Review: Ip Man – Kung-Fu Master

Set in China in the late 1940s, Yu-Hang To (AKA Dennis To) stars as the title martial arts teacher. However, this is a much younger Ip Man who at this point is a dutiful and patriotic police officer, and a soon-to-be father with his wife (Chang Qinyuan) as well. The plot has him falsely accused of murdering a somewhat honourable mobster, and thus targeted by his vengeful daughter. The real perpetrators of the crime also come into play as a source of conflict for the title character. Meanwhile, bubbling away in the background is background tension with the arrival of the Japanese army in the Guangdong province of China.

 

The world really only needed the first two “Ip Man” movies with Donnie Yen, unfortunately we’ve been subjected to at least 11 “Ip Man” films (including four in total with Donnie Yen) and at least one TV series. And all of the ones I’ve seen have tended to traverse the same material, by and large. This 2020 film version is a repeat performance in the role from Dennis To (AKA Yu-Hang To) after the sometimes watchable “Ip Man: The Legend is Born”. As directed by Liming Li (the subsequent “Young Ip Man: Crisis Time”), this is by far the worst “Ip Man” film I’ve seen, and I don’t very much like the way star Dennis To portrays the character so wonderfully essayed elsewhere by the quietly dignified Donnie Yen. I know To is playing a younger version of the character and the Donnie Yen films probably strayed from record too. However, To makes the character too forceful and happy to engage in combat. Sure, passivity and reticence might come with old age, but I still felt the character as depicted here didn’t seem to convince me, up until he gets married he comes across like a show-off here. If it’s true to the real man, the director and his co-writer Qingshui Shi (in their solo credit to date) don’t remotely convince me of it, which is the important thing. Just because something is true doesn’t mean it’s believable. So while giving us the same damn “Ip Man” movie got old fast for me, at least I never really questioned the fidelity of it to truth. This version struggled to convince me that it was an “Ip Man” film at all, even though it is indeed true that he was a police officer for a time.

 

Meanwhile, there’s lots of martial arts activity throughout, but none of it is terribly effective. Despite the bombastic action, the film is entirely boring and flat. I didn’t care about anything here, really. Once the character settles down to family life he becomes more recognisable, and Chang Qinyuan is lovely as Ip Man’s wife. Unfortunately, the domestic scenes are just as boring as everything else. And why was Ip Man going all Black Mask/Green Hornet in the film? Apparently it’s the Black Knight, which from what I can tell is fictional bullshit that doesn’t belong here. I’m sorry, but this is a dreadful, dull mess and completely unnecessary. The film is capped off with a final 20 minutes so awfully sloppy and choppy that it makes the rest of this crap seem like “Citizen Kane”.

 

Even if this were your first “Ip Man” film experience, I can’t imagine anyone enjoying this flat, boring, and totally unconvincing film. It's lousy and wholly unsatisfying.  

 

Rating: D