This ain't what your daddy watched back in the 1960s and 70s!

Rating: 10/10 (30 January 2014)

I have seen and enjoyed many, many martial arts film. However, I am not blind to the problems that have often plagued the genre. For every exceptional film (such as most of the Shaw Brothers films or the better films of Sonny Chiba) there are the god-awful ones--movies that are embarrassingly bad. In these bad films, you see horrible martial arts where blows barely come near their opponents or kicks that look like my grandmother was fighting! Heck, I even remember one film with gorillas doing kung fu--and they obviously were two guys wearing VERY cheap Halloween costumes! Because of the many bad films, it's a pleasure to see "Ip Man"--a film where the fighting is the most realistic you'll ever see. There is no 'wire fu' here--just fast and amazingly talented people making it look authentic.
The film covers only a portion of Master Ip Man's life--mostly the 1930s--both before and during the Japanese occupation of his homeland. I read that MUCH liberty was taken with his life in the film--and I doubt if the guy really did half the things they show the actor (Donny Yen) playing him did! But, it is constantly entertaining and even uplifting. I am very sure that in China this film must have been a great source of pride--seeing Ip Man standing up to the murderous Japanese occupiers. A simply terrific film--and I challenge you to find one better! Because it is so good, I couldn't help but give this one a well-earned 10.