks again “why do you want to learn kung fu “.
Boy: “So that I can beat up people I don’t like” He shows some mannerisms of bruce lee.
Ip: “highly spirited”.. smiles and then says “ Come back when you have grown up”..
He smiles, bowing his head and looks up again to camera.. frame freezes with stunning theme music, followed by some real life still footages of Ip Man and Bruce Lee. Very strong conclusion to a not very strong movie.
“For the glory of Chinese martial Arts “
My rating is: 7.5 / 10.
The Legend is Born: Ip Man: The younger days.
This film directed by Herman Yao, deals with the younger days of Ip Man and has no direct relation with the above films. But I stated earlier, taking into consider some similarities, it can be considered as a prequel to them. A common factor for all these three films is that Sammo Hung worked as the fight choreographer. It has another attraction that Ip Chung, who is the real life son of Ip Man the protagonist of the film, himself appearing in a cameo role. He portrays Leung Bik, Ip Man’s martial uncle and teacher. Also Dennis To is a grand disciple of him in real life.
As per Ip Chun, this version is more historically accurate in many aspects. Also as per him, ,Dennis To, being a Wing Chun expert,has depicted the martial art more convincingly than Donnie Yen. In Ip Chun's own words "In terms of action scenes , Donnie Yen would sometimes lapse from wing chun moves. But dennis used wing chun all the way. One ( Donnie Yen ) learned wing chun so that he can act and the other ( Dennis To ) is a real wing chun practitioner." Sammo Hung alsoi mentioned " Dennis would start with a wing chun stance and would still end with another wing chun stance."
Many characters In the film such as Chan Wah Shun (Ip Man’s teacher portrayed by Sammo Hung ), Ng Chung-sok ( Ip Man’s senior) were real. Some of the incidences really happened in Ip Man’s life has been portrayed with minor differences. E.g.: The encounter with English man during a hockey mach. In real, the encounter really happened with a foreign police man who was seen beating a woman. Ip’s meeting and sparring with Leung Bik (portrayed by Ip Chun) is also real. Still half of the story, such as the romance episode, Japanese assassin’s story, oath brother episode etc. should be fictional.
The film is semi biographical, but unlike the Donnie Yen films, it has comparatively deep insight and analytical dimension towards the martial art, which makes it a cent percent martial art movie. It deals with many aspects of wing chun, its applications and also some revolutionary thoughts. Movie ultimately tries to convey the message that “there is no authentic or unauthentic martial arts in real and changes or additions which could improve its efficiency should be readily accepted. “ Fight scenes are carefully choreographed to be more realistic and authentic. Dennis’ eight diagram pole applications at the climax fight is good to watch.
But as an actor, Dennis To is not at all impressive. At parts, the audience will feel like the protagonist of the movie is really Ip Tin-chi,his oath brother, portrayed brilliantly by Fan Siu-wong. Even though his character has a negative shade, a separate viewing dimension exists in the movie which goes through Ip Tin-chi’s life. This episode also got the contents like, romance, friendship, loyalty to master, heroism, his rising as a business man, bad company, marriage, his dilemma, and the decline; at last the revelation of his life secret. In fact even Ip Man’s life has not dealt in this much depth and intensity. In short, Fan Siu-wong performance outsmarts Dennis To’s portrayal of Ip Man throughout the film. Even his martial art skills are shown colorfully in some scenes. Yuen Biao comes with a serious role as Yips senior and teacher and delivers a mature performance.
Even though there are flaws, this film sticks more to reality and authenticity except the second half.
My rating for the movie: 7.5/10.
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