REVIEW: Ip Man (2008)

IP MAN is the gripping and action-packed semi-biopic of Bruce Lee’s martial arts master and the first person to openly teach Wing Chun Kung Fu to the public. Portraying Ip Man is top-tiered martial arts star Donnie Yen in his best acting and fighting performance to date while under the highly capable direction of Wilson Yip and veteran action director Sammo Hung in what will likely be regarded as a career best for the portly genre legend better known internationally for his acting roles in the TV series MARTIAL LAW and action comedy classics like MILLIONAIRE’S EXPRESS. With limited wirework and highly accurate and intense fighting forms filling the movie, IP MAN is not only a rapid-fire and concussive flurry of astounding fighting action, it’s also one hell of a Wing Chun movie. For students of this practical martial art once thought to be lacking in the graceful presentation of other more film-friendly styles such as contemporary wushu and Taekwondo, your day of validation is at hand.

IP MAN has done for the martial art of Wing Chun what the groundbreaking 1949 kung fu classic THE STORY OF WONG FEI-HUNG did for Hung Fist, another southern Chinese martial art that came to dominate Hong Kong’s kung fu movie output for roughly 35 years. Although IP MAN is unlikely to leave as large a footprint on Hong Kong film, it does finally give a substantial face and personality to a popular but once obscure combat system that was initially exploited in film by Bruce Lee and has since found its champion in Sammo Hung.

This film is the first entry in a planned trilogy centered on Ip Man and loosely recounts the grandmaster’s conflict with a rival northern wushu exponent (Louis Fan) and a karate-trained Japanese officer (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi) in Foshan just prior to and during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Scribe Edmond Wong (DRAGON TIGER GATE) keeps the story focused on these two conflicts while ignoring Ip Man’s past and delving only lightly into the character’s relationship with his wife, son and residents of Foshan.

After years of fighting his way through B-movie after B-movie, martial arts actor Louis Fan, star of the gruesome guilty pleasure that is STORY OF RICKY finally gets his due in a major film as junior heavy Jin Shan-zhao, an overconfident northern wushu master who struts into Foshan, the home of southern kung fu legend Wong Fei-hung, looking to build his reputation by besting every local kung fu master in the city. This proves to be Ip Man’s second challenge after having previously indulged in a friendly sparring match with a more respectful local kung fu master.

After war breaks out with Japan, Foshan is occupied and resources now controlled by the Japanese military grow scarce for local residents. The once independently wealthy Wing Chun master is forced to work in order to provide for his wife and son. When one of his friends, a fellow martial arts master named “Zealot” Lin (Xing Yu) goes missing after agreeing to fight Japanese karate practitioners for bags of rice, Ip is drawn into a deadly conflict with Miura (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi), a vicious karate-trained Japanese officer who takes a strong interest in Ip’s uniquely proficient fighting skills.

As a rivalry between the men intensifies with a Chinese interpreter (Gordon Lam) of uncertain loyalties holding Ip’s fate in his hands, wushu fighter Jin returns with a gang of axe-wielding thugs to shake down a local cotton mill run by Chow Ching-chuen (Simon Yam), a close friend of Ip Man. With no money to spare, Chow and his workers are bullied until Ip steps in to help before facing his greatest challenge, a public duel with Miura.

Although several books have been written about Ip Man, most of what is known focuses on his martial arts expertise and more prominent years living and teaching kung fu in Hong Kong after the war. Ip’s eldest son, Ip Chun, was a consultant on the film and had a hand in advising Yen on his Wing Chun. Its unclear how much input Ip Chun had in the script as it ever stays at a respectful distance from the character and his associates. There is a strong sense of reverence for Ip and nationalistic pride that colors the film and its depiction of various events in the figure’s life. This unfortunately leaves Donnie Yen’s portrayal lacking a measure of depth that is not his fault, while the Japanese are left appearing as we have seen them portrayed so many times in countless Chinese vs. Japanese themed kung fu movies, as two-dimensional baddies with no other ambition than to kill and torture Chinese. Granted, the Chinese suffered greatly under Japanese occupation and some of these depictions may be justified but after nearly 40 years, seeing basically the same simplistic Japanese fighting villain that was introduced to the martial arts genre by Jimmy Wang Yu in THE CHINESE BOXER in 1970 is a little disappointing for a film that clearly aspires to be more.

Likewise, the supporting characters, while possessing good chemistry with Yen, are woefully underdeveloped with pop singer Wong You-nam having little to work with as Ip’s wife. Most of her performance consists of silent staring apart from a scene where she scolds Ip. There is a clever undertone of whimsical understanding between husband and wife in better times that translates particularly well during a lighter fight sequence. It would have been nice to see a little more interaction between the two because Ip doesn’t seem particularly close to anyone else.

