June 12th, 2009 
cello85 
Ip man is a very loose biopic of the early life of Ip Man, pioneer of Wing Chun fighting and later master to Bruce Lee. With Ip Man, Donnie Yen takes on his meatiest role yet. He’s played the central hero before (in Iron Monkey, for example) but they’ve all been a bit over the top. It’s been some time since we last saw a biopic on one of the Chinese’s martial arts folk heroes, with Jet Li’s Fearless being the last memorable one to hit the big screen.
In this fictionalized biopic, Ip Man is portrayed as the best of the best in 1930s Foshan, China, a bustling city and home to countless martial arts schools keen to recruit new disciples. Ip Man, an unassuming aristocrat who spends much of his time perfecting his skills, however, never intends to show off kung fu in public and keeps his fighting behind closed doors so as to protect those who might challenge him from the embarrassment of defeat. Yup, he’s that badass. The bulk of the story gets set in the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war, and it’s not all fight and no story. It pushes Donnie Yen to act more than he’s had to for a while, and he does a great job.
Ip Man doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to martial arts action. Donnie Yen has always been serious about martial arts, and he certainly delivers in his portrayal of the founder of Wing Chun. It’s like poetry in motion with some astounding closed quarter combat utilizing plenty of upper limb strength. There is a scene in this movie that shows a classic demonstration of the superiority of Chinese over Nipponese martial arts as Ip, following the death of Liao, takes on 10 Japanese without hardly breaking a sweat. My expectations from Donnie Yen on the dramatic front have been raised significantly, and I look forward to seeing the already announced sequel.
Every aspect of the film—acting, plot, editing, camera work—is kept in check, and Ip Man delivers with poise and precision when necessary. This is a film that should not be missed and Donnie Yen is slowly but surely becoming my favorite martial arts star. Action junkies will be holding their breath to see if the martial artist and actor can outdo himself. This film comes highly recommended.
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I’m looking forward to seeing this one!!!
When it comes to martial arts films I am in it for the fighting. It ticks me off when I rent a film that is selling itself as a fighting film but everyone’s shooting each other. It is not cool to bring a gun to a fist fight! No guns and no CGI and I’m a happy gal.
Its been awhile since i stopped by here to check out your reviews, but defintely donnie yen is a bad mofo… but IP man for me felt a little bit forced when it came to the acting, but the fight choreography was clearly top notch. But i am gonna have to put Tony Jaa slightly higher in terms of action star status.
Is it me or do we need a super battle between all of these martial arts stars?
Definitely a great movie. I noticed myself paying a lot of attention to the sounds of the movie. Tightening a fist and landing punches sounded as good as it looked. The former brought to mind a rope being strung taut (in the scene that took place in the wool-factory towards the end of the movie if I remember correct). Everything was pretty much top-notch in Ip Man for me to pay attention to small details.
Did you notice how there’s no room for character growth in this film? Ip Man appears as this example of a perfect and morally upright individual without a single vice. I found this highly unrealistic and perhaps even nationalistic, especially considering the way he appears to defeat the entire Japanese army by himself while virtually never taking a hit. The movie was definitely entertaining and the sequence in which Ip Man fights off ten opponents is a real gem, but, as a whole, I feel this movie is highly overrated both by you and by countless others.
[...] fight with Chung Le provided one of the major set action piece but somehow it was not as good as Ip Man. In short, this was no revolutionary piece of [...]