The Legend Is Born: Ip Man (2010)

Simply Perfect

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Awesome movie but out of all the characters in the film, the one that grasped my tiny little eyes the most was the niqqa square head. He's such a valuable visual addition to the production and I can't wait to see what other non-speaking roles his talented head will takes him to. God Bless square head and God bless China. IpIP

When Ip Man and Ip Tin-chi (Ip-Man's adopted brother) were still young, their father persuaded Chan Wah-shun (Sammo Hung) to teach them Wing Chun so as they can defend themselves. Not long laterm Ip Man's father passes away and they stay at the martial arts centre with Chan Wah-shun and the rest of the practitioners. There, they befriend with Lee Mai- wai, who practices Wing Chun.However, Chan Wah-shun's illness has become worse and his departure was too soon. Ip Man (To Yu-hang) and his brother, Ip Tin-chi (Fan Siu-Wong) continues to learn Wing Chun from their senior, Ng Chung-sok (Yuen Biao), before leaving Foshan to study in Hong Kong at St. Stephen's College.In Hong Kong, Ip Man and his schoolmates are insulted by a racist British (Andy Taylor). Ip Man wants him to swallow his words, but the British continues to slur them in mandarin. Ip Man challenge the British to a duel and defeats him, and they become friends. Ip Man's popularity soar after the incident.Ip Man meets Master Leung Bik (Ip Chun) while trying to buy medicine for his British friend. Leung Bik is the son of Master Leung Jan, Chan Wah- shun's teacher. Ip Man exchange blows and techniques with Leung Bik but was defeated and he learns a different, improved style of Wing Chun from Leung Bik to improve his skill. Meanwhile in Foshan, Ip Tin-chi rose to become a prominent businessman under another Wing Chun martial arts association.Years later, Ip Man returns and reunites with his friends at the martial arts centre. His brother, Ip Tin-chi is excited to see him that the two exchange blows and Ip Tin-chi sees a different pattern that is different from the original Wing Chun. Ng Chung-sok, who was there saw Ip Man has mastered a new style of Wing Chun from Leung Bik, which differs from Chan Wah-shun's orthodox style. Ip Man is punished for learning a different style.Soon, Ip Man falls in love with Cheung Wing-shing (Huang Yi), the daughter of the vice-mayor of Foshan, Cheung Ho-tin (Lam Suet). When Lee Mei-wai (Hins Cheung) found that Ip Man loves Cheung, she accepts Ip Tin-chi's love and marries him.On their wedding night, her godfather is murdered and Ip Man is arrested as a prime suspect after being witnessed struggling with him. Cheung Wing-shing went to the police department and lied that Ip Man was with her the entire evening to have him released on bail. Lee Mei-wai discovers a letter to Ip Tin-chi, regarding the assassination of her godfather. She was saved by Ip Tin-chi when she attempted suicide and they tried to leave for Foshan but were caught by the Japanese authorities. The pregnant Lee Mei-wai is captured and Ip Tin-chi is forced to kill Ng Chung-sok because Lee Mei-wai showed the letter to him.At the martial arts centre, Ng Chung-sok was defeated by Ip Tin-chi and Kitano Yumi (Bernice Liu). Ip Man arrives in time to save Ng Chung-sok from being killed and then defeat the Japanese and Ip Tin-chi. Ip Tin- chi reveals that he is actually a Japanese named Tanaka Eiketsu, who was sent to China from a very young age to work as an undercover agent. He performs seppuku to end his life.Ip Man rushes off to the pier to rescue Lee Mei-wai. He defeats the Japanese mastermind and rescues her. At the pier, they discover that the Japanese have been smuggling Japanese children to China, possibly as future undercover agents, similar to Ip Tin-chi.Ng Chung-sok is seen narrating the story of the night to new apprentices at the martial arts association. Ip Man's son, Ip Chun, is seen among the new apprentices. Ip Man arrives back at the association and is shown married to Cheung Wing-shing.

