Ip Man 4: Donnie Yen, Scott Adkins, Grace Englert, Mark Strange, Chan Kwok-Kwan, Jim Liu (2019)

[OpiumKungFuCracker]

@ShaOW!linDude good to see you back my man!! Another solid take/review. I think the best way to watch Ip 4 is theater experience, the crowd ate it up, especially whoever was behind me, lol. If this was on tv, I'll probably watch it again to pass the time I guess. 

Edited May 8, 2020 by OpiumKungFuCracker

[DragonClaws]

 

 

[SamSeed]

20 hours ago, massa_yoda said:

Like @ShaOW!linDude, I also just watched this movie and also like him, I found the racist white people eye-rollingly terrible. The family with the angry cheerleader have absolutely atrocious dialogue, "What are we going to do about those Chinese savages?" "Why are they even allowed to go to school here?" "You people are only meant to follow, not lead!" OH MY GOD I GET IT! The rest of the film is the Chinese characters lecturing on the racist history of America and that there is no equality or fairness in the country.  UUUGGGHH.  If I wanted this level of televangelist preaching, I'd stick to Hollywood films. These movies are supposed to be my escape from Hollywood, but nope, guess I need more sermons about America....thank you, Utopian China.

 

At least the fighting delivers.  The Alley fight with Bruce is aces and the final fight with Yen/Adkins didn't disappoint.  The introduction of Scott Adkins' Drill Sargent is interesting. I feel like he's trying to channel R. Lee Ermey from Full Metal Jacket in this scene.  Of course, the difference is Ermey's Drill Sargent makes it clear that he does not discriminate against race because he sees everyone as "equally worthless," whereas Adkins' character let's it be known, loudly, that he's extremely racist and doesn't allow any foreign ideas into his army.  Unless it's karate.  That right there is the difference between an actual character with depth and an empty, silly cartoon whose purpose is to prop up the sermon they are trying to tell.

 

In the end, all of this really diminishes the replay value for me, which is too bad because I LOVED Ip Man 3 and I really wanted to enjoy Donnie's final go as this character. I'll have to watch Ip Man 2 again to see if it matches the silliness of this one.  I think Twister comes off a lot better, mainly because he says less things. Personally, I prefer less pretentious efforts like Big Brother which, ironically since it's about a teacher, has far less lecturing.  I'm sure I'll enjoy Enter the Fat Dragon whenever I get a chance to watch it as well. 

I have to say, I did get a good laugh out of Adkins' character being so vehemently against Chinese martial arts whilst proselytising about American methods but actually meaning Japanese Karate.

As for Twister, despite still being a caricature, I understood him better. The ego and cockiness of a boxer is better to play than an army sergeant being racist because plot.

Edited May 8, 2020 by SamSeed

[BlueRain83]

:((( before i could watch the movie our cinemas were closed -.- im so ANGRY !!!

 

And now its delayed till september here in germany +grrrr+ :(((( !!! (blue ray release)

Edited May 22, 2020 by BlueRain83
wrong month

[Ramji]

Watched this again at the weekend, enjoyed it a lot more this time! Still stand by what I say, Scott Adkins seemed a bit chunky in his hand to hand combat with Donnie! Maybe it’s an issue of choreography more than him, i dunno, he did throw some awesome kicks, there’s some kind of stepping in spinning back kick to the camera that was wicked!

[DiP]

Got the US 4K release three weeks ago, and got around to watching it last week. Opposed to all the bad criticism it gets, I think it's a worthy addition to the franchise and like every entry has at least two outstanding fight scenes for comparison. And Donnie improving his acting and Wilson showing off his directing skills is always a plus, and this is no exception. I think

Spoiler

the phone conversation scene between Donnie and Kent Cheng (who later tells a spiteful Yip Ching about his father's illness)

 was one of the most touching scenes in the series. It's well directed and executed, as well as a great contrast to all the conflicts that happens in the story.

The xenophobia present here is no different from that in part 1 and 2, and I have to say that I'm a bit surprised people are making a big thing out of it. I think part 4 actually pales in comparison to part 2 which was worst imo. And yes, the acting from the foreigners aren't great but what's there to expect? It's a Hong Kong/Chinese production, foreigners have always acted more or less the same way in these movies which I believe will keep going for years to come. Scott Adkins reminded me alot of R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket and maybe overdid things here and there. But even so, at least his role was not dumbed down and ridiculed like Darren Shahlavi's.

On to the action... I loved it. This time around, full-length fight scenes weren't in great numbers and the spotlight was given to the co-players. I think this decision was made because they wanted to treat Donnie's role for what it is. A person in his late 60s. That's why he isn't in every single fight set-piece. This is the FINAL part of a semi-biopic series so I think it's easy to forget the time gap between each entry. But Yip Man DOES age, and the filmmakers wanted to show this. Much kudos to Wilson and co. When Donnie does let loose, that's when it gets great. Out of all scenes he's in, the Tai Chi (variety, the difficulty in fighting one-handed) and the final fight scene (sheer brutality and speed) was most enjoyable. Great performances from Donnie, Yue Wu and Scott Adkins!

