Yip Man 2

Plot synopsis:
In the 1930s, Foshan is 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 independent 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 apartment. Desperate to support his family, Ip finds work 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. Li Zhao, a former police officer and Ip's acquaintance, is now working as a translator for the Japanese. He offers the martial artists working at the coal mine the chance to earn a bag of rice for every match they win. Ip at first declines to participate in the matches. However, when his friend Lin takes part in a match and does not return, Ip agrees to fight so he can find his friend. Ip watches fellow Foshan martial arts master Liu defeat one karateka, but then insist on fighting three and lose. When Liu attempts to collect the winning bag of rice from the first match, Colonel Sato kills him.
Ip figures out that Lin was beaten and killed by the Japanese after 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 Japanese occupied their town (to conserve food his family needs), he mercilessly defeats all of them with a brutal and effective barrage of blows, showing none of the restraint he exhibited in earlier matches. His skill arouses the interest of General Miura, who wants to learn more about Ip and watch him fight again.
Ip later visits his friend Chow Ching-chuen, who owns and runs a cotton mill in Foshan. Chow tells Ip that a bandit gang led by Jin Shanzhao is harassing his workers and trying to extort money from them. Ip finally consents to teach others, and trains the workers in Wing Chun for self-defense.
When Ip refuses to return to the arena, Miura grows impatient and sends the sadistic Colonel Sato along with several soldiers to find him. Sato sees Ip's wife and moves towards her. Ip defends his wife and incapacitates the three soldiers. They flee their apartment and take a room with Li Zhao's family. When the bandits return to the cotton mill, the workers fight back using the techniques that Ip taught them. Ip himself arrives midway through the battle. He defeats many of the robbers and personally beats Jin Shanzhao, embarrassing him, and warns him never to harass the workers again.
The Japanese soldiers eventually find Ip at the cotton mill. Ip tells Chow to take his wife and son away for protection. Miura tells Ip that his life will be spared if he 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. Sato tells Ip that his life will be spared if he lets the general win.
At first, the two fighters seem equally matched, but Miura soon finds himself unable to penetrate Ip's impeccable defense and is overwhelmed by his relentless and direct blows. Unable to defend himself, Ip effortlessly uses him like a wooden dummy, inflicting a severe beating on him.
As the beaten general falls to the floor, Ip looks at the cheering Chinese crowd and sees his wife and child with Chow. Enraged at the general's defeat, Sato shoots Ip in the shoulder, igniting the Chinese crowd who overwhelm the Japanese soldiers. During the scuffle, Li Zhao kills Sato with Sato's own gun. Ip is taken away amidst the chaos. The epilogue reveals that he survived and escaped with his family to Hong Kong with the help of Chow Ching-chuen. There, Ip establishes a Wing Chun school, where his students come to learn martial arts from him, including Bruce Lee.

Tags: violence, flashback, good versus evil, action, tragedy, revenge, historical, storytelling

Review:
Donnie Yen returns as the titular kung fu grandmaster in Ip Man 2, with Wilson Yip reassuming his directorial duties and, most importantly, Sammo Hung back in his role as action director, and also as a main character.The story picks up from where the first movie left off.
However, he is met with opposition and hardship in the form of rival martial arts schools and the atypical British oppressors, and finds that even his formidable martial arts prowess may not be enough to resolve these problems.But the story aside, anyone with a little background knowledge of this film should know what to expect; a dose of intense Hong Kong kung fu film action.
But you will be blown away by the fights, you will be in awe of the moves, and, if you're able to, appreciate the action scenes not as the mindless, disposable portion of the movie, but rather the core of it, carefully thought out, executed, and filmed as a true form of art.
In Ip Man's old life, he'd often send Wong to successfully answer challenges.Sammo Hung has delivered yet another amazing feat with choreographing this movie, despite his declining health during production.My biggest disappointment has to do with the blatant stereotype and one-dimensional characterization of the British colonists and the Twister character.
This is proof that this movie is not all-action, but it has a big heart as well.Again, the story is nothing new to write home about; it's basically the Hong Kong version of "Rocky IV", with Donne Yen playing "Ip Man" which is equivalent to Stallone's iconic character, and a very buffed-up Darren Shahlavi playing a British boxer which is the equivalent of Dolph Lundgren's "Ivan Drago" character.
