fantastic martial arts movie, good-to-OK drama

Rating: 8/10 (26 February 2016)

I must have had a different experience than a large number of people who have seen Ip Man, since I came to the film about eight years after its release in China, and three years after I saw a very different film about the Ip (or Yip) Man, Wong Kar Wai's The Grandmaster. That film has some of the same characters, and its unavoidable to not have some of the same beats in the story (that Yip Man is already a master martial artist, and also a father and husband, but his life is turned upside down with the invasion of Japanese forces in the late 30's), but the style is far away from this film.
Where Wong is someone totally interested in visual effects - how rain will fall on characters, how movement goes from slow motion to quicker motion and how to change things like shutter speeds with the camera - Wilson Yip (any relation to the real guy I wonder) is out to just make an entertaining, mainstream movie that is very much for Chinese audiences. Where one film is more of a mood pieces, albeit with some intense action, this is all about telling one part of the Ip Man's story, and it's all the better for it.
I also knew actually that this film wouldn't really be able to cover all of the events since its now over three movies (sequels in 2010 and 2015). These events are all about Ip Man's time as a teacher of his own form of martial arts - which he tries to say, in his usual humble way, is not too different from other martial artists, though of course it's the teacher and students who learn from him who are of a higher order - and those Japanese invasion events.
The strongest part story-wise is that it took a direction I wasn't so much expecting; in the first half hour, when things are relatively OK for Yip Man (played with confidence and a great way into this naturally heroic person by Donnie Yen), he seems almost *too* perfect in a way. It's like, can a guy be any more of a full-blown leader and good-hearted and kind but firm and un-shakable human being? Here's a guy who's only fault is, maybe once or twice, he doesn't look at his kids drawings, or he might, maybe, break a chair or something when a challenger comes calling for a fight.
But when Ip Man and his family are put out on the street and, like everyone else in their Fu Shan village, are starving and just trying to get by the day to day, he's no longer a teacher but another survivor, and, as a greater conflict, is up against the repressive Japanese military who want to see him fight. How this happens are parts of the story I'll leave for you to find out, but suffice it to say it's one of those tales where a hero is established early on, then taken down a peg due to exterior circumstances (the fall of a village, of a people, oppression and so on), and he has to rise back up to meet the challenge set to him.
Now some of this drama is acted with just enough conviction to get by, no more no less, and yet that's not exactly the reason to see the movie. I appreciated that the filmmakers kept things period-correct and used the real-life, tumultuous history in keeping with the protagonist and his adversaries (maybe my favorite character is the Chinese interpreter who Yip Man thinks for a while as a traitor, but the guy is just trying to get by like everyone else and pays dearly for just being near the Japanese for too long). The reason to see the movie is for the martial arts, and it's damn impressive; Sammo Hung does the choreography here, and he stages fights so that there is an ecstatic flow to things - it's not a rush into one thing or another, pieces build and we see a continuity with how Yip Man defends himself and/or fights his opponents. And when Yip Man gets angry in a fight (or just a little more aggressive) watch out because Yen definitely brings it.
It may not be some masterpiece or anything, and it may rely a little too much (especially near the end) as a piece for its Chinese audiences to lap up more than for a worldwide one (and of course the Bruce Lee trivia is put in there because how can it not be), it's a highly entertaining spectacle that has light moments that work and dramatic parts that are never unsatisfying. It's loaded with well-shot action and if you like kung-fu/martial arts its basically a must-see, maybe only a notch below the likes of 36th Chamber of Shaolin or Five Fingers of Death in terms of the 'Holy S***' aspect of the choreography.