Unsurprisingly, the film was a massive hit all over the world and the Ip Man brand was born. While itвЂ™s hugely entertaining, this is also action cinema as catharsis, both political and personal. The mass brawl in the cotton mill is an absolute stunner and the final fight, while brief, is like a bold, bloody full-stop on a fantastic story. I felt myself welling up when, in a fit of uncharacteristic rage, he took on 10 Japanese fighters at once. I laughed with joy when Donnie Yen beat up a sword-toting Siu Wong Fan with a feather duster. Honor, dignity, love, revenge, respect, and pain. While the film shows off the moral and philosophical side of Chinese martial arts, it also speaks a more universal language one of simple but powerful concepts. Read more: How the Shaolin Temple Movies Launched Jet LiвЂ™s Career ItвЂ™s his most nuanced performance as an actor and he inhabits Ip Man in a way that, at times, makes him appear possessed by the GrandmasterвЂ™s spirit.

Yen himself is nothing short of a phenomenon.

The set design is beautiful and itвЂ™s shot with great restraint вЂ“ the opposite to Yip and YenвЂ™s flamboyant previous film, the manhua-inspired Dragon Tiger Gate. The film recreates 1930s Foshan (by way of Shanghai) in a way that makes it feel like a living, breathing city. I feel like if Bruce Lee had watched this, he wouldвЂ™ve loved it, and thatвЂ™s about the best you can say about a kung fu movie. In reality, Ip Man never fought the Japanese in anything like the way depicted here, but what the film offers is a beat-by-beat traditional martial arts plot that takes inspiration from the classics and becomes one in itself. It depicts a fictionalized version of his time in Foshan, tracing his fall from wealth, his struggle during the war and his refusal to ever give in to the enemy. While itвЂ™s made with both respect and the full participation of IpвЂ™s descendants (Ip Chun was the primary Wing Chun consultant on it), this is hardly a straight biopic but itвЂ™s still probably the Ip Man film thatвЂ™s closest to the truth. Reliable action vet Wilson Yip was put in the directorвЂ™s chair and his regular leading man Donnie Yen won the title roleвЂ¦ Ip Man (2008) Since the 1990s, a full-blown Ip Man biopic had been in discussion (initially with Corey Yuen attached) but one didnвЂ™t go into production until 2008, when Raymond WongвЂ™s Mandarin Films announced theirs. While Ip Man struggled with money and ill health (and a reliance on opium) in his later years, he lived to the age of 79 and his legacy continues today in his writings on Wing Chun and in the form of his son Ip Chun, who inherited the style. It wasnвЂ™t a popular style at the time but by the time Bruce Lee вЂ“ who learned it from Ip Man вЂ“ put the spotlight on it in the вЂ™60s, the rest was history. This newly formed Wing Chun school kept growing in line with IpвЂ™s reputation as a martial artist.

Read more: The Real Life Stories Behind Martial Arts Movie Legends Cheung laid down a challenge and was unceremoniously beaten in minutes, surrendering himself and his class to Ip Man. He took him in and was shocked when, during a martial arts class Cheung was teaching, this frail and homeless old man started criticizing his technique. By chance in 1952, a martial artist called Leung Cheung found Ip Man wandering around Macao and took pity on him, having no idea who he was. He was 51 and penniless when he arrived in Hong Kong, separated from his family and destitute. Beyond being Bruce LeeвЂ™s beloved вЂњsifu,вЂќ Ip Man was a key figure in 20th-century martial arts, credited with perpetuating the popularity of Wing Chun as a style, and his life feels more obviously cinematic than most, peppered as it is with triumph and agonyвЂ¦ We see representations of Ip Man in a couple of older Bruceploitation movies like Bruce Lee: The Man, The Myth (1976) and later in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993) but вЂ“ astonishingly вЂ“ it took until 2008 to get a full-length feature about his life. Perhaps because these films were mostly sold to the west, one part of BruceвЂ™s life that was rarely explored was his early life in Hong Kong and his Wing Chun training with Ip Man. Lookalikes with new names like Bruce Li, Bruce Le, and Bruce Leung became some of the most prolific kung fu stars of the era, and вЂњBruceploitationвЂќВ became a prominent subgenre. With the kung fu craze booming, almost every facet of BruceвЂ™s life вЂ“ and plenty of glorious nonsense like a fight against Dracula вЂ“ got turned into a movie. After Bruce LeeвЂ™s death at the height of his fame in 1973, Hong Kong filmmakers raced to capitalize on his stardom.

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