Ip Man

[enteeq]

hey guys i watched it already!!!!! i feel its very nice! highly recommended...

no spoilers..

[Milkyway]

Review of IP MAN

If you look at the last 5 movies in Donnie Yen’s filmography, I feel that his better works had resulted from his collaboration with director Wilson Yip. In Painted Skin and An Empress and The Warriors, he was relegated to supporting roles, with the former being ineffectively cast against type, and the latter playing second fiddle to the leads Kelly Chen and Leon Lai. With Yip, he’s the able star of the show, and in each of the movies, was put to do what he does best – numbing arse kicking action, with SPL sparring with Sammo Hung and Wu Jing, Dragon Tiger Gate having to lead Nicholas Tse and Shawn Yue battling bad hair days, and introducing some wildly kinetic Mixed Martial Arts action in Flash Point. So how does his latest collaboration with Wilson Yip fare?

They do no wrong. I shall now proclaim unabashedly that I absolutely love this movie! It’s been some time since we last saw a biopic on one of the Chinese’s martial arts folk heroes, with Jet Li’s Fearless being the last memorable one to hit the big screen. While Li lays claim to three of such roles in the iconic Wong Fei Hung (in the Tsui Hark movies), Fong Sai Yuk and Huo Yuan Jia in Fearless, after which he felt he had to hang up his martial arts roles because he thought that he had communicated all that he wanted about martial arts through these films. And thank goodness for Donnie Yen still being around to pick up from where the genre left off, and presenting a memorable role which he truly owned, with Ip Man being the first cinematic rendition of the Wing Chun martial arts grandmaster.

In this bio-pic, Ip Man, one of the earliest Wing Chun martial arts exponents credited to have propagated its popularity, gets portrayed as the best of the best in 1930s Fo Shan, China, where the bustling city has its own Martial Arts Street where countless of martial arts schools have set up shop to fuel the craze of kung fu training. With each new school, the master will pay their respects to Ip Man and to challenge him to a duel. Ip Man, an aristocrat who spends most of his quality time developing and perfecting his brand of martial arts, will take them on behind closed doors, so as not to damage his opponents’ reputation nor embarrass them in public. His humility is his virtue, and his style is never violent or aggressive, which often gets assumed and mistaken for being effeminate, since Wing Chun after all was founded by a woman.

The bulk of the story gets set in the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war, and it’s not all fight and no story. Witth this historical setting, at times it does seem that there is an air of familiarity with the type of stories told, with how the Japanese Imperial Army had made life really miserable for the Chinese, and how the Chinese being fragmented in spirit, fail to unite during dire straits. More often than note, martial arts become a unifying force, and this aspect of the narrative might seem to be a walk in the usual territory.

But with its array of charismatic supporting cast with the likes of Simon Yam as Ip Man’s best friend and industrialist Quan, and Lam Ka Tung as a cop turned translator, there are little nicely put sub plots which seek to expand the air of respect that Ip Man commands amongst his community. The story by Edmond Wong did not demonize all the villains, often adding a dash of empathy and sympathy to the likes of the Japanese General Miura (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi), a highly skilled exponent from the North called Zhao (Fan Siu Wong) as well as Lam’s translator character who is deemed as a traitor for being in the service of the Japanese. Ip Man the family man also gets put under the spotlight, where his passion could sometimes leave him neglecting his wife and kid, and through the course of the story this focus often leaves one quite exasperated for his family’s safety as he puts his countrymen above self and family when going up against the oppressive Japanese forces.

So what’s the verdict on the action? Action junkies won’t have to wait too long before watching Ip Man in action, and to Sammo Hung and Tony Leung Siu Hung’s credit, they have intricately designed some of the most varied martial arts sequences in the movie, such as private fights in his home, a factory melee, a Japanese dojo battle as seen in the trailer, (which I know has actually sent some positive vibes amongst moviegoers, mouth agape at that incredible scene of Yen continuously beating down a karateka) being somewhat of a throwback and reminscent of Bruce Lee in Fists of Fury, and a ringside duel amongst others. And it’s not just Ip Man who gets in on the action, but specialized martial arts moves designed for the various practitioners as well. It’s so difficult to name any particular one as a personal favourite, though I must add that you definitely won’t feel short changed by the time the inevitable final battle comes rolling along and gets delivered with aplomb.

