Yip Man

Plot synopsis:
This is the story of Ip Man, a legendary Wing Chun Kung Fu master from Fo Shan, China. The film is set in Japanese occupied Fo Shan following Japan's invasion of China during World War II. It recounts specifically one man's opposition the occupying Japanese forces.Ip Man is set in the 1930s in Foshan, a hub of Southern Chinese martial arts, where various schools actively recruit disciples and compete against each other. Although the Wing Chun master Ip Man is the most skilled martial artist in Foshan, he is unassuming and keeps a low profile. As an independently wealthy man, he feels no need to accept any disciples and instead spends his days training, meeting with friends, and spending time with his family. However, his wife is often resentful of the time he spends training and discussing martial arts with friends and colleagues. Though not a professional martial artist, Ip is respected in Foshan due to the abilities he displays in friendly, closed-door competitions with local masters. Ip's reputation is further enhanced when he defeats an aggressive, rude, highly skilled Northern Chinese martial arts master, Jin Shanzhao, thus upholding the regional pride of fellow Southern stylists and others in Foshan.The Japanese invasion in 1937 adversely affects the life of everyone in Foshan. Ip's house is claimed by the Japanese and used as their Foshan headquarters. Ip and his family lose their wealth and are forced to move into a decrepit house. Desperate to support his family, Ip accepts work as a coolie at a coal mine. The Japanese General Miura, who is a Karate master, establishes an arena where Chinese martial artists compete with his military trainees. The Chinese earn a bag of rice for every match they win. Li Zhao, a former police officer and Ip's acquaintance, is now working as a translator for the Japanese and is making the offer to the martial artists working as coolies. Ip at first declines to participate in the matches. However, when his friend Lin goes missing, he agrees to take part in order to investigate. He is enraged when he sees a fellow Foshan master (Master Liu) mercilessly executed for picking up a bag of rice from a prior victory after giving up in a second match against three karateka. He also comes to understand that Lin was killed in an earlier fight. Barely able to contain his rage, Ip demands a match with ten karateka at once. Despite having not practiced Wing Chun since the invasion began (in order to conserve what little food his family had to survive), he proceeds to mercilessly crush each of them with a brutal yet efficient barrage of his martial art mastery, showing barely any of the restraint he exhibited in previous engagements. His skill arouses the interest of Miura, who seeks to learn more about Ip and see him fight again.Ip visits his friend Chow Ching-chuen, who owns and runs a cotton mill in Foshan. Chow tells Ip that a highway robbery gang led by Jin Shanzhao is harassing his workers and extorting money from them. Ip trains the workers in Wing Chun for self defence. Meanwhile, Miura grows impatient when Ip does not return to the arena and sends men to find Ip. These men harass Ip's family, and Ip incapacitates them. Ip and his family then go into hiding at Li Zhao's house. Meanwhile, the robbers return to the cotton mill to demand money. The workers fight back using the techniques that Ip taught them. Just then, Ip appears and defeats Jin Shanzhao, warning him never to harass the workers again.The Japanese soldiers eventually find Ip at the cotton mill. Miura tells Ip that his life will be spared if agrees to instruct the Japanese soldiers in martial arts. Ip refuses and challenges Miura to a match, which Miura accepts, both because of his love for martial arts and because refusing the challenge would be a humiliation to the Japanese. The match between Ip and Miura is held in public in Foshan's square. At first, the two fighters seem equally matched, but Miura becomes overwhelmed and is unable to fend off Ip's attacks as he effortlessly uses him as a Wooden Dummy, inflicting a severe beating on him and clearly winning.As the beaten general lies down after his defeat, Ip looks over to the crowd and hears the Chinese cheering him; within the crowd, he spots his wife and child with Chow. Just then, Miura's deputy Sato shoots Ip. This sparks a scuffle between the Chinese audience and the Japanese soldiers. During the scuffle, Li Zhao kills Sato with Sato's own gun. Ip is taken away amidst the chaos. It is revealed that he survives and escapes to Hong Kong with his family. There, Ip establishes a Wing Chun school, where his students come to include Bruce Lee.

Tags: murder, violence, flashback, good versus evil, action, inspiring, sadist

Review:
Every Wing Chun instructor today tries to make a lineage connection to Yip Man to legitimize their teaching so he is a very important figure in Kung Fu. Donnie Yen portrays the master with intense reserve and is possibly the best acting in his career.
