Ip Man is the honourable Chinese version of a Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone. He has his own one-liners, develops his own enemies, and has some sweet martial arts moves. Best of all, Ip man isn’t even a fictional character! This Martial Arts treat is definitely worth a watch!
Why Watch Ip Man?
- You like Martial Arts action (obvious choice).
- See a possible casting choice for the next Expendables movie?
- What happened to China in the Second World War? Find out here.
- For montages like Rocky and some top-notch action scenes.
The films opens with a brief look at Ip Man practising Kung-Fu at home instead of attending a Kung-Fu competition in his local town. Unsatisfied with the quality of the challengers, one of the Kung-Fu leaders goes to visit Ip Man to challenge Ip Man to a secret fight. Ip Man’s wife seems pretty annoyed, but Ip Man assures her “it won’t take long”. Sure enough, Ip Man beats up the top Kung-Fu fighter in town with ease. Someone even ends up seeing the fight and tells the whole town about it to the annoyance of Ip Man and the local Kung-Fu leader.
There are two groups of enemies that Ip Man and his community encounter in this film. First there is a group from the north of China looking for people to bully. Later, there is the Japanese occupiers that suppress the Chinese population during World War Two.
The group from Northern China appear shabby. They are poorly dressed, unshaven, and slurp their noodle soup. As a result, the Southern Chinese seem more civilised and clean in comparison to their Northern neighbours. Maybe this director from Hong Kong still holds some grudges against mainland China in stereotyping these bandits.
Secondly, the Japanese come and disrupt the Southerners way of life. Their occupation is shown in the cinematography of the film, as the wide range of colours in the early part of the movie (reds, greens, browns) are switched for a lot of grey. The film looks more like a black and white movie at some points! The director uses this colour switch to emphasise the hardship and poverty under the Japanese occupation.
In addition to his portrayals of Southern China’s enemies, Director Wilson Yip has a load of incredible action scenes. The speed of the fights and clarity of the actors moves are truly awesome. It is like watching a beautiful ballet. Just pay attention to the fights as it must have taken a lot of takes and rehearsing to get all these moves perfect.
If you’re into action and/or martial arts, give this one a watch!