It’s refreshing to see Simon Yam in something other than a police or gangster role but he plays his character so understated that just about anyone could have filled his shoes.

The best supporting role is filled by Louis Fan who at least brings life to his character, stereotypical though it may be. Fan has really developed over the years, both as an actor and a martial artist. He deserved this role and hopefully the success of the film will see him land more choice roles in quality martial arts films and TV series.

Combat in IP MAN is what makes the film, as it should be. Drama aside, audiences are in attendance to see some serious kung fu and this movie delivers in spades. Sammo Hung and his assistant action director Tony Leung Siu-hung, in conjunction with a fantastic performance by Donnie Yen and consultation with Ip Chun, cook up not only some killer kung fu fighting but easily the best depiction of Wing Chun forms ever committed to film. It is the culmination of years of personal study and past fight choreography from Sammo that included initial Wing Chun films WARRIORS TWO and THE PRODIGAL SON, as well as 2007 TV series WING CHUN, starring Yuen Biao. Of course, considerable credit for the success of the film’s action is a result of Donnie Yen’s brilliant performance.

Donnie is a polarizing personality who has both devoted fans and unwavering critics, the latter often citing his apparent cockiness while picking apart his early screen fighting as sloppy and/or overly undercranked to artificially speed up his movements. LEGEND OF THE WOLF, one of his few self-directed projects is one of the most controversial martial arts movies ever made due to Donnie’s experimental approach to shooting and editing action. Some of the criticisms may be justified but there is no denying that the man has come a long way since his playful, b-boy antics under the guidance of Yuen Woo-ping in the 1980s. If nothing else has yet put the masses in agreement, IP MAN should plainly identify Yen as a martial arts actor on equal footing with Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Tony Jaa, and anyone else people care to stack him up to.

The fact that Yen took up Wing Chun just for this movie with little or no prior training says a lot about Yen’s character, as well as his ability to adapt his innate skills, honed from years of training in wushu and Hong Kong screen fighting. His onscreen performance in a series of fight sequences is breathtaking in its presentation, power, clarity, and authenticity. I do not profess to be an expert on Wing Chun but having read up on the art and watched considerable video footage of Wing Chun training in preparation for this review I have to say Donnie took the core precepts of the kung fu style and nailed them beautifully. In the process of pushing himself to perform an exacting art with highly controlled movements Yen’s screen fighting execution has never looked so clean and controlled. What is best about his performance is that he manages to introduce moves to the genre that I believe may never have been filmed before.

Wing Chun is actually a very distinctive fighting style, while related to other kung fu styles, it is unique in that it is one of the few that has always been designed for practical real-world use, rather than exhibition. Also, it favors balance, deflection and rapid close-quarter engagement using direct strikes that draw power not from muscle strength or some arcane build up of inner energy but from simple limb extension and momentum. It’s a style that was originally developed by a woman for use against stronger, male opponents. It’s something I wouldn’t expect Donnie Yen to excel at, especially with his heavy muscle development and foundation in wushu but he has proven to be an exceptional learner when it comes to new screen fighting techniques.

The film’s fight sequences show the advantages of Wing Chun extremely well while allowing us to see highly unusual movements for a kung fu movie such as low kicks to the chest and shins, elbow and knee strikes akin to Muay Thai, Aikido-like takedowns, and successive punches delivered with lightning speed. This is kung fu closer to what one might expect to see applied in a real-world scenario. It’s fast, punishing and relatively simple. Of course, the scenarios in which it is applied have been choreographed in an idealized and slightly exaggerated fashion to keep the movements interesting and the fights exciting.

As I see it, this is the best of stylized Hong Kong fight choreography merged with an authentic self-defense fighting form. Pair this movie with FLASH POINT and a trend emerges where Donnie Yen is on the verge of reinventing modern Chinese fight choreography.

Wing Chun is best known for its punishing open-hand technique but it also incorporates weapons use and the film has Donnie wielding a staff and in a lighter moment, a feather duster, both against Louis Fan. The scenes are nicely arranged and executed with the same emphasis on directness and exploitation of openings. This is what separates a style like Wing Chun from screen fencing or wushu swordplay. Ip Man doesn’t duel with his opponent for the sake of dueling. He deflects attacks and strikes through openings. The only thing that keeps his opponent fighting is Ip’s reluctance to injure or kill, something he is less reticent about when facing the Japanese with his fists.

Speaking of fists, I thought it was a very nice touch to see Ip Man’s wounded knuckles being treated by his wife after his initial fight with the Japanese. It suggests that Ip Man, while skilled enough to defend himself, was not accustomed to serious brawling and lacked the heavily callused hands that a street fighter or professional boxer might have. It adds another dimension to the depiction of a martial artist that is usually neglected.

