The Plot:
In the city of Foshan, many martial arts schools are opening up and each one wishes to be the best. Ip Man, a wealthy man and exceptional martial artist, but he prefers to lead a quiet life and never takes on any students. When an out of town martial artist takes on each school one by one and wins, Ip Man must defend the town's honor to ensure that the schools stay open. However, when Japan invades China during WW2, Ip Man and his family become homeless. Ip Man looks for a job to support his family and runs into some fellow teachers. The general of the Japanese troops in Foshan holds a competition to see who's skilled in fighting. The winner gets a bag of rice and an offer to return again. When one martial artist is killed, Ip Man accepts the challenge and takes on 10 fighters. Impressed, the general asks Ip Man to return, but Ip does not accept. Frustrated, the general tries to lure Ip into fighting again, but cannot seem to find him, thanks to a friend who is a Japanese translator. However, when Ip's best friend is threatened to be executed on the spot, Ip Man accepts the general's challenge. This time, the challenge is to the death and the other fighter is the general himself, a master of karate. Ip Man fights the general and wins, but is shot after the general's defeat. Ip Man and his family decide to head to Hong Kong and begin a new life there.
The Good:
If you watched the scene above, then watch the whole movie. The fight scenes are freaking stunning to watch. As said before, Bruce Lee got me interested into martial arts, but that scene actually got me to really learn kung fu. These fights are so well choreographed, they make the Jason Bourne fight scenes look cheesy. The story's pretty good too, you get invested in Ip Man's journey and root for him throughout the flick. The actors do a good job as well, making them believable and making you emotionally invested. Did I mention how awesome the fight scenes were? Seriously, those fights are the jewels in this movie.
The Bad:
Ip Man's wife, Cheung Wing-sing is a bitch in this movie. She's not happy that Ip Man practices wing chun, or practices with his fellow martial artists. She wants him by her side every minute giving her attention and to his son. This doesn't make Ip Man a bad father or husband for that matter, but give the guy some space. Cheung acts like a 2 year old throughout most of the movie and she finally realizes that Ip Man likes kung fu and she should have acted more mature near the end of the freaking movie! I despise her in this movie and I hope Ip Man's wife in real life didn't behave like this. When Ip's family is kicked out of their house and they become "homeless". I use the quotation marks, because, well...Ip Man might not have a mansion but they have a pretty nice house for being homeless. Yeah, money and food are scarce, but his living situation? Not super believable when you live in a neighborhood. Now for the general of the Japanese troops. He's introduced as this badass karate master who can take on multiple opponents without breaking a sweat. During the fight between him and Ip Man, its like he lost his karate powers or something. Ip Man wipes the floor with him in 30 seconds, and it's kinda embarrassing to watch. Did the general choke or something? Did the crowd of people watching give him stage fright? I don't know, but the final fight was a let down in my opinion.
Overall:
Ip Man is a fantastic movie. Though most of it is fictional, the actual use of wing chun is very accurate. Donnie Yen is superb in this film and if this movie doesn't leave you wanting to learn Wing Chun, I don't know what will.
4.5 Wing Chun dummies out of 5.
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