(left) Donnie Yen is Ip Man, and (right) Hiroyuki Ikeuchi and Yen face off in Ip Man.

But when he’s not beating down fellow martial arts masters and Japanese generals, Ip Man is just a rich martial artist in the town of Fo Shan, which is famous for a local street lined with martial arts schools. Ip is not only respected in town for his incredible kung fu skills, but also for his modesty. In fact, he’s so modest that he refuses to take on any students. Ironically, Donnie Yen is one of the least modest martial arts actors in Hong Kong, which makes his performance hard to take in at the beginning.

However, Donnie was able to put away his ego for Ip Man and gives his most subdued performance yet. To make Donnie even appear more subdued, everyone else overacts. Almost overdoing the overacting is Louis Fan, who hams it up as Master Jin, a kung fu master who arrives in Fo Shan from the north to start his own martial arts school by first beating down every competitor in town. Naturally, only Ip Man/Donnie can reclaim the town’s honor, and that’s exactly what happens.

Being a China-Hong Kong co-production, Ip Man spends a majority of its screentime on the kung fu master’s life during the Japanese occupation. This gives an excuse for Yip and co. to satisfy the Chinese audience’s continuing desire to see Japanese ass get kicked by having Donnie/Ip Man do just that. General Miura (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi) sends ex-policeman-turned-translator Li (Gordon Lam) to recruit Fo Shan martial artists to fight his team of cronies. Eventually, Miura is so impressed with Ip Man’s martial arts skills that he asks the master to teach Chinese martial arts to his soldiers. This being a film intended for China, it’s easy to guess what Ip’s answer is. This being a Donnie movie, it’s pretty easy to guess how he responds, too.

Actually, that’s the one other historical fact that screenwriter Edmond Wong gets right. According to whatever recorded history exists, Ip was indeed offered the job of teaching the Japanese martial arts during the occupation, and he did refuse out of principle. However, what Ip Man probably didn’t do was beat down ten soldiers at once with lightning-speed punches to the neck. However, who really cares about historical accuracy when the action is this exciting? Action director Sammo Hung maintains a precarious balance between finesse and brutality in the fight scenes, giving them an adrenaline-pumping intensity that makes Ip Man an equal to SPL in the action department. Despite the usual Donnie posturing and pre-fight antics that can get tiresome, the action star does deliver what he does best when it counts.

Credit also goes to director Wilson Yip and scriptwriter Wong for striking a fine balance between action and drama. Each fight is focused and serves a purpose in the plot, making them easy to get involved in without feeling exhausted when it’s over. Of course, it also helps that Hung leaves the action to real action-oriented actors such as Yen, Louis Fan, and Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, who actually has a black belt in Judo. Knowing that these are actually people who have the physical ability to deliver what’s shown on screen significantly helps in getting into the fight scenes.

However, while Ip Man may be a success as an action movie, it’s a failure as a biopic. The story is told in an episodic structure that’s more about what Ip can do rather than who Ip really was. The producers rely on too much on the audience’s good faith, and assume that their titular character is automatically a good man just because they tell the audience that he was Bruce Lee’s master. Rather than a flesh-and-blood character, the Ip Man in Ip Man is more of a folk hero caricature.

Raymond Wong and Wilson Yip are obviously aiming for some kind of potential Once Upon a Time in China-like franchise by portraying Ip as a Wong Fei-Hung-level saint. However, the film plays too fast and loose with facts in order to please Chinese censors and the patriotic Chinese audience, and is unable to find a true-life story that delivers upon the film’s potential. For example, the real Ip escaped to Hong Kong and likely lost his wealth because he was a Kuomintang member - a fact conveniently ignored during the ending intertitles. Perhaps not-so-coincidentally, the film was made with the approval of Ip’s eldest son, with the child actor who plays him getting plenty of random cutaway shots that make him a larger presence in the film than he deserves.

Without the crutch of the evil Japanese villains, it will be interesting to see where Wilson Yip takes Ip Man 2, which will presumably show the Wing Chun master taking his brand of ass-kicking to Hong Kong, where he becomes Bruce Lee’s teacher. However, by then Hong Kong’s favorite auteur Wong Kar-Wai will also be working on his own Ip Man biopic with Tony Leung Chiu-Wai in the lead. Given that, it may have been wise for Wilson Yip to make Ip Man a pure action film without regard for real history. After all, Wong Kar-Wai’s version will likely deliver better drama, acting and historical accuracy than Ip Man. But, as long as Donnie keeps delivering lightning-speed punches to his opponents for the rest of the Ip Man franchise, Yip’s take on Ip will always be worth watching. (Kevin Ma, 2009)

image credit: Mandarin Films