I've always been the typical Chick Flick sorta girl, but I met my guy friends just the other day and they wanted to catch a movie so I was forced to watch....
Ip Man 2
Before I say anything, I must let you guys in on something really embarassing. Before I watched the show, I thought the show was called I-P MAN 2. Turns out, it is actually called "EEP-MUN 2". For those of you who understand Chinese - 叶问2:宗师传奇.
No wonder my guy friends all stared at me funnily when I kept saying I didn't want to watch I-P MAN 2...
After watching the show, all I can say is - WOW.
I can't believe I actually didn't catch the prequel of this movie because the fight scenes were FANTASTIC.
Ip Man 2, the sequel to the 2008 film - Ip Man is actually a semi-biographical martial arts film about the life of Ip Man, a grandmaster of Wing Chun martial arts. The show picks up action from the 1950s where Ip Man (played by Donnie Yen) arrives in the then Hong Kong that was still under the British Colonial Rule, with his young son and his heavily pregnant wife. In an attempt to make a living for his impoverished family, Ip Man struggles to establish a martial arts school hoping to propagate the art of Wing Chun martial arts. Due to his lack of fame, Ip Man struggled to bring in students UNTIL he meets the young and arrogant Wong Leung who loses to Ip in a series of sparring. Impressed by Ip Man's skills, Wong and his friends becomes his students and even bring in additional students. However other maritial arts school in the area aren't happy with the growing popularity of Wing Chun, in particular Hung Ga martial arts school who refused to allow Ip Man to set up shop on their turf. When Leung gets into a fight with one of the students from Hung, Ip Man is forced to face Hung to fight for his release.
The film did a fantastic job in focusing on what the audience headed to the cinemas for - the fight scenes!
The most exciting fight scene for me would definitely be the scene between Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung, two kung fu experts that were forced to come to blows unleashing their Wing Chun and Hung Kuen martial arts on each other respectively while struggling for balance on a teetering table.
Most people, like me would admit the parts of the show that they paid most attention to would be the fight scenes because that's where all the action is.
The first hour was definitely exciting with the fight scenes and the gradual build up to the pivotal moment of the show BUT, yet this leaves the movie struggling for action in the second hour and having to resort to turning its attention to the building tension between the local chinese and the government by the fight scene played by a Boxer named Twister who offends the chinese (mainly Hung) during one of the ceremonial martial arts display.
From this point on, the entire movie turns into a typical fight tournament with one fight scene after another, which may or may not be a good thing because it completely leaves out a proper storyline for the show!
But I think what the movie managed to pull off well was definitely the authenticity of the period of the show. The director of the movie managed the period setting and the high production value to create a movie more than just another action film! Also, the dialogue betweent the characters also carried some wit and was ensured that it was nothing less than enjoyable!
And I read that Bruce Lee was supposed to be the intended focus in this movie but were unable to finalise film rights with Bruce Lee's descendents therefore they had to settle with just portraying Bruce Lee as a young child near the end of the movie. Overall, I thought the show was enjoyable even though I was never the sort to know much about martial arts films but I'm actually itching to go check out the first Ip Man now! :D