Donnie almost gets the crap beaten up of him at one point, making his character all but human just like the rest of us.Overall, it is a fine martial-arts movie, with good acting, a good ol' fashioned moral tale and lots of exceptional fight sequences that will leave you breathless.
In the second one i felt like i was watching a John Woo film, death by slow motion.None of the characters were properly developed so you didn't care about them, and the fight scenes seemed to drag on, i mean taking on 50 guys with machetes c'mon for gods sake its supposed to be based on a real man, i don't care how good anyone is that just wouldn't happen, and the bit with the crate Jackie Chan film comes to mind, but the worst bit was the final fight , yaaaaaaaawwwwwnn!!!
People watch these films for the beauty of Chinese martial arts and in this one Wing chun in particular, and all of that is gone in this one, other than the very first fight with his student.
There's also time taken to devote to the corruption of Caucasian police officers, as well as how the Chinese used to fight their own, before learning to unite in the face of stronger, external opponents out to humiliate and insult long held values because of ignorance and prejudice.The second half of the film, with what we've seen in the trailers involving yet another East versus West matchup that have been covered in contemporary martial arts films and biopics like Fearless and True Legend, was quite the worry for me, in that it would be another opportunity for meaningless bashing and the championing of nationalistic messages.
Two scenes which stood out involves Shahlavi's battle with the Chinese grandmasters, and frankly, despite being a "boxing" match, it was really imaginative of Sammo to deliver something that's quite different from the usual action sequences in Chinese films involving battling a Caucasian in a ring.But the number one action sequence, albeit a little bit short, would be that which you've been teased by the trailer, with Ip Man versus Sammo's Hung Jan Nam mano a mano atop a flimsy table, in what would be Wing Chung versus Hung Ga Kuen.
Naturally, not to offend real life practitioners means the result of the fight would be understood, but to see Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung match up against one another, is an action film fan's dream come true again, from SPL, especially after Ip Man dispenses with the side show phonies.
Yen continues to deliver Ip Man in a relatively low key style, preferring smiles and the occasional smoke to wanting to show off that he's one of the best martial artists out there.Simon Yam, Calvin Cheng, Fan Siu-Wong and even Lynn Hung who plays Ip Man's Wife from the first film were all sadly underutilized, and the introduction of Kent Cheng was something like a direct replacement of Lam Ka-Tung's character from Ip Man 1 (which means the deleted scene in the earlier film could be considered canon if you wish), being the default translator between the Chinese and the British, and more often than not is seen siding with the Westerners in order to keep his cop job.
Guess who accepts the challengeThis sequel to the hugely popular Ip Man (2008) once again blends fact with fiction to tell the exploits of the Chinese national hero who would later go on to train superstar Bruce Lee. Taken with a pinch of salt, it proves to be hugely entertaining stuff, with Yen exercising both his acting and his fighting muscles to the fullest.
The fish market fight against the rival students is a little far fetched, and the martial arts scenes rely a little too much on wire-work for me to find them fully satisfying, but with Sammo Hung as action director, and super fast moves and incredible athleticism from star Yen, there's still plenty to make the jaw drop.Sammo Hung also shows that he's still got what it takes in front of the camera, with his fights against Ip Man and Twister being a lot of fun, but it is the Wing Chun master's fight against the Ivan Drago-style bad guy in the final act that inevitably proves to be the highlight—a brutal smack-down guaranteed to please all but the most fussy of martial arts fans.7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb..
This time around, Ip Man must test his mettle against a series of Hong Kong martial arts masters before taking his talent to the world stage.The film displays exactly the same kind of sumptuous production values as the original, with Wilson Yip's expert direction combining with Sammo Hung's beautiful fight choreography to startling effect.
Hung himself appears as a rival master and his various bouts with Yen are awe-inspiring, and there's a mid-way set-piece in a fish market that has to be seen to be believed – one of the greatest large-scale fight scenes ever put on film.
Ip Man (Donnie Yen), a master of the fighting style Wing Chun despite his smoking habit, has come to Hong Kong.
As long as there's good action!" Even if that's you, do not waste your time on this film.Donnie Yen is amazing, and Sammo Hung is also a legend, they both do great work.
As you may know, the films are a loose telling of the life of real-life Wing Chun Grandmaster Sifu Yip Man (1893-1972), who is responsible for helping to spread Chinese martial arts around the world; he was also the teacher of deceased martial arts legend Bruce Lee (1940-1973)."Ip Man 2" is a direct sequel to "Ip Man," and follows Ip Man (an effective Donnie Yen) after he flees Foshan province and arrives in British-occupied Hong Kong in the early 1950s.
