Donnie Yen’s Ip Man movies are awesome, and I’m glad that Ip Man 4 is in the works. You may recall a great fight scene between Ip Man and Tin Chi in Ip Man 3. A spin-off movie that I recently received for review from Well Go USA, Master Z: Ip Man Legacy, tells a side story of the loser of that battle. Directed by Yuen Woo Ping (The Matrix, Kill Bill), and featuring an outstanding cast with legend Michelle Yeoh, former WWE star Dave Bautista, Tony Jaa (Ong Bak, Protector), and Max Zhang, Master Z is a very entertaining film with outstanding empty-hand fight scenes.
Tin Chi (Max Zhang) may have lost the fight to the grandmaster Ip Man, but he’s still a master of Wing Chun. However, after having lost this battle, Max Zhang closes his popular martial arts school and wants to lead a quiet, humble life as a small grocery store owner — he literally uses his wooden man training dummy to hang his clothes on and is trying to leave the martial arts behind. He lives with his young son above his store and, for a time, it seems like Tin will be able to leave behind his previous life of martial arts and contract work that utilized his special skills.
However, as is often the case in movies, an uprising in his town causes Tin to get pulled back into the fray. After helping save a young girl from a mob of drug pushers, Tin finds himself being retaliated against and having to fight for his and his son’s life. Meanwhile, Michelle Yeoh plays a woman in power of a cartel and her brother is beginning to push drugs into the city. As if that weren’t bad enough, corruption runs rampant between a wealthy business owner (Bautisita) who is also a gangster, and the local police. Clearly, the deck is stacked very much against Tin Chi, and after he and his son are almost killed in an arson attack, he sets out to turn the tide against the bad guys.
Fight choreography is great in Master Z, with Max Zhang showing some awe-inspiring close combat moves. Tony Jaa’s special appearances are timely and really cool, and it would be neat to see a sequel that brings his character back. Though most fight scenes are very impressive, there were a few moments where it seems the camera was sped up to double time or 1.5x, maybe — just for a second or two, but it was a noticeable ‘flinch’ in the action that was just odd. For the most part, though, the action is excellent and a treat to watch.
Presentation quality is excellent as you would expect from Well Go USA and for a modern film. In addition to a few trailers for other Well Go movies, there is a very brief behind the scenes feature that runs three minutes and is in 1080p. In it, you get a glimpse of production footage as well as some of the stars and director talking about the story and working with one another. A lot of actual final cut film is shown in this three minute montage as well, which sort of takes away from its value, but its better than nothing.
Master Z: Ip Man Legacy is a must-see for fans of Ip Man and good martial arts action movies. It checks all of the boxes and left me impressed with most of the fight scenes, not to mention it’s a great way to help tide yourself over until Ip Man 4.
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