I’m no Wing Chun practitioner, but Donnie Yen has this marvelous calm and zen like approach with his Ip Man taking out his opponents quite effectively with the minimal of moves. Like Huo Yuan Jia, he doesn’t deliver the killing blows to friendly opponents, but rather simulates the various hit points, which actually calls for some astonishing control of strength and precision. This approach will change of course as the opponents become anything but friendly. And unlike the usual martial arts stance of crouching low, here we see him standing tall and striking with such precision and efficiency, it’s like poetry in motion with some astounding closed quarter combat utilizing plenty of upper limb strength.

With Wong Kar-wai at one point also declaring interest in making a Ip Man movie, I thought that this effort will be hard to beat, just like how Tsui Hark has crafted some of the more definitive movies in modern times about Wong Fei Hung and Jet Li benefiting from a major career boost, I’d say Ip Man just about cements Yen’s reputation as a martial arts leading man, which I guess the cinematic world these days severely lacks. Definitely recommended, and surely a thrill ride for Donnie Yen fans!

http://twitchfilm.net/site/view/review-of-ip-man/

[CrazyFrog]

Well, this finally looks like a Donnie Yen movie I'm excited to see. Sorry to be lazy but does anyone know when Stateside release would be??

[Edmon_Dantes]

Prompt please ,will show this film in europe on greater screen In cinema?

[Milkyway]

Donnie Yen takes on the role of his life

Despite countless action movies under his belt, Donnie Yen confesses that it was no easy task playing the grandmaster of Wing Chun.

First things first – the title Ip Man is pronounced as “Eep-Man”, not “I-P Man”, and it’s certainly not a movie about a superhero called Internet Protocol Man going around saving computers from spam.

It is the biopic of one of the most celebrated martial arts grandmasters of recent times – Ip Man, grandmaster of Wing Chun.

Besides being a grandmaster of one of the most practised martial arts styles in the world, Ip Man is also known as the teacher of a certain kung fu legend named Bruce Lee.

In view of that, who better to portray the man than a martial arts actor who was once hailed as the actor with the closest fighting style to that of the late Lee himself – Donnie Yen?

While Yen himself was up to the task, he admits that it was no easy role to play.

In fact, during an exclusive interview with the American-born actor in Hong Kong recently, Yen explained that he spent more time researching and preparing for the role than any other movie he has ever done, as the movie is not only a biography about a well-known kung fu master who not only influenced Bruce Lee, but is also a master of the most practised martial arts style all over the world.

“To portray a character like this, any actor must be fully prepared to the most accurate and truest to both the historical facts and the characteristics of the character,” Yen said. “I spent a great deal of time researching and preparing for this role, far more than any other role I have ever done ... no, far more than every role combined!”

According to Yen, Ip Man is a character that is very different from the usual stereotypical kung fu master one usually sees in the movies.

“Ip Man was a very family-oriented man. He was also very subtle, and never forced his philosophy or style on others. His personality was like that of your next-door neighbour – very down to earth and humble, and I think this sort of personality will appeal to audiences of all ages and gender.

“You can relate to a person like this because he is a very soft spoken, down to earth and a nice guy. It just happens that he is a kung fu master as well!” he said with a laugh.

Living the role

Directed by Wilson Yip (SPL, Flash Point), the movie focuses on Ip Man’s rise to prominence during the 1930s, when the wushu craze was at its height in his home village of Foshan as well as the hardships he faced during the Japanese occupation of China.

The movie also stars Lynn Hung as his wife Cheung Wing-sing, Simon Yam, Lam Ka Tung, and Hiroyuki Ikeuchi.

Surprisingly, this is the first ever movie based on the legendary kung fu grandmaster, despite several attempts in the past.

Yen was cast in the role a decade ago by directors Jeffery Lau and Corey Yuen, but that particular project fell through when the production company went bust.

Thus, when he finally managed to make this movie, it felt as though he was fulfilling his destiny.