His attempts at opening a school and propagating Wing Chun meet with heavy resistance from the locals - especially Master Hung (Sammo Hung, also the film's fight choreographer with Ip Chun, the son of the real-life Yip Man) - who attempt to challenge him at every opportunity.But because Hong Kong is under British colonial rule and Chinese pride has been nearly eroded, Taylor "The Twister" Milos (Darren Shahlavi), the reigning British heavyweight boxing champion - and a known sociopath - begins to openly insult Chinese martial arts and the Chinese people, and issues a challenge to beat any Chinese boxer in the ring.
Unlike the first film, though, there is also a fair amount of English-language dialogue (with largely unknown British actors filling in roles that in an American feature, would be occupied by minorities), in addition to the native Cantonese tongues.I also enjoyed the fights better in this film, than I did in "Ip Man." I was impressed to see that Sammo Hung was able to choreograph hand-to-hand combat sequences where Donnie Yen's Ip Man character (as well as Hung's own Master Hung) was able to sometimes face opponents who were just as skilled as he was - like with Ip Man's climatic showdown with "The Twister."I was really impressed with "Ip Man 2." It has a gripping storyline, a better performance by Donnie Yen (with strong performances also by Sammo Hung and Darren Shahlavi, the latter of whom is not just there to play a villainous - white - foreigner but has a fully developed personality that makes him more than just your standard one-note white antagonist), and more masterful fighting sequences.
However like in most sequels I'm afraid I have to give a low rating for the second edition of the well-loved Ip Man. Not because it's a bad movie at all but because comparing the first movie its missing a little bit of 'heart'.Starting from the end of the first movie Ip Man moves to Hong Kong and ambitiously looks forward to open up a wing chung martial art school.
Also Featuring Sammo Hung(14 Blades)as MasterHung Chun-nam, Huang Xiaoming(The Message) as Wong Leung ,Lynn Hung(Ip Man) as Cheung Wing-sing ,Simon Yam(King Of Triads) as Chow Ching-cheun and the Late Darren Shahlavi(Watchmen) as Taylor "The Twister" Miller The films Main Villain.The film was great a Fantastic Sequel to Ip Man[2008] Once A Great a Great Performance By Donnie Yen and also really loved the story of Ip Man it had heart this is the Chinese version of The Rocky Series also Great Fight Choreography of the Wing Chun by Fightmaster Sammo Hung .
Hong Kong under British rule is a world of corruption, and when a Western- style boxer named Taylor "Twister" Milos comes to town to entertain the British upper-class, and insults both Chinese martial arts and the native citizens in a horrifically violent way, Ip must step up and fight for the honor of both his kung fu and the Chinese people.
A Cashgrab Sequel Rather Than A Significant Follow-Up. The most impressive thing about Ip Man was its action choreography, not because it was expertly carried out but because after a long time, martial arts in cinema didn't look like a joke that went way too over-the-top.
Even its action choreography discards that grounded feel & ends up taking the same over-the-top route we've seen so many times in so many martial arts actioners before.Following the events after the first film, set during the early 1950s & very loosely based on the life of Chinese martial artist Ip Man, Ip Man 2 presents the Wing Chun grandmaster's life in Hong Kong under British colonial rule where he opens a school to teach his discipline but soon faces opposition from local practitioners.
After managing to earn their respect, things go extremely wrong when a cocky British boxer makes fun of the Chinese tradition & throws an open challenge to anyone, thus forcing Ip Man to step into the ring.Directed by Wilson Yip, there are a handful of positives in this film such as its good pacing, an enjoyable plot & another charismatic performance from Donnie Yen. But that's all there is to this picture for it is marred by dull characters, horrible dialogues, poor performances, fractured storytelling & the most heartbreaking of them all, lacklustre action.
The quiet, passive resistance that Master IP displays in both movies a testament to what I believe is the true Chinese spirit of mind over matter and humility in the face of brash, obnoxious behavior.Where Rocky was about man against himself, IP Man and IP Man 2 portray man against man where the fight for justice and truth is just as valued in Master IP's culture as it is in my own.The movie is a beautiful display of martial arts intertwined with a story that is human, compassionate and impassioned all in one fell swoop.
