Review of Ip Man 2 (2010) by Clem666 — 02 Feb 2021

Watch out: this review contains spoilers from the first movie!

Ip Man character did not evolve a lot since the first movie. His gunshot wound in his shoulder is totally healed and even seems to make him stronger than before. He is still this so-called pacific humble man trying to be and appear to be wise. The peaceful temper remains but Ip Man here avoids less battles and hesitate less to beat people's faces up. I found him more violent than ever even if this movie defends the idea that 'martial arts are here to protect yourself and not to attack others'.

Scenario is interesting even if the end is really predictable. The way to achieve it and the events happen are original. The fact that we witness a fight between chinese kung-fu and occidental boxing is both original and boring since we all know there is few you can actually do against a mountain of muscles. I truly wanted to believe in the story but the movie insists way too much on injustice and unfair hits to make the hero's victory more valuable that it all becomes ridiculous.

Once again we follow a bit of the chinese history as the story is nested in the colonial times. Ip Man's wife and child are once again way too underrated according to me and the movie would have been much better if more attention had been paid to them. Choregraphies are good in overall but sometimes are a total laughable mess when actors use their arms like if they wee in a childish fight. However I found acting was great in overall. Music is okay. The very ending with kid Bruce Lee is cool and quite unexpected.