“I feel like I’ve always been destined to play this role. A decade ago, I was cast in the role and even signed contracts and received deposits for it, but the movie was cancelled,” he recalled.

“Then when I was in China (in 2007) doing An Empress and the Warriors, I received a call from (producer) Raymond Wong, asking me to do Ip Man. He also said that he had full support from the Ip family, particularly his eldest son Ip Chun.

“From that moment, I told myself I would spend more time than ever preparing for it.”

While preparing for the role, Yen not only did as much research on the legend as he could, he also tried to be Ip Man as well.

“I wasn’t just acting the role – I actually lived it. I was totally in that world to come out as accurate as possible. My mind and spirit was all about playing Ip.

“For example, I would wear his clothes all around the hotel, drink tea the way he used to, and even changed the way I walked and talked,” he said. “I usually do things and talk very quickly, but Ip is a lot more laid-back. So I adjusted my tempo, and slowed everything down.”

Physically, Yen also had to go on a special regime just so he could look like the master.

“For a while, I was pretty muscular so I had to go on a diet to slim down. I was eating one meal a day, sometimes just drinking a glass of water, just to make sure that physically, I would look exactly like Ip, who is very scholarly and slim.

“I would also discuss every single detail of the role with the director to make sure we got it right. Sometimes we even called Ip Chun to ask him if his father would do something like that.”

Action and direction

While the role was Yen’s hardest emotionally and mentally, in terms of the physical aspect of it, the actor was glad to have the equally legendary martial arts expert, Sammo Hung, around to direct the action sequences.

Yip and Yen decided to hire Hung mainly because of his experience on two past movies that involved the Wing Chun style – 1982’s The Prodigal Son and 1978’s Warriors Two (Zan Xian Sheng Yu Zhao Qian Hua).

“Those two films for me were the most accurate Wing Chun movies ever made, and our mission here is to top that,” said Yen. “It was also great to have Sammo on board to do the action, so that I could concentrate 100% on just acting the role.”

Ip Man also marks the fourth time that Yen and Yip are working together, and they both agree that this may be their best movie together yet.

“After working together three times, we are already familiar with each other’s strengths and weaknesses. However, this is probably the best collaboration we have ever had yet, in terms of the distribution of work, ideas and chemistry,” said Yip.

For director Yip, the greatest challenge of the movie was deciding on what period of Ip’s life to focus on. “In the beginning, we had a hard time deciding when to set the movie in. Do we choose the part where he meets Bruce Lee? Or his life during the Japanese occupation?” said Yip.

“Our biggest concern was that we would not be able to do justice to the memory of Ip Man, and would not live up to the expectations of his family.”

At the end of the day, Yen’s ultimate goal for the movie is not to showcase the Wing Chun fighting style, but to highlight the positive moral values that Ip Man stood for.

“We wanted to do this movie because Ip Man was a man who inspired the world and society as a whole. He was a man who believed in certain morals and principles, and we want to use this movie as a platform to convey those values to the audience. For me, that was the most important part of making this movie,” concluded Yip.

Ip Man opens in Malaysian cinemas on Thursday.

http://www.star-ecentral.com/news/story.asp?file=/2008/12/16/movies/2795492&sec=movies

[Milkyway]

Keep it real

Wilson Yip has had his fill of hard-hitting action flicks. Now he's been inspired to tell a more human story

With the imminent release of its martial arts blockbuster Ip Man, Mandarin Films' offices are inundated with publicity material for the production. Batches of large posters for billboards compete for floor space with cardboard figures designed for waiting areas in local cinemas.

But amid such mayhem, one strange object stands out. Placed in a corner of the company's conference room is a white wooden dummy - the kind that kung fu stars practise on in their films - fancifully decorated with fake flowers and butterflies. The embellishments are obviously a prank but there's symbolism in its deflated masculinity that echoes director Wilson Yip Wai-shun's efforts to debunk the god-like status of martial arts heroes and portray the wing chun master in his new film - Ip Man (played by Donnie Yen Ji-dan) - as an ordinary human being, albeit one who is physically gifted.

"There are scenes in which he's seen fighting, but I don't want to perpetuate the myth about these martial arts masters any more," says Yip, referring to a scene in which Ip defeats a dozen Japanese soldiers in a staged fight, while their kung fu-mad commander Miura (played by Hiroyuki Ikeuchi) looks on.

