Old Film Review 4: IP man (released in 2009)

There are a lot of films out there that are meaningful, some are not.  There are lots of films that revise a certain subject or simply highlight it, sometimes to the point of glorifying that particular subject.  IP man is one kind of film I like, it explores the beginning of the journey of the legendary Chinese kung-fu master named IP-man (known more widely in his home country as master IP) towards fame and immortality in the martial arts world.  Oddly enough, the most interesting thing about this film (the fact that it is about the beginning of the journey of the man who trained the legendary Bruce Lee) is only told to us at (literally) at the very end of the movie.

Just before he became famous in China and then the world, IP man was a respected and highly-skilled practitioner of a highly-disciplined form of kung-fu in his home town of Fo Shuan, a town that housed many schools for different forms of kung-fu.  Although he was almost unmatched in kung-fu, greatly-liked by the townsfolk and well-off, IP man was a particularly inept (yet very caring) father.

There really isn't much to say about IP man in terms of storyline, I mean it's a true story about a man following his chosen path and overcoming personal problems along the way.  The best thing about the film is (of course) the kung-fiu bouts and battles throughout the movie especially when Ip himself challanges 10 Japanese soldiers to a bout in a hall and brutally beats them all single-handed.  As with most action or fighting movies however, the best fight scene is the last one.  In this movie it's an intense scene where Ip famously spared with (and killed) a martial arts-practising Japanese general, an event that resulted in the uniting of the Chinese people during the Japanese occupation.

The other main aspect about this film that's definitely worth noting is how patriotic the film is.  This is though, very well founded patriotism  on the film's part on account of the scenes of Japanese atrocities during the 1930s being very accurate.  The film shows (to an almost rage or tear-inducing effect) the pains and depravities put upon the Chinese by the Japanese army during the 1930s and it uses that to set up a good basis for Ip man going on a fearsome revenge-rampage in the second half of the film.

This is one good kung-fu movie about a man who (indirectly) contributed a great amount to the world of action-cinema and inspired an entire country.  Even if all that doesn't interest you then the awesome fight scenes still should.