The action scenes in this movie with Sammo and Donny Yen are insanely good and any martial arts fan should love them.Anything else is this movie is just butter on the bread.The story is good though and so is the acting here.The storyline is fictitious and the only non-fiction is the main character.But like I said who cares this movie is just good old Kung Fu fun!
The movie looks good as far as camera-work goes, choreography is decent, but so much for the little that is good about this "movie".The current review that is on the film's main page speaks of "a good ol' fashioned moral tale and lots of exceptional fight sequences that will leave you breathless." Let me decrypt this for you: "moral tale" means "stereotypical corrupt western capitalist corrupting poor Chinese" and "people rising up against capitalist injustice" and "underdog kung- fu teacher becoming an everyday hero" and "poor people suffering under this and that".
I'd rather watch a perfectly honest North Korean propaganda film praising the Fat Leader instead of watching more of the modern trash that China produces, at least North Korean movies are so bad they are of bottom-of-the-barrel-bad category that they become fun again, like Bad Taste.For real, good old-school kung-fu movies that do not try to shove down your throat the age old Chinese communist propaganda, or that don't bore you to death with completely stupid and stock plot, better watch some of Jackie Chan's work from the early 80's to mid 90's..
The original screenwriter Edmond Wong returns to writing duties and Samo Hung once again performs martial arts choreography as well as plays a role in the film.The movie opens with Ip Man attempting to open a school in Hong Kong and spread Wing Chun there, while struggling to support his family at the same time.
Ip Man 2 is a 2010 Hong Kong martial arts film directed by Wilson Yip.The story continues where the first one left off.
Ip Man, having survived the terrible war period in Foshan, moves to Hong Kong with his family and does his best to make a living teaching his martial art style of Wing Chun.
And once again, there are some impressive Hong Kong talents on the cast list as well, aside from Donnie Yen, which includes Sammo Kam-Bo Hung and Simon Yam.There is a good continuous flow to the movie, with a great combination of storytelling and martial arts.If you enjoyed the 2008 "Ip Man", then you will most definitely also enjoy the 2010 "Ip Man 2" movie, no doubt about it..
¨I don't think there is anyone as exciting as Donnie Yen when it comes to martial arts, and once again he delivers with some very impressive moves and some great choreographed fighting scenes.
The movie picks up right where the first left off as Yip Man (Donnie Yen) migrates from Foshan (after the war with the Japanese) to Hong Kong which happens to be under British colonial rule.
There, Ip Man seeks to establish a new martial arts school, but has to deal with the other martial arts masters already in the city.The last half of the movie focuses on the British who were in charge in Hong Kong at the time; specifically an arrogant boxer and a cruel officer that have no respect for the Chinese, their ways, or their martial arts.
Both Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung deliver prime performance for their roles, although chemistry between their characters is lacking.Conclusion, Ip Man 2 maybe is like the usual modern Chinese martial art movies we know, but is nothing compared to the first movie in term of overall quality..
Actors Simon Yam, Lynn Hung, Siu-Wong Fan, and Li Chak are all back reprising their roles from the first film.One very delightful addition to the cast is Sammo Hung, who choreographed Ip Man 1 and 2, playing the overbearing martial artist master Hung-Chun Nam. Despite recovering from major heart surgery just prior to filming, Sammo gives his usual level of acting and (performing all his own stunts and getting injured in the process) fighting.This time around it's not just other martial arts masters that Ip Man has to deal with, it's the occupational British who have claimed Hong Kong for their commonwealth.
Here he hopes to set up a Wing Chun martial arts school, but soon encounters difficulties with gaining students, with the main obstruction the lack of acceptance by other such institutions led by Master Hong (Sammo Hung Kam-Bo) as well as with the British authority.The first instalment was an overreaching take on the legend of Yip Man, whereas the sequel flings us even further away from recreation of past events and deeper into fictionalised accounts.
Far from a failure and a milestone from being great, Ip Man remains a credible piece of martial arts sequel cinema that is very much worthy of inclusion.The movie is basically like this: It is set in right after Yen's first film escape from China to Hong Kong.
Donnie Yen returns in this rushed sequel to the far superior Yip Man. While the first film offered startling and far more brutal martial arts action than previous entries, there is nothing new or original in the second installment.
Stunningly staged by Sammo Hung, who co-stars as one of the martial arts masters, this film has some fights that people will be talking about for years to come.