"Ip Man is someone who's really of our times - he only passed away in 1972 - so I couldn't really fictionalise him as a wuxia superhero as other filmmakers did with [folk hero] Wong Fei-hung. Ip Man running around and purging the streets of villains? Probably not - he'd have called the police."

Yip's views mirror how American superheroes - stars who have long been the embodiment of goodness - are now presented to audiences as flawed, self-doubters.

"With the new Batman [in The Dark Knight ], I saw how heroes are inevitably tragic figures, frustrated by the limits of their abilities. I think that's really true - and it's very important that we're frank about this in our films," Yip says.

"If Ip Man had been a legend, all of us would have heard of him before this film - but that's not the case. He's a largely anonymous hero and I didn't want to exaggerate things," the director says.

"Of course, he was not a complete unknown: in Foshan [where Ip grew up, and the city in which the film is set] there's a memorial hall dedicated to him, but he's not [as well known as] Wong Fei-hung or Bruce Lee." (Ip was best known outside martial arts circles as Lee's mentor in the 1960s. Director Wong Kar-wai has also been mulling over a biopic on Ip with Tony Leung Chiu-wai playing the lead.)

For most audiences, the action scenes are often the most entertaining part of any film, and Ip Man doesn't disappoint. Skirmishes take up a large part of the screen time and range from a playful "exchange of skills" between Ip and another martial artist (Master Liao, played by Chen Zhihui), to a bout between Ip and Miura near the end.

As one might expect of a director who first made his name with dramas such as Bullets Over Summer and Juliet in Love, Yip says his favourite moment is not one of the meticulously choreographed brawls but a scene in which Ip - his well-heeled days long past and carrying coal for a living in Japanese-occupied Foshan - passes by an advancing convoy of Japanese soldiers on a street. Rather than spitting at the occupiers or challenging them to a fight - something that was de rigueur in films such as Fist of Fury, starring Bruce Lee - Ip seems momentarily confused about what to do.

In the end, he keeps his head down and steps aside to make way for the trucks.

"He doesn't even dare to look those soldiers in the eye, because he doesn't regard himself as a hero. He's actually a bit scared of these men," says Yip of his take on Ip's mindset. This is carried through Ip's response after the match with the Japanese soldiers: as he gets up to leave, Miura asks him for his name. Ip simply replies: "I'm just Chinese."

"This isn't the kind of heroic story you see in traditional martial arts films," says Yip. "When I thought about which part of Ip Man's life I should focus on, the most obvious part seemed to be when he's teaching Bruce Lee. But what interested me was how a wushu master might live during the Japanese occupation of China. You have this man who's really good at martial arts - but how would he face down such oppression from people with guns?"

Yip's vision aside, what makes Ip Man work is a restrained performance by Yen. The actor has long been criticised for his invincible superhero-type portrayals in previous collaborations with Yip, particularly in such films as SPL, Dragon Tiger Gate and Flash Point. There were even reports about how Yen - who worked as action choreographer on these films - would undermine the plots by creating unnecessary action scenes.

But this time, Yip recruited Sammo Hung Kam-bo to choreograph the action sequences, leaving Yen to concentrate on his acting. And there's a lot of acting to do this time round - Ip's exchanges with his wife (played by Lynn Xiong Dailin) and his factory-owner friend Chow Ching-chuen (Simon Yam Tat-wah); his struggle as a labourer during the war and his misery at seeing his friends being humiliated and killed by Miura and his underlings.

"In the past Ji-dan has certainly focused on action and neglected the needs of screenplays," says Yip, who admits that Dragon Tiger Gate and Flash Point sacrificed logic and storytelling for the sake of the fighting sequences. "I don't mind as this has allowed us to learn a lot more about how to handle action scenes. But for this film Ji-dan portrays a real person, so there have been changes in how we work. He also spent a lot of time working on his delivery to produce a credible Ip Man."

Yen has since said this approach enabled him to deliver a much more subtle performance.

Having won over his leading man, Yip also had to gain the approval of Ip's son, Ip Chun, who holds the rights to his father's story and who served as technical adviser to the production.

