Review: Ip Man 4: The Finale

It’s 1964 and martial arts teacher Ip Man (Donnie Yen) is dying of cancer and his son has been expelled from school for standing up to bullies. His former student Bruce Lee (Chan Kwok-Kwan) invites Ip Man to visit him in the US where he is controversially bringing kung-fu to the Western world. He’s about to host a tournament, and with Ip Man thinking of sending his wayward son abroad to study, he decides to go along and check things out on both fronts. Old-school Chinese elders in the US are none-too pleased with Mr. Lee’s teaching kung-fu to Westerners. When Ip Man struggles to find financial backing to send his son to an American private school, Chinese Benevolent Association chairman Master Wan (Yue Wu) suggests he may be able to assist of Ip Man deals with their little Bruce Lee problem. Ip Man doesn’t like the sound of that deal, however. Meanwhile, Master Wan’s daughter is having similar bully problems at school as Ip Man’s son. Then there’s the matter of Lee student and U.S. Marine Hartman (Vanness Wu) whose racist SO and Drill Sergeant Barton Geddes (Scott Adkins) and henchman/karate instructor Colin Frater (Chris Collins, amusingly a real-life Wing Chun proponent) bully him and deride Wing Chun kung-fu as opposed to the US Marines more favoured martial art, karate.

 

There are at least 9 films and one TV series about Ip Man, and this 2019 film from director Wilson Yip is the fourth to star Donnie Yen (and a fourth go-round for the director too, I might add). I liked the first two of Donnie Yen’s “Ip Man” films just fine, but every other film I’ve seen centred around the famed real-life martial arts instructor has been utterly forgettable. The addition of Scott Adkins piqued my interest enough to want to check this one out, but unfortunately this one’s not especially memorable either. Donnie Yen’s understated lead performance is typically terrific and the Woo-Ping Yuen (“The Matrix”, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, the “Kill Bill” films) fight choreography is fine without overdosing on too much noticeable wire-fu. Otherwise, this is really corny, clichéd stuff and by now rather too familiar.

 

I mean, do we really need another film where someone is concerned about Bruce Lee’s teaching of kung-fu to westerners? Been there, done that several times it feels like. That said, Chan Kwok-Kwan does a pretty good, if slightly more understated turn as Lee and has the mannerisms and ‘cool’ factor down pat. I also liked the performance by Wue Yu, who also has a terrific fight with Scott Adkins at one point. However, as scripted by the quartet of Edmond Wong (the previous three entries), Chan Tai-lee (the previous three entries plus Woo-ping Yuen’s “Master Z: Ip Man Legacy”), Hiroshi Fukazawa, and Leung Lai-yin (“Ip Man 3”, “SPL 2”), the story sees the title character getting lost in the shuffle for a while in the middle. Also, it overall feels like something you’d have seen out of the 90s (particularly from Hong Kong, and not A-grade 90s Hong Kong, either). Cue the abysmal performances by several of the non-Asian members of the cast who were obviously cheaply acquired without much interest in their acting ability. Even martial-arts star Scott Adkins has seen better days, I’m afraid. His ferocious performance is very, very broad from moment one and just as corny as the majority of the film. Having said that, when he finally gets to throw down he’s typically bad arse and intimidating as hell (Even though his character’s aversion to kung-fu whilst using karate seems odd and is never adequately dealt with in the film). Up against the Asian actors here he comes across like Andre the Giant. So I’ll chalk the very loud performance up to a direction/screenwriting issue rather than an acting deficiency on Adkins’ part, as he’s shown himself to be capable of much better. Villains in this franchise historically have usually been pitched over-the-top anyway. The fight scenes are solid, but not plentiful enough in my view and when the wire-fu is employed you’ll notice it. The film mostly looks terrific with really nice production design in particular.

 

Yet another “Ip Man” film, this isn’t bad but it’s also not very good and a long way from being necessary. The fights are good, Donnie Yen is a masterclass in understated badassery. The film is mediocre, though it was a box-office smash in its native China. I think I’m done with Ip Man now, thanks.

 

Rating: C+