Movie review: Ip Man

A biopic about the first master to teach Wing Chun kung fu openly. His most famous student, at least here, is Bruce Lee. Don’t know if I can really review this movie as it was subtitled, but I don’t think the subs were the official subs. That said, Donnie Yen was amazing in this movie. Beyond the martial arts, he was excellent, showing great subtlety of emotion.

The movie itself was mixed to me. There were a few timeshifts that were explained with the use of title cards or whatever the technical term is for them. However, even beyond that, it really seemed like this was two separate stories connected by a few strings, including the main character. As a result, there were many subplots that seemed shortchanged/shoe horned into the movie. This really took away from the movie, even though many of these subplots really could’ve added to the movie.

I think it would almost go without saying that the fight choreography is just beautiful. From the first fight to the last, just gorgeous to behold. If you are a fight film fan, this movie will not disappoint. Even the 10 on 1 scene is amazing. This is what multi-participant fights should look like. Not the computer generated crap like you saw in things like the matrix.

The audience for this movie is specific, but if you are in that audience, you will not be disappointed.

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