"Everyone needs to choose his own path."

Rating: 8/10 (14 November 2017)

I rather enjoyed this martial arts movie, though I don't know a whole lot about the principal character portrayed. A quick scan of some of the other reviews indicates that historical accuracy wasn't of paramount importance for this picture, but that's the case with a lot of films based on true stories. Ip Man's (Donnie Yen) fighting style of Wing Chun didn't appear to utilize much in the way of high flying theatrics, though I'm always dubious when a martial arts hero can take on multiple opponents like Ip Man does here with ten at a time, and manages to put all their lights out. Really, how realistic is that? The one element in the story that bothered me was the denigration of Japanese fighting styles when Ip man insisted that his Chinese Wing Chun was the only 'pure' one. I think all legitimate styles recognize that their form of martial arts is designed to improve the inner strength of a person first, and that fighting to denote one's superiority is a negative. But anyway, this was a good film with more than it's share of exciting fight scenes, thereby pointing me in the direction of some of the Ip Man sequels.