Review of Ip Man 4: The Finale (2019) by Yorkman — 11 Mar 2016

Donnie Yen returns as Yip Man, reprising the role for a third time.

The film is a step down in quality from the original and its sequel. Although it doesn't feel like a cash in, as there's plenty of decent elements to it, the overall sense is that the story has been put together simply to facilitate a third movie.

The film also suffers from not having Sammo Hung acting as the fight choreographer. Yuen Woo Ping is instead tasked with putting together the action scenes and, whilst he's competent enough, the action lacks the ferocity and directness of the first two films. Woo Ping is acclaimed for his stylisations, rather than his realism.

Overall the acting is good. Yen is worth watching as always, as is Zhang Jin who plays a rival Wing Chun master who Yen battles in the finale. Amazingly, after being terrible in the first two films, Lynn Hung actually displays some real acting ability. Mainly because her character develops cancer, and she has to express a deep sense of emotive despair.

The direction of the film is adequate. I was hoping for some sweeping establishing shots, like those in the Wong Fei Hung film Rise of the Legend (even if those were CGI, they looked impressive!!), but instead everything is tightly filmed, with very few extended shots at all.

The fight scenes are well shot though, Woo Ping makes great use of wide angles, overhead cameras, close ups etc. But as mentioned, the choreography just isn't as good as Sammo's, which is a real shame.

So, good acting (including former undisputed Heavyweight World Champion "Iron" Mike Tyson, who plays a Triad boss who Yip Man fights in a 3-minute contest), decent direction, decent enough choreography/fight scenes....

Then why only a 5 out of 10.....

Simple. The film takes the piss in terms of the known timeline and what we know about Yip Man.

Couple of examples (out of many!).... Bruce Lee is in the film (played by Danny Chan), who is attempting to get Man to take him as a disciple. It's well known that Lee was taken on as a lay pupil by Man, and trained part-time through his teenage years, before leaving Hong Kong in 1958 (the film is set in 1959/60).

Another glaring mistake (and integral to the plot) is having Man's son (Ip Ching) as an 8 year old. It's well known that Ching was born in the 1936, and that Man had an older son (Ip Chun, born 1924) who isn't in the film at all. That discrepancy really annoyed me, as when the opening credits revealed the year, I was hoping we'd get to see Man (and both his then adult sons) getting into some action!

Overall, it's a passable kung fu film. The fight scenes are decent enough, and the completely fictional storyline bowls along nicely. It's just a bit of an insult to the memory of one of Hong Kong's (and China's) folk heroes.