Ip Man Review (2008): The Meaning of Martial Arts and WW2

Rating: 7/10 (16 June 2019)

This is one of the first R rated films I remember seeing. Seeing it on my television set had me convinced to watch more of these martial art movies. This, being an emotionally driven drama of war and the struggles of a martial artist and what martial arts should be used as.
The film is set in the late 1930s Foshan, China. Foshan was a peaceful area where many people practice martial arts or take classes from teachers. Ip Man, being the richest and the strongest martial artist there at the time, was living in harmony but he has a few family problems of not spending time with his family but instead practice martial arts with the people of Foshan which gets his wife and only son upset. Eventually, our story fast forwards to the early 1940s of WW2. Foshan was captured by the Japanese and they took Ip Man's mansion and use it as a headquarter. Ip Man now lives poorly with all the other martial artists who have to fight Japanese martial artists for a small bag of rice. The music that accompanies with these scenes can get powerfully strong and the feeling of death is only around the corner for any character.
The fight scenes are well choreographed, brutal and realistic. The movie itself is not beautiful at all, it is depressing and downright emotional. Every single problem or ties that go in this film are either untied or unsolved. The story can get depressing at times and it is like an Asian tv drama. If you seen any Asian tv drama, you'd expect a few things that are same as this. Man fighting for his life and his family, some die and some are beaten to death. Many friends or nearby people can die. The fight scenes can get brutal but also give you the feeling that Ip Man only uses martial arts for self protection. It's only for the fact that when he fights against the Japanese, he breaks the rule and he's no longer innocent. There can only be blood, no escape from death and the use of martial arts have been misused. Although, the meaning of martial arts can be varied from many people. Some say it's used for violence which most of the time it will be, but some people like me say that it's only for self defense and should only be used when someone tries to attack you. The themes of this film stay true: Teamwork, Family, and Controlling Yourself. Some of the emotional aspects of this film is superb and can be hard to watch often. This film is probably the hardest one to watch out of the trilogy.
Many messages can be seen throughout this film throughout the minor stories or problems that cover the main problem.