The only faults I can find in the action relate to laws of physics being broken and infrequent reliance on common genre tricks including undercranking and wire use. A film like this that attempts to tell the story of a real-life martial artist needs to keep its action grounded even while it’s being presented in a dynamic and exciting way as we see here. As previously stated, there is little noticeable wirework but it does appear in ways that could have, and should have been avoided. Several recoveries from a knockdown where fighters would magically bounce back to a standing position look just as artificial as Kristin Kreuk performing aerial kicks in STREET FIGHTER: THE LEGEND OF CHUN-LI and that’s not a martial arts movie that should be comparable in any way to IP MAN. There is also a scene where a Chinese fighter laying down gets kicked in the head by a Japanese fighter and his entire body goes spinning into the air several feet. Where are the MYTH BUSTERS when you need them? Take a 180-pound (81 kg) sandbag that is at least five feet (1.5 m) long. Try kicking one end and see how far it uniformly flies, let alone rolls in the air. That’s the kind of exaggerated and implausible action that belongs in a fantasy Ching Siu-tung wuxia movie, not a serious biopic of a real-life Wing Chun master. The shame here is that Wing Chun is an art that can naturally propel an opponent back or knock them down dramatically. Sammo and his team had lots of opportunities, some of which they took advantage of, to show this but then they occasionally insert old wire-fu gimmicks in odd places where they’re not needed. “Power powder” use to visually enhance strikes is another trick that is used, although thankfully far less than we have seen in past Donnie Yen films where fighters would magically have their clothes covered in talcum powder before the end of a fight.

Wing Chun training in the film is unfortunately limited to forgettable montage sequences. While often a staple of kung fu movies, training sequences have been largely sidelined by modern kung fu moviemakers. This is a shame because any seasoned practitioner of martial arts would likely agree that training and body conditioning is at least 90 percent of martial arts. The rest is performance or self defense application. Sammo Hung’s previous Wing Chun films were dominated by training and this is where the audience learned much of the philosophy behind the art that later came to light during the films’ final fights. Considering that this film largely concerns itself with the years before Ip Man began widely teaching Wing Chun, I suspect that Wilson Yip intended for this film to focus on Ip’s romanticized life experience while the sequels may focus more on the training of his students.

With a sizable budget of $40 million, production values are unsurprisingly top notch. No amount of effort was seemingly spared in recreating 1930s-era Foshan and production designer Kenneth Mak’s award-nominated work is highly commendable. It cannot be overstated how rare it is to see such lavish details as a completely recreated period cotton factory or city streets providing the backdrop for hardcore kung fu fighting. This kind of visual panache has become more common among modern kung fu movies when considering KUNG FU HUSTLE and FEARLESS but compared with the hundreds of low-budget kung fu movies that have come before its still unusual and very welcome to see.

It’s interesting to note that a film with such a one-sided depiction of Japanese soldiers has not only a notable Japanese actor to play the villain but also a notable Japanese composer to provide the score. While Kenji Kawai’s music is rousing and cinematic, the film’s main theme sounds distinctly similar to the march from Stephen Chow’s comedy actioner SHAOLIN SOCCER. Music has often been an area where Hong Kong film productions have lagged behind other major film industries. It doesn’t compare to the iconic score to ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA but it’s a step in the right direction. There is good use of traditional Chinese instruments and orchestral sounds that increase the quality of the production and its presentation.

As a pure kung fu movie, IP MAN follows in the tradition of Tsui Hark’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA, Jackie Chan’s DRUNKEN MASTER 2 and Ronnie Yu’s FEARLESS by further elevating the genre out of grindhouse production values and simple, revenge-driven storytelling to a more widely respectable playing field populated by A-list product like crime/thriller INFERNAL AFFAIRS and wuxia epic HERO. It is also the most ambitious and sophisticated collaboration between Wilson Yip and Donnie Yen following three highly successful genre releases including KILL ZONE, DRAGON TIGER GATE and FLASH POINT. With IP MAN, it can safely be said that these two have now become the standard bearers for Hong Kong’s dwindling yet undefeated martial arts genre. Their continued collaboration and subsequent commercial successes bode well for the future of this genre so long as their associates including Xing Yu, Louis Fan and Tony Leung can branch off successfully on their own to sustain momentum. I would also like to see them incorporate more fresh talent. The IP MAN sequels, which will include a newcomer as a young Bruce Lee, may do just that.

by Mark Pollard

Related Topics:
Donnie Yen  •  Features  •  Genre: Kung Fu  •  Ip Man (2008)  •  karate  •  Louis Fan  •  Sammo Hung  •  Second Sino-Japanese War  •  Simon Yam  •  Tony Leung Siu-Hung  •  Videos  •  Wing Chun  •  wushu  •  Xing Yu