Ip Man
2008’s Ip Man is the latest collaboration between director Wilson Yip and hard-charging fu star Donnie Yen. It follows the stellar heroic bloodshed flick SPL and the brutal 70s-throwback cop flick Flash Point
. The new flick places Yen in the role of real-life Wing Chun master Yip Man, who served as a mentor to Bruce Lee, among many others.
Ip Man sets aside any whiff of biopic pretensions and instead places its revered real-life figure in a heavily fictionalized genre story. The plot echoes Lee’s Chinese Connection and its Jet Li remake, Fist Of Legend. During the Japanese occupation, a kung fu master finds himself drawn into combat with by a Japanese officer determined to prove his nation’s superior fighting prowess.
The first act plays as a sun-dappled homage to 70s Shaw Brothers fu films, with not much at stake other than the pride of rival fighting schools. Its dedication to the loose plotting and goofy humor of the old-school style seems like an odd choice at first. All becomes clear when the first act break brings on the Japanese invasion, shifting to a grimmer palette and more serious acting style.
Donnie Yen is a difficult star to wrap a vehicle around. In contrast to the affable persona of Jackie Chan or the virtue radiated by Jet Li, Yen can come off as cruel or surly. It’s refreshing to see him playing a classic Confucian sifu, tempering his butt-kicking superiority with sweetness and humility. The darker later portions of the film then allow him to shade that classic archetype with touches of anger and self-doubt.
The script puts an interesting spin on narrative role of its combat sequences. Here the suspense comes not from the question of whether the hero will win his fights, but how dire the consequences of victory will be.
The action direction is by Sammo Hung, which the same as saying that it doesn’t disappoint. There’s some relatively subtle wire-work, but the style is straighter martial arts, not wuxia. Ip Man is easily the best straight martial arts movie in a long time. Also check out SPL (a.k.a. Kill Zone
,) and Yip’s earlier, dreamy cop drama Bullets Over Summer
.
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