Dennis To plays Ip Man in the prequel while Donnie Yen donned the robes twice as the wing chun master.

Acting chops
To: Brings a stoic gravitas to the role of Ip Man
Yen: Brings a stoic gravitas to all his roles

Looks
To: Resembles Donnie Yen
Yen: Resembles Dennis To

Romantic scorecard
To: Has two women falling for him and even more impressed by his skills. Generates some chemistry with co-star Huang Yi. He’s the man.
Yen: Maintains a polite distance between him and Lynn Xiong who played his wife in parts one and two. Was her alleged beau Aaron Kwok lurking around the set?

Relationship to Sammo Hung, who appears in different roles in the prequel and in part two
To: Would have called Hung master if To had played Ip Man as a child
Yen: Calls Hung a thorn in the side at first and later embraces him as a true friend. Yes, Ip Man 2 had character development.

Fighting skills
To: He is the winner of various international martial arts competitions and is well-versed in different forms of martial arts including wing chun and taiji. But he lost to an 86-year-old Ip Chun in the film. Tsk.
Yen: Jet Li was a fellow disciple – they both trained under master Wu Bin at the Beijing Wushu Academy. Woe to anyone who tries to mess with him.

Body tally
To: Assorted bullies and riffraff fall by the wayside
Yen: Assorted bullies and riffraff fall by the wayside. Multiplied by two films

Patriotic index
To: Obliterates the nefarious Japanese agents trying to infiltrate China
Yen: Annihilates the Japanese karate expert Colonel Miura in part one and an arrogant British boxer in part two. Take that, Dennis.
(ST)