While I am not that familiar with Hong-Kong actors, upon recognizing the face of the chap who played a thuggish-bully(which I dislike from the start till the end) in IP-Man2, in this movie, I knew that his character would be a flop and I was right!!! This chap who plays Samo Hung's student/protégé/worker in harassing other masters onto paying protection fees who teaches Kung-Fu in IP Man2, has a belligerent, thuggish, haughty character.The weird thing is, now that that this chap plays IP Man, the same character he played in IP Man2 almost resembled the character he played as Ip Man in this movie.Compare with Donnie Yen who was charismatic, this fella who plays Ip Man has the most mundane persona.Not only was this movie ain't interesting enough compare with Ip Man 2, you get the wrong man for the right movie!!! And this person could hardly be an actor.When my friends asked me "would you consider to watch a sequel", I told them "I want a refund!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Producer Checkley Sin had long wanted to make a movie about Ip Man, but it wasn't until he met veteran producer Raymond Wong that his plans came to fruition. Raymond brought on board undeniably the two most crucial elements that made Ip Man and Ip Man 2 such resounding successes- lead star Donnie Yen and action director Sammo Hung. With newfound interest in the subject and his newfound credibility, the real-life Wing Chun practitioner and disciple of Ip Chun (eldest son of Ip Man) has finally been able to make his own movie about Ip Man- without for that matter, Donnie or Raymond."Ip Man: The Legend is Born" takes place before the first Ip Man movie and chronicles the younger days of the Wing Chun pugilist. From a young age, Ip Man was already learning Wing Chun from Chan Wah-Shun (played by Sammo Hung), and then subsequently from Leung Bik (played by Ip Chun) when his father sent him to Hong Kong's St Stephen's College to study. Unlike the first two movies which arguably took some creative liberties with Ip Man's story, this prequel tries to be a more accurate biography of the life of the Grandmaster.I say more accurate because audiences should know that though this film takes itself very seriously, sometimes too seriously, as a biography of Ip Man, it is only a semi-biography. Those familiar with Ip Man's history will immediately know that he had no adopted brother by the name of Ip Tin- Chi (played by Louis Fan Siu-Wong) and by extension, no romantic triangle with Tin-Chi and a fellow disciple (Rose Chan). Why these characters were added into the film becomes clear only much later- but this also ultimately proves to be its undoing.For almost two-thirds of the film, director Herman Yau sets up an interesting premise about the rivalry between descendant schools of the same martial arts form. Leung Bik was in fact Chan Wah-Shun's elder fellow-disciple, and son of Wah-Shun's master Leung Jan. When Ip Man returns to Foshan after learning a modified form of Wing Chun from Leung Bik, Brother Chung Sok (Yuen Biao) who is in charge of the Wing Chun school after Wah-Shun's passing objects to Ip Man's new techniques and declares those movies unfitting to be called Wing Chun.The opposition among different schools of Wing Chun is no doubt an interesting and in fact prescient topic to explore, considering how the number of Wing Chun schools would have increased dramatically in recent years following the success of the Ip Man movies. How many of them can claim to be teaching authentic Wing Chun? Have the techniques been modified over the years? Does any form of refinements in fact dilute their essence? Despite a promising discourse on the subject between Chung Sok and Ip Man, screenwriter Erica Li abruptly casts the matter aside in favor of more dramatic tension by way of Ip Man and Ip Man 2.Ah yes, both Ip Man and its sequel advocated a strong sense of nationalistic pride for the Chinese as Ip Man fought against the Japanese in the first movie and the 'gwai-los' in the sequel. The threat of the Japanese is once again revived in this prequel- which accounts for the sudden change in tone in the last third of the film- as someone close to Ip Man turns out to be more than meets the eye. Yes, the filmmakers have tried to work in a twist at the end, but it is not only rushed, it is also unconvincing.It doesn't help that the climax is only barely more interesting than the rest of the unspectacular fight sequences in the movie. Though the film tries to showcase some rarely before seen Wing Chun techniques, these are lost amidst a bland performance by Dennis To. He may bear the physical resemblance to Donnie Yen, but Dennis lacks Donnie's screen charisma and acting prowess. Obviously imitating Donnie's understated performance as Ip Man, Dennis takes it one step too far by not injecting enough emotion especially in the fight sequences. Sure Dennis can fight, but by playing it too low-key, one never gets the sense that Ip Man is in any sort of real trouble.But really, the fault isn't with Dennis since neither director Herman Yau, screenwriter Erica Li nor of course producer Checkley Sin seem adventurous enough to move out of the shadow cast by the earlier two Ip Man movies. So the cast remains largely similar (except for swapping of roles), the theme remains largely similar and Dennis tries to portray similarly Donnie Yen's performance as Ip Man. That's a shame- given that there is much wasted potential here that could have been used to take this prequel in a bold new direction away from the earlier films. This prequel could very well have taken a leaf from its own advice from Ip Man to Chung Sok- without change, how can there be progress? Indeed, how true.