"Having seen it, he [ip Chun] says the film is very human," Yip says.

"I think his only wish was that someone would make a film about his father's legacy. He knows very well his father's contribution to wing chun martial arts."

Yip sounds less certain when talking about his own legacy: after four action flicks, the man who made his name with films such as Bio Zombie (a horror-comedy similar to Dawn of the Dead but which takes place in a city shopping arcade) and Bullets Over Summer (which revolves around two policemen, played by Francis Ng Chun-yu and Louis Koo Tin-lok, staying at a demented pensioner's apartment) says he finds it hard to generate interest in non-action dramas.

"I've worked on several ideas for quite some time, but it's hard to get them going. Inevitably, we have to involve partners from the mainland but when they hear my name, their reaction is, `Well, I think it's safer if we stick with action films'.

"But I'm not an action film director in the same mould as Benny [Chan Muk-sing of New Police Story, Invisible Target and Connected fame]. He works with actors who are not trained in martial arts, so he really does the action well. I've always worked with actors such as Ji-dan who jokingly tease me by saying that I'm not a bona fide action director," Yip says.

He shrugs. "That's all right by me."

http://www.scmp.com/portal/site/SCMP/menuitem.2c913216495213d5df646910cba0a0a0/?&vgnextfmt=teaser&ss=Film&s=Life

[Milkyway]

Man and War

To many Wing Chun master Ip Man was a great role model. But not to the director of his film biography.

At first glance, Wilson Yip Wai Shun’s Ip Man may appear nothing like Wladyslaw Szpilman, the subject of Roman Polanski’s Oscar-winning film The Pianist, yet both are ostensibly unremarkable men making their way through one of the most difficult times in history. Yip giggles when I say some of the stills from his latest blockbuster Ip Man remind me of the film on the Polish musician, and then frankly admits Polanski’s film inspired him in the first place. “I think it is a great film, but it is also a very unfair film. Why would people risk their lives to save you? Because you are a great pianist! He got treated differently because he played the piano brilliantly,” says the director. “I started to wonder if I would be treated differently in time of war in the kind of world we are living in.”

The point is that Szpilman, like most people, could not change the circumstances he found himself in. In that sense he was under the control of his environment and so, as Yip points out, in the film at least, “He is just an ordinary person wanting to survive. It is very real.” And that is what he shares with Ip Man, the master of Wing Chun and Bruce Lee, who Yip debunks as a wartime hero. “I don’t think he is heroic at all,” he says. “He is very passive. It is true that he didn’t teach the Japanese kung fu, but it is not that he formed his own troop and led the fight against the Japanese or anything like that.” And Yip points out that although Ip Man may have defeated some Japanese masters in martial arts, he still needed to flee Foshan after its fall to the Japanese invaders. “I think he realised how insignificant the world is and neglected the fact that he actually had power to influence people. He could have done something at the right time – why hide [instead of teaching others] when you have such good kung fu?”

In fact, the martial arts guru refused to take pupils until arriving in Hong Kong in 1949. “It is a very traditional Chinese thinking to hide one’s talent which I think isn’t right,” Yip continues. “I think he had the responsibility to continue the art of Wing Chun.” Still, the director also finds courage in Ip Man. “In the ’70s Bruce Lee offered Ip $20,000 to make a film teaching Wing Chun and send it to the US so he could learn, but Ip refused. That’s his principle – ‘If you want to learn you should come over. Money isn’t everything.’”

The film on Ip Man is Yip’s fourth collaboration with actor/action choreographer Donnie Yen (SPL, Dragon Tiger Gate, Flash Point), who plays the Wing Chun master. While Yen spent time practicing Wing Chun and researching the legendary character, Yip often visited Ip Chun, the son of Ip Man. When asked of his impression of Ip Man, the director giggles again and whispers, “He was lazy… it is bad for me to say that, huh? To put it better, I’d say he was very laid back.” Ip was born to a well-off family in Foshan, the capital of martial arts, and lived a comfortable life before the Japanese occupation. “Like the people living in a walled village in the New Territories, the family was rich so he didn’t have to work,” says Yip.

