Plot: Ip Man, the legendary Wing Chun master, rises to fame and falls in the wake of World War 2. He is forced to fight Japanese martial artists and hopefully win back the dignity of China. Also known as "Yip Man"

Review:

"Go see Yip Man". "Go See Ip Man". I kept hearing people tell me that and for awhile, I thought they were two different movies. I had heard of the man, although for some reason, didn't realize it was the person who was the subject of this movie. All I knew was that he had trained Bruce Lee("Enter the Dragon"), who later realized that Wing Chun wasn't working for him due to its own limitations. I figured "Yip Man", the movie, would probably be immensely fictional, and I was right. Looking into Ip Man's biography, little-to-nothing is factual here. But hell, it was still a damn fine movie anyway.

Ip Man(Donnie Yen) is a wealthy kung fu expert who isn't a teacher. Despite this, all the other masters respect him for his integrity, skill and kindness. He has no interest in having desciples and just spends time training kung fu and responding to challenges. The story is complex, but doesn't necessarily follow the traditional structure. The film begins with an upstart kung fu expert named Jin(Siu-Wong Fan) kicking the crap out of all the other masters before challenging Ip Man. We think this is going to be the story, but it's not. Soon, the Japanese Invade and in one of the greatest montage's of all time, we see how far Ip Man has fallen. He has become poor and gets a job to feed his family. He no longer practices kung fu, but is forced to take up arms when General Mura(Hiroyuki Ikeuchi) takes interest in kung fu. A heavy karate expert himself, he has kung fu guys come in to spar with their karate guys. Oddly, he seems to have respect for Chinese martial artists, and rewards them if they win(and they often do). However, problems arise when a friend of Ip Man is killed in the struggle and Ip Man challenges the Japanese to a duel. Thankfully, the film is pretty unpredictable. I often had no idea where it was going, which is a nice treat.

Now what do you want the most out of your kung fu dish? KUNG FU! In that regard, it delivers and then some. The choreography, which was partially designed by Sammo Hung("The Magnificent Butcher"), is top notch. There is some variety as to the styles, and there is a solid mix between the fanciful and the realistic. There is no wire-fu, although occasionally an actor would move at some strange, impossible angle(at least I hope that's impossible). The action, while not necessary being non-stop, comes at you pretty often, so don't worry about getting bored. Director Wilson Yip gives the fights a dramatic weight with his angles, with a great use of slow motion and close-ups at the right moments. I wouldn't put this on par with the holy trinity of martial arts choreography("Ong Bak 2", "Black Belt" and "Fearless"), but if I compared every martial arts movie with those, I'd never be happy. Hell, I only mention the trinity because the choreography here is so good, that it deserves to be compared to them.

But here is the kicker, as great as the fight scenes were, I'm still not sure if they were what made the film for me. Wilson Yip's visual style was great enough to match the fights scene by scene, and I'm not just talking about the staging of the fights. The first act of the film feels like a martial artists paradise. Sure, it's not perfect. Sometimes a master would come in and bully them, but there is a happiness about it all that isn't overstated. A lesser film would have things overly bright and cheery. Then when the shit hits the fan, as shown in that wonderful montage, everything is so bleak and depressing that I almost expected to hate it. You see, I'm tired of that washed out, bleak photography look, sported more recently by films like "The Book of Eli" and "The Road". Yet with "Yip Man", it feels realistically bleak, not just arty. The look comes from the desolation that the Japanese Army caused, and that's what makes it work.

But I have to admit, I'm a little confused as to why this wasn't more of a biopic. The real Yip man had an interesting life, and while a movie would need to fictionalize it a bit, they didn't need to go as far as they did. In real life, he didn't do battle with the Japanese, beat a general, or start a revolution that won the war(lol). In real life, he had no publicized fights as a master(He beat up some cop for beating a woman and got his ass kicked by a senior kung fu expert when he was younger). He was a cop, which isn't in the movie at all.He actually later on ABANDONED his family.Why couldn't his real life be good enough for a movie? I wouldn't bring this up, by the final result feels like a more shallow, lesser rip-off of "Fearless". Ironically, that film fictionalized a real life legend as well. While the look of the film is vastly different, the stories are identical. A spoiled kung fu kid(less pronounced here) is forced to realize that he needs to stand up for his country against foreign influence. Okay, the similarities are kind of vague, but "Fearless" kept popping up in my head anyway, except I liked how that film did it better. Besides the superior fight scenes, that film went out of its way to emphasis that respect and understanding can unite cultures, and that styles of fighting are irrelevant, it's the fighter itself. While a similar idea is introduced, it's lost when Ip Man delivers a surprisingly racist comment towards the Japanese that they could never learn kung fu because they're EEEEVIL.

My question is why? What is this movie trying to tell us by changing history? Sure, "Inglourious Basterds" changed history, but that was simply as a choice of style. We weren't supposed to take it seriously. I'm not sure of the social relevance here. What gratification is there to be won by making a movie that harshly criticizes Japan for what Japan did like 60 years ago! Maybe I missed something. There might be some subtext in that the feud between Mura and Ip Man is sparked due to people in between taking advantage of them(from both sides). Mura isn't evil, but he's kind of two-dimensional. He does have respect for strong fighters, Chinese or Japanese, but as soon as we begin to think he might be like Tanaka, he does something that brings him down. Of course, there might not be any subtext or social relevancy at all. Maybe Wilson Yip just wanted to tell an intriguing story with a lot of kick ass fight scenes.

And I promise you that I only brought it up because the film reminded me of "Fearless" in so many ways. I don't look at every kung fu film like that.

But in the end, "Yip Man" is a stunningly well made genre piece. It's wonderfully directed, choreographed, photographed and acted. Oh yeah, Donnie Yen turned in his best performance to date. Sure, he's not as charismatic as Jet Li, nor are his fight scenes always on par with Jet Li's, but he was always a good B-Kung fu star. He was sort of like the Eastern Dolph Lundgren or Michael Jai White. He would either play a supporting role(usually the villain) in big budgeted movies(often fighting...well, Jet Li) or the main role in low budgeted films. Hell, when Jackie Chan and Jet Li broke into the U.S, they played main characters. Donnie Yen would play small roles where he would often steal the show, and I'd hate the movie just because he was in it too little. It's nice to see that in the last few years, people are seeing him as leading man material. While we're on the acting, everyone else does great as well without exception. Fine acting in a fine movie.

Violence: Rated R. While not Tony Jaa brutal, it is pretty freaking brutal at times.

Nudity: None.

Overall: The more I think about "Yip Man", the more it seems messy and confused. But you know what? Either it somehow fits within the context of the movies portrait of the times or everything it does right was done so wonderfully that I didn't care. Watch it, especially if you're a fan. I definitely need to keep tabs on Wilson Yip and Donnie Yen now.

3.5/4 Stars