Nice martial arts but a bit too obvious propaganda behind it

Rating: 6/10 (4 February 2010)

Even without knowing too much about the historical Yip Man who was Bruce Lee's master, it's quite evident that we see Donnie Yen more in the role of a conventional Chinese hero here than in the one of a historical person. At the very beginning he is introduced as the noble saver of the honor of the city who is neither interested in money nor profit. Why should he - he owns the largest crib in town. But how he can afford it is a bit nebulous, if the only thing he really masters is Wing Chun. A powerful fighting style which he refuses to teach anybody by the way. So where does the money come from? We'll never know. Anyway it's no wonder that later when the Japanese army invades China and everybody suffers from hunger and desperation, he prefers to work in a coal mine than in his friend's wool factory which he, involuntary, owns to 10%.
The circle closes with him as the altruistic saver of the Chinese people's honor and the honor of Chinese fighting skills which are much better than the Japanese ones, of course. This integrity is drawn through the hole movie and leads to a very boring character and a pretty black and white good guys/bad guys scheme. Our hero never really has to struggle with himself and most of the time Donnie Yen looks like he doesn't know what to do with himself. Except for the fighting sequences which are well edited and pleasingly violent.
Well, the Japanese are stupidly and exaggerated portrayed as ruthless killers and omnipresent threat, but still Ip Man contains some really nice martial arts sequences and Sing-Pui O did solid work as cinematographer. If you've liked the fighting styles of Ong Bak and Unleashed, go for it, but don't expect too see the story of Bruce Lee's master. This one borrows just his name and turns it into a