In his film, the most riveting action scenes – choreographed by Sammo Hung this time – naturally centre on Ip Man but more than merely satisfying the bloodlust of his audience, Yip hopes to say something about war. “War is the fairest and also the most unfair thing in the world,” he explains. “It is fair because everyone can provoke a war; it is also unfair because there is no reason to provoke one. If there was a war today, the chance of Lau Luen Hung escaping would be greater than you and me doing so, right? That is what I want to say and The Pianist inspired that. What happened to people of different classes after the fall of Foshan? Simon Yam [who plays Chow Ching Chuen, owner of a cotton mill] could open a factory afterwards: Some even get rich during war.”

And that led him to rejecting any idea of portraying wartime Foshan in the vein of the Nanjing Massacre, with its violent images of killing and abuse. To Yip, the greatest challenge in shooting Ip Man was not the action scenes, but how to contrast Foshan before and after the war. “When the Japanese army marched into Foshan it was already a year after Nanjing. When they occupied Nanjing, it was their first victory and they were trying to show off. I wanted to portray the time when the Japanese had already had many victories and occupied [cities differently]. People learnt through the radio that the Japanese had marched into their city, and things were more orderly.”

Often being described as a realist (“Making a film isn’t difficult. Box office success is difficult”) and a pessimist (“Humans are beasts: ‘If I don’t beat you, how will you listen to me?’”), Yip’s film ends on an typical uplifting and patriotic note. “Well, the Chinese like to dream, so let’s make a dream. Of course I want the film to succeed commercially but if the Mainland audience happens to like the ending, I think it is funny. The more excited they get the funnier it is,” he says, with a bit of irony.

Ip Man opens on December 19.

http://www.bcmagazine.net/hk.bcmagazine.issues/bcmagazine_webissue270/03-man%20and%20war.html

[Milkyway]

Real-life Master

Ip Chun, 85, is the son to the Wing Chun master Ip Man. He talks about his father, Donnie Yen and why he welcomes all filmmakers to make a film on his legendary father.

You have said Donnie Yen’s performance finds the essence of your father. In what aspect?

I think it is the character he portrays. In the beginning of the film he doesn’t want to get into trouble and tries to pacify things when people try to provoke him. But later as the film progresses he stands up to fight against the Japanese… That was really what my father has gone through. I was not there on location, but I talked to the director and Donnie a lot about our family background. Yen lived with us for a short while to get to know our family as well.

Any favourite scene in the film?

There is a scene where Fan Sui-wong came to our house and challenged my dad, and my dad only wanted to pacify things. Fan started breaking the furniture in my home and Xiong Dai Lin [who plays Cheung Wing-sing, wife of Ip Man] asked my dad to fight back, otherwise all the furniture would be damaged. That is the most memorable scene. Xiong is really like my mum. I have never really talked to Xiong until now but she is really like her… The credit must go to the director as he really did a lot of research. He came to Sha Tin and waited for me while I was teaching classes to talk to me. [Did he learn Wing Chun from you?] No he didn’t! (laughs)

What are some of the most unforgettable times in your life that are portrayed in the film?

The Japanese occupation was really the most unforgettable period in my life. I couldn’t go to school anymore and we didn’t know if we could have dinner at night… Before the war my family was rich, but once the Japanese came, all the family’s money was taken over and life became difficult. The film cannot show how poor we were at that time – we were really looking for the heavenly to help us as we didn’t even have food. Of course I never thought something like this would happen but the truth is like that.

What was your reaction when the filmmakers approached you to act as consultant on the film?

