Ip Man (2008)

As much as i want to like and/or love kung fu movies, they never resonate with me as well as I would hope. I really like Enter The Dragon and Kill Bill Vol. 1 but secretly stuff like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Iron Monkey sends me to sleep. Don't get me wrong, it's impressive to look at and i love all the wire work but the stories are DULL. But I keep coming back, which leads us to Ip Man. I must have seen Donnie Yen be alright to middling in about 10films but i couldn't tell what they were or if he was actually in them; Ip Man is my eyes and probably others is where he begins to make a lasting impression.
It's the true(?) story of Martial Artist Master Ip and his journey through the last years of the second World War 2. At the start, he has a nice house and surroundings for his wife and child and has a lord of the manor respect around a town famous and full of martial arts masters and schools. His life and temprement are modest and he is happy to practice his art with friends and colleagues. By the 2nd act of the film, his family are homeless and destitute, due to the invasion of China by the Japanese; and yet, he remains strong is spirit; not resting on his laurels to provide for his family by finding manual labour but his trouble really begins when a narcissistic Jap General decides to organise fighting tournaments between the Chinese and Japanese...
In this film, Yen gets to play a character, just short of an Asian 'Superman', he is modest, honest and true. When he hears that people are being beaten and killed, he's desperate to help and when the town are being subjected to bullying by a gang of thugs, he teach them all how to fight his style of 'Wing Chun'. He inspires his town to rise up and defend themselves and they in turn, inspire him to continue fighting and rebelling against their oppressors. Yen, obviously good at the tough stuff is surprisingly effective at the dramatic and emotional 'actory' parts, playing not the hardman hero with the one-liners but a thoughtful and obstensively peaceful man fighting to save lives.
If you couldn't tell, what engaged me about this film over other similar movies was the story and this career defining role by Donnie Yen. I'm looking forward to Ip Man 2, which is already available and i understand that Ip Man 3 is on it's way too....

I watched Ip Man (2008) on FilmFour on 9th June.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Cinema Paradiso (1988)...