And thank goodness for Donnie Yen still being around to pick up from where the genre left off, and presenting a memorable role which he truly owned, with Ip Man being the first cinematic rendition of the Wing Chun martial arts grandmaster.In this bio-pic, Ip Man, one of the earliest Wing Chun martial arts exponents credited to have propagated its popularity, gets portrayed as the best of the best in 1930s Fo Shan, China, where the bustling city has its own Martial Arts Street where countless of martial arts schools have set up shop to fuel the craze of kung fu training.
Action junkies won't have to wait too long before watching Ip Man in action, and to Sammo Hung and Tony Leung Siu Hung's credit, they have intricately designed some of the most varied martial arts sequences in the movie, such as private fights in his home, a factory mêlée, a Japanese dojo battle as seen in the trailer, (which I know has actually sent some positive vibes amongst moviegoers, mouth agape at that incredible scene of Yen continuously beating down a karateka) being somewhat of a throwback and reminiscent of Bruce Lee in Fists of Fury, and a ringside duel amongst others.
It's so difficult to name any particular one as a personal favorite, though I must add that you definitely won't feel short changed by the time the inevitable final battle comes rolling along and gets delivered with aplomb.I'm no Wing Chun practitioner, but Donnie Yen has this marvelous calm and zen like approach with his Ip Man taking out his opponents quite effectively with the minimal of moves.
With Wong Kar-wai at one point also declaring interest in making a Ip Man movie, I thought that this effort will be hard to beat, just like how Tsui Hark has crafted some of the more definitive movies in modern times about Wong Fei Hung and Jet Li benefiting from a major career boost, I'd say Ip Man just about cements Yen's reputation as a martial arts leading man, which I guess the cinematic world these days severely lacks.
Telling the story of Yip Man, the man believed to have popularized the martial art of Wing Chun, before and mostly during the Sino-Japanese war.Yen caught my attention after seeing him in "SPL".
Directed by Wilson Yip (Killzone, Flashpoint) This movie is a "portrayal" of the famous Wing Chun master Yip Man, credited as being the guy that taught Bruce Lee kung fu.
The Martial of Virtuosity - A Review of Ip Man. Ip Man (1893-1972) is the expert in the Wushu fighting style of Wing Chun, and is the master of the famous Bruce Lee. As there has never been any previous film record of Ip Man, this film produced by Raymond Wong and directed by Wilson Yip will be the very first.The movie opens and dates back to 1935 Foshan, with the city bustling with activities and various schools of martial arts are seen busy with the practice of their craft.
And he would also influence those around him with what he has and even lead those who have been wrong to do right despite the pressure of circumstances, because to the very basis, it is the right thing to do in humanity.History means nothing if its lessons are not learned.The film also stars the stunning Xiong Dai Lin as Cheung Wing-sing, Ip Man's wife, and I must also not forget to mention that the acclaimed Sammo Hung directs the action..
I had a choice of watching The Spirit or Ip Man. It is a tough decision and after a long while, I finally makes the choice of watching Ip Man. The director of Dragon Tiger Gate makes his comeback with his usual star, Donnie Yen. As expected, the martial arts fighting scenes are amazing.
This guy can create, I can say, some of best martial arts movies.The story: It tells about Ip Man's life, the soon-to-be master of the famous Bruce Lee. I can't say much about the plot but the fighting and the music are great.
Actors made their owns stunts ; some of the players got injured and to had to be hospitalized during the shooting , as Hiroyuki Ikeuchi , who played the Japanese general , suffered a mild concussion during filming, after being struck four times during a fight scene.The motion picture was stunningly directed by Wilson Yip .
His most famous student was Bruce Lee. This movie has lots of action, from martial arts training to big fight scenes, interwoven with drama that makes you really feel for IP Man. It has a great storyline supplemented with top notch acting.
It was one of the first martial arts movie i've seen along with a couple of Jackie Chan movies.Donnie Yen was one of the reason I wasn't sure to like this movie, his face seems like he had no emotions at all so I was thinking : how can a guy like this could do good acting.
Now that Jet Li has announced his retirement from film-making, I believe that the time is ripe for Donnie to take Hollywood by storm as the next martial arts icon.His powerful performance in Ip Man has established himself as a credible actor in addition to being a superb martial artist.
