Review of Ip Man (2008) by Baurushan J — 22 Jul 2013

Behind every great man there lies a teacher, and this was certainly true of Bruce Lee, who claimed as his mentor a martial arts expert named Ip Man (1893-1972). The story takes place before the war between the Japanese and the Chinese where a young Ip Man played by Donnie Yen is now a genius of Wushu and has discovered his own martial arts named Wing Chun.

Using his abilities, he is able to chase away thugs, outsiders and bullies and from their encouragement, he starts his own classes. Until the war between the Japanese and the Chinese arrives, Ip Man and his friend Lin are both sent into the war zone where they should work and their food will be rationed.

But a Japanese and Chinese translator arrives and offers the deal to fight Japanese men in order to become one of their soldiers. When Lin gets killed and their translator hides this from Ip Man, Ip learns the truth and in fury, knocks out a third of the Japanese men which impresses the Japanese General.

General Miura played by Hiroyuki Ikeuchi challenges Ip Man to either train his men or fight the general and he accepts to fight the general to avenge Lin's death and to help end the war. This biopic of Bruce lee's master tells a deeply emotional storytelling of one of the legendary masters was just amazing and Wilson Yip gave us a pitch perfect direction.

This is one of the very few martial arts movies we are able to take seriously without any wacky flying and falling and whilst taking place during the warzone, it shows how Ip Man was an indestructible hero even among his fellow allies and pupils.

Donnie Yen is fantastic as the title character; he looked like him, he acted like him, he is Ip Man and he stole the show every time he was on screen and I wanted him just to kick somebody's ass every time he was up against someone.

Ip Man gets a 10/10.