Review of Ip Man 3 (2015) by Vincent T — 22 Mar 2016
The "neo-wuxia" flavour is a nice touch (family over kungfu, love over pride) but otherwise the film is pretty bland, no character development (the inability to express true emotions of Donnie Yen et al.
is to be blamed, but act better they surely cannot), no kungfu spectacle (the fighting scenes in this film look tame and unoriginal in comparison with its two predecessors, especially the first one where Sammo Hung was, and always is, the best kungfu master in bringing out the essence of Donnie Yen's ability).
Yet, the film's production value is top-notch, the feeling is authentic, and the storyline, however confusing, is easy enough for the audience to catch up. This is a very friendly film to the Western audience, given its much reduced dose of Eastern wuxia's philosophy, the appearance of Mike Tyson (and "Bruce Lee"), and (amazingly enough, but obviously for a PG-13 rating reason) no blood.
In a way that is a good thing, as the Western audience now can have some McDonald-style film to appreciate the beauty of the wuxia genre. At the same time, such dilution of the "Ip Man films" is a sad new to hardcore wuxia fans, since they will have more and more bland film like this.
Maybe the series should be stopped now, before it totally detaches from its Eastern root.
This review of Ip Man 3 (2015) was written by Vincent T on 22 Mar 2016.
Ip Man 3 has generally received positive reviews.
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