Donnie yen spent a large amount of time preparing to fight in the martial art called Wing Chun.
This film was directed by Wilson Yip and is supposed to be based on the biography of Yip Man, the first master to teach the art of Wing Chun (a Chinese martial art).
There are all sorts of martial art styles and masters, but everyone knows that the best martial artist in town is Yip Man (Donnie Yen).
There he discovers that he can defy the Japanese army with his martial art skills.Yip Man is a great biographical story although it probably isn't 100% accurate.
In the end the grateful master acknowledges his defeat to the highly skilled Yip Man. However unknown to them both someone has seen the match and blabs the result to the townsfolk.Ip's reputation is further enhanced when he defeats an aggressive, rude, highly skilled Northern Chinese martial arts master, Jin Shanzhao, thus upholding the regional pride of fellow Southern stylists and others in Foshan.The Japanese invasion in 1937 adversely affects the life of everyone in Foshan.
Especially since I have long practiced, respected and enjoyed martial arts, and the film claims to be based on the true story.But how does any being of normal intelligence even sit through this movie, let alone sign on to IMDb and rate it a 8, 9 or 10???
This is significant to me, since I study Wing Chun in a lineage that comes directly from Yip Man.This film is sort of in the style of biopic similar to Jet Li's "Fearless", a movie about a Chinese folk hero, Huo Yuanjia.
In the case of "Ip Man", the title character is plunged into the middle of the Japanese-Chinese conflicts of World war II, probably playing a much larger roll than he did in real life, and they show him as a sort of folk hero along the lines of Huo Yuanjie or Wong Fei Hong.Never the less, the film flows well.
There was some mention in the end titles of Lee, but the copy I watched did not have that translated, so I am not sure what was even mentioned.All that said, if you enjoy martial arts movies, this is definitely a good film.
This movie is a biopic about Ip Man, the most influential master of the Wing Chun martial art.
This movie is rather about a martial artist just trying to scrape a living in a time of war and poverty, like how "The Cinderella Man" was about a boxer trying to make a living during the Great Depression.On top of the very good storyline, the fight scenes are also very impressive, so much so that it inspired me to start taking Wing Chun classes again (I went once before but didn't return until last week).
The scenery, the story, the history and the drama are all things that get layered into this movie better than any others I've seen in this same genre, and even better than many mainstream, Hollywood movies.Watching this movie, I felt the same kind of underlying, tension and anxiety building that I saw while sitting through more well known movies like "Unforgiven", "The Patriot", "The Professional" and even to some degree "Master and Commander"; any movie where you follow a hero you know can beat the snot out of someone and are just waiting for them to open up a can of whoop-ass at the right moment after they get pushed to their limit.This is far from the traditional (cheesy), over-the-top, Kung Fu action flicks from the 70's and 80's.
world class acting (Donnie is superb), love, action, great storyline...The fight choreography is impeccable and worthy of constant rewinding or re-watching of specific fight scenes.This movie is so good I watched it the next day without hesitation...
the family was more concern of saving face rather then truly immortalizing this great man.as a practitioner of Wing Chun i am truly disappointed at this world release film but i do have hope, because i know there is another movie of Ip man on the works this one will be directed by the awesome director of "in the mood for love" and starring the only good actor in Hong Kong T.
It's not that important for the movie that you do, the information will be revealed for all at the end of the movie, when you hear/read about the real life Ip Man. Considering his impact on the Martial Arts scene, I guess he couldn't have been portrayed by anyone else then Donnie Yen (at this particular time that is).Still the movie leaves you with a feeling that there could have been more and what do you know?
Grandmaster Ip man is simply a superb and inspirational biographical movie about the father of modern Chinese martial arts.Shot in a modern style but embodying all the virtues of The Good Chinese Hero of Confuciansim this is a really marvelous and very good watch.The film is made by the exceptional performance of Donnie Yen as grandmaster Ip. Yes, the fighting skills are exceptional - though this is in places more explicit that many earlier fantasy kung fu movies and younger viewers should be made aware of this - but more than this Yen gives the role a true and very deep and abiding sense of stillness, dignity, and gravitas.From its beginnings, which are much lighter in tone, to the Japanese occupation, which are not, (And the Japanese here are best thought of as Nazis) the story intrigues and moves along with a wonderful sense of pace - nothing is rushed but a real sense of build-up exists.This is a masterful blend of Western styles of cinema - it is exceptionally well-lit and shot with superb grading on the film - and Eastern love of the hero story.
