Donnie Yen Stars As the Legendary Master
Ip Man is perhaps most well known for being the master and mentor to Bruce Lee. Bruce is idolized by so many people worldwide, but it’s realistic to think that so few people know the story of his master, and the man who brought the Chinese martial art Wing Chun into culture.
Ip Man, the film, takes a fascinating look at a portion of Ip Man’s life in the late 1930s. Ip Man was a wealthy gentlemen who had a wife and son. He lived in Fo Shan in 1935, when the film begins. He was well respected by the community, and often challenged to duels by other martial arts masters who wanted to prove themselves. Despite being the most talented master, Ip Man was never one to be brash or boastful. He listened, was kind, and was a true martial artist — being reasonable and compassionate first, and living by a philosophy that reserves violence for a last resort.
Donnie Yen portrays Ip Man in such a convincing and outstanding way. Many consider this Donnie’s best role, his best work, and his best overall film. Without even having seen most of Donnie Yen’s films, I’m inclined to agree with those sentiments — his performance here is simply outstanding. And to think, Donnie had never practiced Wing Chun before taking on this role. Yet in nine months, he learned all 108 sets on the wooden dummy and had long time practitioners convinced that he had been a student of Wing Chun for years.
Co-starring with Donnie are Simon Yam, Siu-Wong Fan, Ka Tung Lam, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, and several others. The cast turns in a great performance, and I think this is in part due to the script and direction by Edmond Wong and Wilson Yip, respectively. These gentlemen did an excellent job. Sammo Hung, long time Asian cinema star who has also done some crew work in the past, is the fight choreographer and his ideas and their subsequent execution gave me chills of excitement. Having seen dozens of martial arts movies over the years, I’m not sure I’ve seen more powerful, believable, and goose-bump inducing fight scenes than those in Ip Man.
The story of Ip Man isn’t all about the fights, though. While there are plenty of fight scenes, all of them superb, significant amounts of time are spent on developing the characters and explaining the hardships that fell upon the Chinese after the Japanese occupation in 1938. This town of 300,000 was dwindled down to 70,000. Its residents were starving, work was difficult to impossible to find, and the Japanese were quick to kill. Ip man found himself facing an intense internal conflict. His family and people were suffering, yet he felt powerless to do anything. Without trying to spoil the story for you, he ends up facing the leader of the Japanese oppression in Fo Shan, General Miura. This showdown of Chinese versus Japanese, the best against the best, instills a new fire within the Chinese people that was significant in turning the tide against the Japanese and ending the war.
Not only is the story of Ip Man incredible, it’s presented in such a way here that it’s absolutely captivating and believable. The cast and crew were so spot on and passionate about making this “right” and they hit the proverbial nail on the head.
Collector’s Edition Blu-ray
Presentation quality for Ip Man on Blu-ray is impressive. This is partly due to the interesting camera work and art direction that went into the production, but that aside, the technical quality was great. Language options include Mandarin, Cantonese, and English, and the option for English subtitles. I don’t know about you folks, but I enjoy my Asian cinema in its original language with English subtitles.
The Collector’s Edition release includes the film and a few extras on the Blu-ray disc, and several other extra features on the DVD. A good part of what is on the DVD is also used in the features of the Blu-ray, it’s worth pointing out. On the Blu-ray, you will discover:
-Trailers (HD) – The North American and original trailers.
-Making of (18m, SD) – Interviews with cast and crew, even Ip Chun (son of Ip Man) supplement a collection of production and behind the scenes footage.
-Deleted Scenes (3.5m, SD) – A few extra scenes that didn’t make the final cut.
The DVD contains these extra features:
-Shooting Diary (5m) – Behind the scenes and production footage set to an exciting instrumental song. There is no narration, just the footage and music.
-Behind the Sets – “Cotton Mill,” “Streets of Fo Shan,” and “Ip Man’s House” are the three segments that make up this feature. In “Cotton Mill,” actor Simon Yam explains the work that went into converting an old factory into the set for the movie. They had to design and create a working mill because it was such an important part of the story. This segment runs just under two and a half minutes. In “Streets of Fo Shan,” Siu-Wong Fan, who played Master Jin, the Northern master and robber, explains what went into
making the massive Fo Shan set. The producers did a lot of research to make the set look and function as realistically as possible to what it would have been like in the 1930s. This segment is two minutes. Finally, the director explains what went into making the interior of Ip Man’s home for two minutes.
-Interviews – Most of the DVD is dedicated to one on one interviews with the cast and crew. There are eight or so of these interviews with Donnie Yen, Director Wilson Yip, Action Choreographer Sammo Hung, Actor Simon Yam, and several others. Each of these runs roughly ten minutes and those who are interviewed talk about the other people working on the movie, Ip Man, the film itself, and so on. It’s worth a watch.
To sum up, Ip Man was far better than I was even hoping for. This is one to own!