¨There are no men who fear
their wives. Only men who respect them.¨
I`m no martial art expert, but Yip Man has to
be one of the coolest martial art films I`ve seen in a long time. I loved this
movie completely. I began watching it very late and decided I would only watch
the beginning to see what all the buzz was about, but there was no way I could
stop watching and I was hooked from the beginning. Donnie Yen is a true star
and he was outstanding in every fight scene. He felt like the Yoda of martial
arts, keeping his cool, always giving smart advice and using as little violence
as possible, but at the same time he seemed untouchable. He`s not like most
characters in martial arts, but rather more of a young Mister Miyagi who`s wise
beyond his years and never looks for trouble despite knowing he can defeat
anyone in a heartbeat. He is completely against violence and uses martial arts
for his personal well being. This film was directed by Wilson Yip and is
supposed to be based on the biography of Yip Man, the first master to teach the
art of Wing Chun (a Chinese martial art). Yip Man is known as the man
responsible for teaching Bruce Lee, the greatest martial art superstar. There
is no doubt that Bruce Lee made this art popular all over the world through his
movies. I don`t know how authentic the biography is, but I don`t care because I
was entertained by this film which was written by Edmond Wong. The script was
interesting and he made me care for the characters in this film. The fight
scenes were beautifully choreographed, but the story also worked to perfection.
It wasn’t all about the fighting, there was some depth to Yip Man and Donnie
Yen played him extremely well.
The story takes place during 1935 in a small
Chinese town named Foshan. This town is known for having a martial art class in
every corner. There are all sorts of martial art styles and masters, but
everyone knows that the best martial artist in town is Yip Man (Donnie Yen).
Despite being the best, Yip Man isn’t interested in becoming a master; he lives
a simple life in his rich estate along with his wife, Zhang Yong (Lynn Hung),
and his young son. Every master in town wants to prove their talent by facing
Ip Man in a friendly duel, but no one stands a chance against him. Everything
seems to be going well for the town of Foshan until their country is attacked
by Japan and soon the Imperial Japanese army invades their town. Yip Man`s
estate is confiscated by Japan and him and his family are left with nothing.
They barely have enough food to survive so Yip Man decides to accept any job in
order to get more food. The Japanese General, Miura (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi), begins
staging martial art fights between Chinese and Japanese fighters promising rice
if they defeat them. Miura himself is an excellent fighter and in one fight he
kills Yip Man`s friend. Yip Man who was against participating in this sort of
event goes to a fight to try to find out what has happened to his friend. There
he discovers that he can defy the Japanese army with his martial art skills.
Yip Man is a great biographical story although
it probably isn’t 100% accurate. Donnie Yen plays the character so smooth and
wise that he looks virtually invincible and untouchable. The fighting scenes
are also excellently choreographed and there are some great action scenes.
Donnie Yen is really talented and he just might be the next martial art movie
star. He`s not only a great fighter, but he can also act as well. This film is so
much more than an action packed movie; it has some interesting drama and a
great storyline as well. This film has gotten great reviews, but I wonder what
the Japanese think of it because they were poorly depicted and it is part of
their history that they would probably want to forget. I loved the mood of this
film and consider it to be one of my favorite martial art films. That is how
much I liked it, and in my humble opinion it is a masterpiece. I look forward
to seeing Donnie Yen in more films and catching up with my martial art films.
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