Ip Man - The Final Fight
Herman Yau
And this makes Ip Man number four.
Donnie Yen gave us a stoic and macho action hero in Ip Man (2008) and Ip Man 2 (2010). Tony Leung Chiu Wai gave us arthouse Ip Man in The Grandmaster (2013). Dennis To gave us Ip Man-lite in Ip Man: The Legend Is Born (2010).
Anthony Wong’s portrayal of the wing chun martial arts teacher is also stoic and comes with a tad more gravitas. Too bad it feels unnecessary.
The episodic film has something of a split personality with an odd mix of realist historical drama and chopsocky gongfu action. The setting is Hong Kong at a time of worker unrest in the 1950s and features Ip Man’s students (including Jordan Chan as a conflicted cop and Gillian Chung in a minor role) being involved in the strikes and clashes.
At the same time, setpiece fights have to be worked into the movie, including a final showdown between Ip Man and a triad boss.
The entire exercise just feels like overkill.
(ST)