Well-directed martial arts film

Rating: 8/10 (12 January 2019)

This review contains spoilers.
Ip Man is a biographical martial arts motion picture that premiered in 2008. The movie is based on the life of a Wing Chun Grandmaster. The movie stars Donnie Yen in the leading role and Lynn Hung as Cheung Wing-sing. The movie is about Ip man starting his school amidst the Japanese invasion of China. The movie covers Ip Man's life broadly.
Ip Man is a well directed movie. This movie clocks in at a 108 minute running time. This felt quick as the entire movie flows well. All of the action scenes are fun to watch and masterfully choreographed. One of the highlights is Ip Man fighting for food. These scenes also have emotion going into them. This combination makes all the fight scenes important and fun to watch. If audience members only want to watch the movie for the action, they can easily enjoy all portions of it.
The acting of this movie is decent. The movie has a good lead in Donnie Yen. He is able to portray the stoicism and emotion of Ip Man effectively. Likewise all of the supporting cast members do a great job with in their respective roles. All of the martial arts portrayed by the actors are top quality.
The plot of the movie is basic. This is still an engrossing story. This movie is based off of historical events and Ip Man's life. I did not think this entire movie is accurate but is able to capture the spirit of Ip Man's struggle. This movie is primarily about the struggle between China and Japan during the latter's invasion of the former. This theme is inherently prevalent throughout the movie and it makes for anyone that enjoys this part of history enjoy the movie. There are a lot of authentic depictions of Chinese sentiment to Japan and vice-versa in this movie. This made the movie interesting to watch. The plot can seem similar to propaganda at times.
I highly recommend 'Ip Man'. This is a solid biographical martial arts movie that is the complete package.
Grade: A