From my stand point, I am the son of a Wing Chun master, and Wing Chun helped raise my family. The media has great influence on whether people think Wing Chun is good or bad. If there are more films or TV shows about it, we will have more students and can spread the art. So when people want to make a film about Wing Chun it is always welcomed and I will help full heartedly. That is why I got approached by Wong Kai Wai 12 years ago and I said no problem. [Helping out with a film about Wing Chun, although its yet to start production] is good for both me, Wing Chun and the filmmaker. If a third filmmaker approaches me I will help as well.

http://www.bcmagazine.net/hk.bcmagazine.issues/bcmagazine_webissue270/03-man%20and%20war.html

[Milkyway]

Ip Man

Starring: Donnie Yen, Simon Yam, Xiong Dai Lin, Fan Sui Wong, Lam Ka Tung, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, Wong You Nam

Director: Wilson Yip Wai Shun

Scheduled Release: 19 December

In a recent press conference, Raymond Wong, a film industry veteran and the producer of Ip Man, confidently claimed the biographical account of the great Wing Chun master is director Wilson Yip and star/choreographer Donnie Yen’s best work. And that is no hype: Ip Man is indeed the most satisfying film from the partnership so far. Their first cinematic collaboration, SPL (2005), did bring a breath of freshness to the local film industry with its dark, fatalistic setting and, of course, splendid action performances from Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung and Wu Jing. But in the follow-ups Dragon Tiger Gate (2006) and Flash Point (2007), the storytelling and Donnie Yen’s over-the-top martial arts demo pretty much only served as fiddle-faddle to the fights. But in Ip Man, Yen serves solely as an actor (not also as action director as he did in the previous three films), and audiences will be delighted with his portrayal of the kung fu guru – this indeed is one of his best performances in recent years.

In 1930’s Foshan, the capital of martial arts, Ip Man (Donnie Yen) is the best regional Wing Chun master. He welcomes challenges, usually fought behind the closed doors of his luxurious apartment, from other wushu masters and yet he lives a low-profile life – unlike other wushu masters, he has never taken pupils or presided over any martial-art schools. Then the Sino-Japanese war breaks out and, on the invasion of the Japanese soldiers, Ip’s property is confiscated, and he has to work in a minefield to feed his family. Later he encounters long-time friend Chow Ching Chuen (Simon Yam), the owner of a cotton mill factory, who convinces him to teach the mill’s staff Wing Chun as self-defence against gangsters from the north. Ip also catches the attention of Japanese General Miura (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi), who devotes himself to contests with Chinese wushu fighters. He pushes Ip for a contest – which comes to signify not only a match between the two men, but the fight between their nations.

Ip Man holds no surprises, nor is it an epic but that doesn’t stop it being 105 minutes of cinematic pleasure. While the film’s focus is the standard ‘good guy defeats bad guys to protect his family and nation’ plot, director Wilson Yip – with his anti-hero mentality – builds depth into every character, from Ip Man and Chow Ching Chuen to the lesser roles of Li Chiu (a Chinese police officer who becomes an interpreter for the Japanese) and Master Liu (a proud wushu master later killed in a contest with the Japanese). Donnie Yen’s low-profile performance as the gentle and introspective Ip Man is refreshingly pleasant and supporting actors Simon Yam, Lam Ka Tung, Wong You Nam and Fan Sui Wong make excellent jobs giving flesh and blood to their characters. Sammo Hung’s precise yet breathtaking action choreography, the artistic reconstruction of 1930’s Guangdong (Ip’s extravagant apartment, the East-meets-West cotton mill factory and the busy wushu street) and the original score by Kenji Kawai all play their parts in ensuring this is a quality blockbuster for the festive season. In terms of spectacle, Ip Man may not be anything extraordinary, but audiences – and especially fans of Yip and Yen – will be happy to see the finest work of these two to date and can totally indulge themselves in this hour and 45 minutes of fine filmmaking.

Rachel Mok

http://www.bcmagazine.net/hk.bcmagazine.issues/bcmagazine_webissue270/17-ip%20man.html

[Milkyway]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1220719/usercomments?filter=chrono

[Xin Long]

Just saw the movie at the city cinemas in New Zealand. Awesome Story and Awesome Choreography. Recommended!

[Kaal]

I want to see this one so bad! When will the DVD come?

[Milkyway]

Donnie on Ip Man:

[wudangimmortal]

cant wait to see it,

anyone have information on the soundtrack release?

[Maz]

cant wait to see it,

anyone have information on the soundtrack release?

The soundtrack is now available for purchase at YESASIA

http://www.yesasia.com/us/ip-man-original-soundtrack-ost/1013958246-0-0-0-en/info.html

[wudangimmortal]

ordered it yesterday.. XD

[June]

hello all,

dddhouse will be releasing this film sometime in jan. 2009.

