Review of Ip Man (2008) by Clem666 — 19 Jan 2021

'Ip Man' offers itself to us as a martial arts film more interesting and original than it seems at first glance.

The scenario (no spoil) allows the staging of a charismatic hero with an excessively powerful tempered character but who only uses his abilities when it is the only option open to him. In this kind of film it is far too simple to put the hero on a pedestal and make the feature film a series of uninteresting and won fights. Fortunately, this is not the case with 'Ip Man'. The story has its roots in the Sino-Japanese pre-World War II conflict. The historical dimension is very important and brought in an interesting way. The acting is touching and precise, even if some characters are surprisingly undeveloped, such as the wife and son of the main protagonist. The choreographies are pleasant to watch, the impact of the moves is very well rendered with a few exceptions. The general lighting of the film is very good.

At the end we realize that the film has stirred up multiple values and stories, so that it seems to bring out less a moral than several morals to remember from the story.