When I was in high school, I went to see a movie with my brother. We arrived late and had to sit in the front row, as the theater was completely sold out. There were giant subtitles flying right in front of my face. The film was “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” and I could barely keep up. At the time, I had not seen many foreign films and had not experienced many martial arts movies. To say the least, I was blown away.
Today, I watched “IP Man,” a semi-true story of a Chinese Kung Fu master set in 1937. The real life “YIP Man” was the Master of the famous Bruce Lee, and from what I have read about this man, he lived an interesting life. The actions of the movie take place years before he met his most famous student. This film was recommended to me by a friend months ago, and I just got around to watching it. All I have to say about this movie is, HOLY CRAP! It rocks, from the bad ass choreography, to the intense story, to the beautiful sets, and the realistic tone, it makes me want to see a sequel. Mandingo! There is one already, but unfortunately not released in the United States. Now, the original movie is very entertaining, but at times it seems kind of repetitive. They seem to just make up reasons for the Grand Master to fight. JMC watched this movie with me, and remarked “Why are the fighting?” I thought it a fitting question.
Most of this movie you don’t really know why they are fighting, but you really don’t care. The movie looks amazing and the characters are interesting, because you feel for their hardships. I’m not saying that this movie is a “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” which I feel melded together a beautiful story with amazing fight scenes. For me, this is the standard to which I hold all martial arts movies. But what “IP Man” lacks in amazing story-telling, it makes up for in pure unadulterated action.
The Rating System:
Production (Directing, Editing, Music): 3-5
Story (Plot): 3-5
Characters (Likability, Acting): 4-5
Writing (Dialogue, Cleverness): 3-5
Emotions (Was it; Fun, Scary, Sad, Do I care?): 5-5
Overall score: 18/25
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