Overall, my ranking of each entry in the series would be:

Ip Man (10/10)

Ip Man 3 (9/10)

Ip Man 4 (8.5/10)

Ip Man 2 (8/10)

Edited January 21, 2021 by DiP

[Ronin]

Available to rent for 99 cents on Apple TV/app/iTunes this week only.

[BlueRain83]

So i finally listen to the awesome ending music <3 and i shed some tears bec. that great saga is ending. (bought it today on youtube( for 13,99 Euro), sadly i could not watch it at the cinema   but will buy the blue-ray for sure late in september !)

I really enjoyed this movie thou the plot /story was not so brilliant as i had hoped it could be. The ending was rly sad ;( but still a rly fitting ending. Same +fitting ending+ like in the masterpiece movie crouching tiger hidden dragon 1. (i was rly sad bout ending but the movie was a masterpiece, sadly the 2. part was trash)

Sometimes i felt it was a bit too much again the racism-card-plot like in former movies but this time it was never rly revealed that the stupid white girl +her bully friends were the agressors vs the poor asian girl. I had wished that the evil girl would confess their action and they could learn something from it (maybe infront of all other students).

The ending fight was rly dramatic, thou the plot in the middle was a bit too much +beating poor asians+ thou.

I enjoyed it much more than the 3. movie, which has rly boring and +strange+ fighting scenes.

Now with the IP MAN-SAGA ended i hope we will see any new/other actor could make such highlevel-performing and moral movies in the future too. I will miss donnie yen's IP MAN for sure.

By the way: I rly liked the bruce lee actor he did a good job !!

For me the movie is a 8/10 !! And i can rly recommend it. Sry for bad english again ^-^

 

I rate the ip man films the following:

IP MAN 1 10/10

IP MAN 2 9/10

IP MAN 3 5/10 ( did not like most fight-scenes at all)

IP MAN 4 8/10

 

Greetz Blue

Edited September 1, 2020 by BlueRain83
name was written wrong ^^

[wuxiaman]

I watched this in cinemas a week after Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (which I absolutely disliked and found stupid), which probably made me enjoy Ip Man 4 a lot more than I normally would.

The first two are better, while the third movie was just okay for me. The racist characters can get cringey, but I suppose that's what made them unforgettable (for the wrong reasons).

[DragonClaws]

 

I've only watched each of these movies once, I own the first three but not part four. For me the latest film fits nicely with the previous installments and I enjoyed them all equally. That said, once I start to re-watch them I'm sure some will hold up better than other's.

[reason108]

Ip Man - great movie and some decent fights

Ip Man 2 - Arguably some of the better fights in the series but story was extremely cliched build-up and ending

Ip Man 3 - very good story but it didn't click with me until it was revealed that

Spoiler

Mrs Ip had cancer

Spoiler

 

. Then, the story and action clicked for me and contained some of my favorite franchise fights.

Ip Man 4 - Horrible stereotyping. Almost turned me off to the whole film. It could have risen above if it hadn't been so consumed by its racist content. Fights were decent enough. But, honestly, little to non Ip Man action. But, makes sense given the story.  

 

 

Overall, Ip Man is the classic. But, my favorite fights were mostly the ones in 3. Of course, there is that warehouse fight...wasn`t that In 2? Or, was it 1? It's been a while since I've watched both 1 and 2. 

[FightingFool]

On 1/21/2021 at 8:26 AM, reason108 said:

 

 

Overall, Ip Man is the classic. But, my favorite fights were mostly the ones in 3. Of course, there is that warehouse fight...wasn`t that In 2? Or, was it 1? It's been a while since I've watched both 1 and 2. 

In which # Ip Man fought thai boxer? 2 or 3?That was really good stuff.#4 was OK because of Adkins. His character was both silly and (unintentionally?) funny but in action scenes shined. But of movies really liked part 1 as whole. All sequels had something to offer in action tho I think it was too much to use western boxers twice.

[One Armed Boxer]

8 hours ago, FightingFool said:

In which # Ip Man fought thai boxer? 2 or 3?

3 - the elevator & stairwell fight against Simon Kook.

[DrNgor]

This came on TV this evening. It was pretty good, but flawed.

The white cheerleader / Immigration services subplots were both contrived and unnecessary. Same goes for the scene where Ip Man and his reporter friend try to get a recommendation later from colleague of the latter. Just served to beat the dead horse that WHITE AMERICANS ARE RACIST!

The action is good, although wasting Lo Meng as a useless comic relief master will get no favors from me. I wish Donnie had fought Scott Adkins in SPL mode instead of wing chun mode. I think it would have been better. I also thought the Bruce Lee fight was well choreographed, but chintzy. It felt out of place, like the movie suddenly became a 70s Brucesploitation film. That clashed tonally with the rest of the movie. And while I'm glad that Danny Chow is still getting paid to imitate Bruce Lee, 18 years after Shaolin Soccer is a bit old if you ask me. I also wish Bruce and Ip had interacted more, as the extended cameo comes across more as obligatory than necessary to the story (even if it indirectly sets up the final conflict).

I think this should have been the swan song for the entire Ip Man cinematic phenomenon. Sadly, I think untalented PRC filmmakers will keep making films way past this sub-genre's expiration date. That said, a spin-off about the Chinese Benevolent Association masters would be pretty cool.