Ip Man

B-

Directed by Wilson Yip

Im Man (original name Yip Man) popularized Wing Chun in Canton and later became famous as Bruce Lee's master. Yip's biopic focuses on the life and times of Ip Man, specifically before and during the Japanese occupation of Fo Shan before Ip Man's ultimate (move to Hong Kong). Although the film takes significant liberties in telling Ip man's story (so much so that Ip Man could fairly be called a work of fiction) Yip's work is not without it pleasures, mainly to be found in the many combat scenes starring Donnie Yen.

In the mid 1930's, Ip Man's home town of Fo Shan has become the cradle of Wing Chun with a huge number of enthusiastic participants and new martial arts schools sprouting up all over the city. Despite the influx of new talent to the city, Ip Man remains the best the city has to offer, regularly vanquishing challengers with ease. His talents earn him the respect of the city's population and the reverent awe of all Wing Chun enthusiasts far and wide. Ip Man's relatively laid back lifestyle is suddenly and irrevocably disturbed as the Chinese mainland is invaded by the Japanese Imperial Army. Ip Man must now fight not for pleasure but to preserve his very way of life.

As a film, Ip Man is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, its action scenes are simply terrific. Donnie Yen gives a physically impressive performance as Ip Man and there really isn't much to criticize when it comes to the action sequences. On the other hand, the narrative often lacks focus and the film tends to meander along at a bit of slow pace until interrupted by a fight scene.Although the plot of a martial arts film is always secondary to it's action sequences, it should nonetheless advance the story or at least provide credibility to the action scenes which the narrative in Ip Man fails to do. Ip Man's life is barely believable, a non-stop succession of mindless duels between Ip Man and various challengers. Although martial arts biopics such as "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" often take considerable liberties with their subject's life, "Ip Man" really takes it to another level, essentially telling up nothing about Ip Man besides that he had seemingly never lost a fight with anyone, ever.

Like many films dealing with the Sino-Japanese war, Ip Man drips with bitterness towards the Japanese invaders, painting them as callous, murderous, and unwaveringly evil. Although the Imperial Army certainly had its faults, I find it disappointing to still run across so many films that seem to perpetuate the hurt feelings caused by Japanese military aggression. The generally insensitive handling of Sino-Japanese relations throughout the film appears to closely mirror the continually poor diplomatic relations between Japan and many of its East Asian counterparts. It's a shame, really.

Despite all its faults and culturally insensitivity, Ip Man is not at all a bad film. It's rather quite enjoyable and boast immensely enjoyable martial arts sequences. It's only too bad that Yip couldn't capitalize on the prowess of Donnie Yen to make this a better film.