ViewGuide

Created Oct 18, 2013 08:57AM PST • Edited Dec 31, 2019 01:55AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   OK 2.5

   Ip Man 2 was supposed to focus on the legendary Grandmaster’s relationship with Bruce Lee, his most famous disciple. But Lee’s descendants didn’t go along with the plan, so the movie ends up being about Ip Man’s post-war struggles to establish Wing Chun kung fu in colonial Hong Kong. The result is decidedly less compelling than its great predecessor.

   That said, this earnest movie is worth watching for kung fu fans. Its homegrown kung fu wu shu is surreal but distinctly eye-opening for those of us who grew up with the TV variety.

   Most interesting is how Wing Chun is shown to be a purely efficient, cleanly modern way to fight. No wonder Bruce Lee seized on it and the world ate it up on movie screens and TV shows, live and animated.

4. Acting

   Good 3.0

   Donnie Yen’s Ip Man is too pleasantly serene for my taste, albeit his fighting is first rate.

   He’s joined by several characters from the first movie.

   • Lynn Hung, as Ip Man’s wife, provides a sense of sanity that is a proxy for the audience.
   • Fan Siu-wong – the robber from the first film – is less menacing and less compelling this time.
   • Simon Yam was Ip Man’s businessman friend in the first film. He’s suffered a grievous injury here, making him pitiable but not compelling.

   Amongst the large cast, Darren Shahlavi stands out as a boorish British boxing champion.

5. Male Stars Good 3.0

6. Female Stars Good 3.0

7. Female Costars Good 3.0

8. Male Costars Good 3.0

10. Film

    OK 2.5

    Absurdly choreographed fight scenes are intermingled with a portrait of the martial artist as saint: stoic, modest, restrained. His wife too, who doesn’t bother him from his fighting even when she goes into labor.

11. Direction OK 2.5

12. Play Barely OK 2.0

    The script has occasional Confucian gems like “It’s important to be neutral, striving not to strive.” If only it had more…

13. Music Good 3.0

14. Visuals Very Good 3.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Tame 1.5

    No need for the R rating the movie carries.

17. Sex Innocent 1.0

18. Violence Fierce 1.7

19. Rudeness Salty 1.9

21. Reality

    Surreal 2.1

    Nevermind the fanciful fighting, the movie features a British boxing champ who barnstorms to Hong Kong in the 50s. But there was no such Brit boxing champ, making filmmaker Wilson Yip guilty of cultural aggrandizement again.

22. Circumstantial Surreal 2.2

23. Biological Surreal 2.1

24. Physical Surreal 2.1