[Milodan]

Hi June,

Do you have any idea whether it will be subtitled?

[emacs]

dddhouse will be releasing this film sometime in jan. 2009.

hopefully, it's not a pirated version.

[Milkyway]

Review of Ip Man

If no one’s going to do it, I might as well be the one. Here goes: I confirm that Ip Man is one of the best martial arts films of all time, and among the (very, very few) best Chinese films this year. Hands down.

So, there.

But can Donnie Yen act?

We all know Donnie’s not exactly known for acting prowess. His job is to kick butts in movies, and he’s been doing a pretty good job since Iron Monkey, et al, and getting better since coming back from Hollywood and pairing up with Wilson Yip and Sammo Hung in the mercilessly punishing SPL. Very surprisingly in Ip Man, he shows off a side we’ve not seen much of - he fully embodies the character of the great wing chun master, striking a nice balance of humility, strength, dignity, confidence and compassion.

Yes, Donnie can definitely act, and while he’s been doing a kind of mixed-discipline martial art form in his last few movies, here he uses wing chun with such grace and power. You know you’re watching a good kungfu film when the moves of each character reflect the character’s personality, and you can tell clearly the difference in each fighter’s skills. Ip Man’s flurries of punches, fast as lightning, are both delightful and amusing (eliciting laughter from the audience, but it’s laughter from recognition and awe).

While the movie adopts the same kind of overwrought, nationalistic fervour in dealing with the Japanese occupation of China, which we’ve seen in so many Chinese movies before this, Ip Man uses it as the turning point in the lead character’s life, events that tip the scale for him and finally give his martial arts skills a larger purpose and context. Ip Man, famously known as Bruce Lee’s master, starts off as a person content with his life as a well-off family man who practises wing chun but isn’t caught up in the race to set up, nor interested in setting up, a martial arts school in kungfu-mad Fo Shan. The start of the film is full of hilarious moments, showing off the master’s playful side.

But when the war comes to Fo Shan, he is forced to give up his mansion and live a destitute life, working in a coal mine and struggling to feed his family.

Here, the character exemplifies a man who has not let the material decorations of his life fuel his pride, but instead lives an internal humility that allows him to easily fall from a respected wing chun master and a wealthy man to just another labourer in times of war, with his dignity completely intact. Yen manages to carry off that subtle dignity, and from then on, the film is entirely his, resting completely on his shoulders. This is also when the character realises there is a larger purpose for his martial arts, and he turns into a fearsome fighter, taking on 10 karate exponents in a scene very much inspired by Bruce Lee’s Fists Of Fury and Jet Li’s Fists Of Legend (which was also inspired by Fists Of Fury). Ip Man then becomes the embodiment of the classic hero - reluctant and hesitant, but resigned to the role all the same. He knows what he must do, because no one else can do it. And what a fantastic job Yen does, his performance controlled and precise, very much like his fight moves.

I dare venture to say, this is the age of Donnie Yen. With Ip Man, he has definitely and finally arrived in a huge way. Forget everything you thought you knew about him from Iron Monkey and all his other earlier works. This will be the film that defines him, not just as a martial artist, but also as an actor.

http://twitchfilm.net/site/view/ip-man/

[SimonMW]

hopefully, it's not a pirated version.

DDD House is a bonefide business and only sells originals.

[Milkyway]

http://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/ip_man.html

[Charuto]

Just watched it. There's nothing groundbreaking about this, but it is very good.

I noticed some punches not really "connecting." It's noticeable when he throws continuous punches with the same hand. The nature of the move makes it seem like it's hard to fake unless you want to just toss the camera around. Something to tighten up for the sequel I guess.

EDIT: If anyone is like me and noticed the sound is off in their early version,

Virtualdub > Audio > Interleaving > Audio skew correction = 200 seems to fix things up during the fights.

[The Running Man]

wudangimmortal,

Please write spoiler warnings before you start mentioning spoilers. Most people on this board have not seen the movie yet.

[wudangimmortal]

sorry, i removed the message, but it was posted before in this thread that he was shot in a review.

didnt mean to ruin the movie for anyone.