Grandmaster Yip Man. Usually i try to avoid movies that have Donnie Yen in them mainly because of the bad stories, plots and acting.
However i must digress that his movies contain spectacular fighting scenes well worth watching on it's own.Once again, apart from SPL(Killzone) - Donnie Yen has returned to a martial arts movie with a lot of heart and soul behind it with great characters and a lot of depth.
This film is loosely based on the life of Chinese martial arts master Ip Man during the Japanese occupation.
The costumes and locations are interesting, the cinematography is at times beautiful and although the script is clearly from the point of view of the Chinese, the Japanese are not depicted as outright monsters, like they sometimes are.But if we're all being honest here, it's martial arts side of things, which really elevates this movie above its peers.
Donnie Yen is Yip Man. This movie will appeal to all, not just martial art movie fans.
Many of these Chinese historic epic dramas tend to be over the top and exaggerating on many levels, but "Ip Man" turned out to be rather down to earth and a rather enjoyable movie.Donnie Yen was really well cast for the role of the legendary Ip Man, and he performed quite well, both in his acting performance, but most certainly also so in his martial arts performance.
It was a true pleasure to watch the fight scenes in the movie, and they alone actually make it worth sitting down to watch "Ip Man"."Ip Man" is one of the more important movies in Donnie Yen's career, I think, because he really managed to portray the legendary Wing Chun master in a very graceful manner.The story of the movie is entertaining, and it most definitely is spiced up by the impressive martial arts.
The martial arts does not have the over the top choreography and wire work of many other recent Chinese or Hong Kong films.There are some references to the Bruce Lee action films such as teaching the factory workers to fight in order to defend themselves against the same bully who beat up all the other kung fu masters.The film is certainly restrained and lacks the histrionics of other martial art films, even General Miura is portrayed as more honourable than the other Japanese officers.However it is not a true story.
This is the first Hong Kong movie that I have watched and I really enjoyed it.This is surely one of the best martial art movies ever made.Donnie Yen was brilliant as master Yip.His action scenes were superb and his expressions were perfect.Story is nice and touching.All characters are believable.All actors have done a great job.Martial Arts lovers will surely like it.I hope other 2 parts are equally good.Overall I give it 8/10.
The Japanese are virtually faceless, depicted mainly as bullies, war mongers, and instigators while 1994's Fist of Legend, a very similar film, does the Japanese some credit by showing them with more honor.Still some incredible fight scenes by the venerable Donnie Yen, who at was then 44-45 makes guys like a prime Van Damme or Seagal look pedestrian by comparison, witnessed in a brutal match with Yip Man against 10 karate practitioners.
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.
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.
But perhaps this is a sign that the film's time has come: more people, including Americans, ought to know about this martial arts legend, the man who trained Bruce Lee.Derek Elley of Variety Magazine wrote in his review, "Yen, who's taking on real star charisma in middle age, is aces as Ip, with a simple dignity that exactly mirrors the movie's own and a gracefulness in combat that's very different from his trademark whiplash style." Elley is exactly right.
I have watched it several times and have recommended it to many people who like martial arts movies or even if they don't, they may like it for the history and biographical sense and get to see some great actions scenes in between.
Yip Man is without a doubt one of the most entertaining martial arts films I've ever seen.
And Ip Man is definitely one of those flicks.Ip Man is a semi-biographical account of the legendary Chinese martial artist Yip Man who popularised the Wing Chun fighting style but is best known around the world as the teacher of yet another Kung-fu legend, Bruce Lee. Set before & during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the plot covers the change brought in the peaceful life of the grandmaster & everyone around him in the city of Foshan after the Japanese invasion.Brilliantly directed by Wilson Yip, Ip Man is a highly character-driven story that's filled with some of the most amazing martial arts sequences ever put on the film canvas.
The film concentrates on the years up to and including the Japanese occupation of China in the late 1930's.Ip Man is a master of the art of Wing Chun, a form of Kung Fu that was not generally accepted at the time.
Ip Man is an excellent martial arts film that combines some of the best fight scenes on film with a great story that's involving, occasionally amusing, stirring, powerful, and true.