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Created Sep 05, 2013 06:02PM PST • Edited Nov 17, 2019 04:06AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   This great martial arts movie follows the beats and tropes of fictional king fu movies while burnishing the legend of Ip Man, a real life Grandmaster of Wing Chun kung fu and Bruce Lee’s teacher. The scene of an unarmed Master Ip facing down an armed Police Captain is a classic of the form.

   Ip Man is also an effective evocation of Chinese society in the 30s and 40s, notwithstanding appearing to have been filmed on a sumptuous soundstage and being full of fantastically choreographed fighting. Leavened by serious scenes during the Japanese Occupation section, which spans the middle half of the movie, Ip Man becomes especially powerful in its wartime life-or-death moments, which are several.

   Thus it’s a distinctly superior movie to competing biopic The Grandmaster, which I saw in a theater the night before viewing Ip Man at home. While both are equally surreal in their kung fu elements, Ip Man tells a more coherent and more interesting story, especially in the light it shines on prosperous Chinese society before the war and the depredations inflicted by the Imperial Japanese Army during the war.

   One takeaway is that Ip Man became a cultural hero by defying the IJA during the war. Another is that China is in denial about their role in ending Japanese tyranny. One of the movie’s title cards reads:

   On August 8, 1945, Emperor Hirohito surrendered unconditionally.
   The Chinese won and ended a war that lasted eight long years.

   Nice try, but Japan surrendered because atomic bombs got dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, even as the Soviets invaded Manchuria. The heroism of the Chinese – Ip Man included – had little to do with it.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   Donnie Yen’s mild mannered demeanor serves him well as Ip Man, making him sympathetic and believable as a Confucian übermensch. Lynn Hung is lovely and understated as his wife.

   Supporters

   • Hiroyuki Ikeuchi disappoints as a cruel Japanese general and karate expert. Perhaps it’s cultural, but he seemed more martinet than malevolent.
   • Gordon Lam is quite affecting as a police inspector who becomes a Japanese collaborator.
   • Fan Siu-wong jumps off screen as a badass martial artist who tries to take over Ip Man’s city.
   • Simon Yam is also quite affecting as a businessman and Ip Man’s close friend.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Very Good 3.5

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Very Good 3.5

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    Director Wilson Yip and writer Edmond Wong have crafted a fine film, studding it with classic kung fu touchstones, while also telling a historically and sociologically interesting story.

    While IMDb credits Wong as the writer, the film’s end credits also include a “First Draft Screenwriter.” Hmm, what’s that person’s role?

    Speaking of interesting credits.

    • Lots of stunt men and “fight choreographers”, this being a martial arts movie.
    • 2 tea ladies. Of course.
    • The music was written and produced in Japan. That must have been tense, given that Imperial Japan are the movie’s bad guys.

11. Direction Great 4.0

12. Play Great 4.0

    The dialog occasionally seems insipid, though perhaps it’s simply Confucian. As an Occidental, I’m not a good judge.

    It’s also studded with epigrammatic nuggets, such as “Everyone needs to choose his own path.” Indeed.

13. Music Good 3.0

14. Visuals Really Great 4.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.3

    Real violence occurs, especially in the life-during-wartime middle reel.

17. Sex Innocent 1.3

18. Violence Brutal 3.3

19. Rudeness Salty 2.4

21. Reality

    Surreal 2.6

    The kung fu battles remain hard to swallow in a supposedly realistic biopic such as Ip Man. Fortunately the overall movie is of such high quality, they go down easier than in The Grandmaster.

    Movie fakery aside, Ip Man triggered some underlying reality observations.

    • In reviewing The Grandmaster, I’d noted the irony that while China perfected pre-industrial martial arts, Japan used industrialized martial power to conquer the country. Viewing Ip Man, it struck me that having grandmaster kung fu skills amidst the Imperial Japanese Occupation was like being the top Elven warrior in the Lord of the Rings; it places the grandmaster above his peers but still below the greater powers of other races.
    • The Imperial Japanese Occupation was hardly the only time the Chinese endured famine. One character recalls “Being Hungry,” maybe the paradigmatic Chinese collective memory to this day.

22. Circumstantial Surreal 2.5

23. Biological Supernatural 3.1

24. Physical Surreal 2.3