Movie Review: Ip Man Final Fight/葉問: 終極一戰

Judging by the first two Ip Man movies, the Japanese were supermen.

And Ip Man is Chinese for Kryptonite!!!

The Legend is Born: Ip Man was more of the same, but Herman Yau is a deft enough director that the obligatory Japan-bashing came off as amusing rather than insulting.

Herman Yau also directed this fourth (and hopefully final) movie about Ip Man.

Anthony Wong stars as Ip Man in a film that is as different from the Donnie Yen movies as it is better than they are. 

At least in my worthless Western opinion.

And as long as I’m in the neighborhood, I’ll say that I enjoyed Ip Man: Final Fight a hell of a lot more than Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster.

Maybe becauseFinal Fight has a story.

In 1949, Ip Man comes to Hong Kong to escape the Communists.

No, really.

As in real life, in Final Fight Ip man is a quiet, unassuming character.

He teaches Wing Chun Kung Fu to a wide variety of students, against a backdrop of a rapidly changing Hong Kong, circa the 1950s and 60s.

The sets are fantastic, and it is easy to see that they spent some real money on the sets and the costumes.

It adds to the film and creates a very convincing and pleasing atmosphere.

There are almost no climactic ‘boss fights,’ but there are some martial arts.

A duel between Anthony Wong and Eric Tsang might at first sound like a gag from a Chinese New Year movie, but it’s actually impressive and, in some ways, realistic.

But there are even more stories of everyday people struggling to find a way through their lives, and Ip Man tries to offer them guidance, support, and advice, with varying levels of success.

Those stories work because of the acting, which is impressive if not perfect.

It was nice to see Jiang Luxia in a role where she was given a more rounded character than she usually gets doing Wong Jing or Dennis Law movies.

I can’t say she does a stellar job with her acting responsibilities, but she’s not bad, and for me her action scenes make up for her lack of thespianism.

It’s nice to see Anita Yuen in any movie these days, and so it’s good to see her in this one.

She plays Ip Man’s wife, and though the role is small, she is still impressive and memorable.

Jordan Chan plays a police officer struggling with institutionalized racism and corruption, and I really enjoyed the quiet power he brought to the role.

It was interesting to see Gillian Cheung in a film whose story takes place before she was born.

The pace of the film is leisurely and unhurried, reflecting the poise and composure of its subject.

Ip Man is shown as a highly principled and virtuous, but also very human in terms of his own weaknesses, whether personal or in relation to the world around him.

This movie is easily my favorite of the four Ip Man movies, and one of my favorite recent movies.

I can easily recommend this movie to you, as long as you don’t think it’s a martial arts film.

It’s not. It’s just a very good, entertaining movie.