DVD Reviews

Ip Man (Collector's Edition) – Blu-ray Review

By Jeff Swindoll Jul 28, 2010, 15:30 GMT

Ip Man Collector\'s Edition (containing over 2 hours of bonus footage) is an award winning adaptation based on the life of Ip Man (Donnie Yen), the grandmaster of Wing Chun and later teacher and mentor to widely influential and legendary martial artist, Bruce Lee. Ip Man is set in the 1930s in Foshan, a hub of southern Chinese martial arts just as the Second Sino-Japan war breaks out. During the ...more

Ip Man is the grandmaster of the martial art of Wing Chun.  One of his most famous students was international superstar Bruce Lee.  His life has been given the biopic treatment to rousing acclaim, but they’ve transformed him into an action superstar - not that that’s a bad thing for moviegoers.  

In 1930’s Foshan, China there is a row of competing martial arts academies.  Ip Man (Donnie Yen) does not teach at any of the schools but is well known for his martial arts skills, but he prefers to keep his skills to himself and low-key.  So much so that when Master Liu (Chen Zhihui) challenges him to a private duel to settle the matter he allows the challenger the right, but invites him to dinner before their match and promises to keep the challenge secret if Liu loses. 

Shao (Wong You-nam), the younger brother of teahouse owner Lam (Xing Yu), is getting his kite out of a tree near Ip’s house and witnesses the private duel and Liu getting his clock cleaned.  When Shao attempts to spread the word of the duel, Ip stays to his word and keeps quite about Liu’s defeat.  Ip’s wife Cheung (Lynn Hung) doesn’t like him devoting so much time to Wing Chun and feels he’s ignoring their young son Ip Chun (Li Chak).

She changes her mind when Jin (Fan Siu-wong) comes to town and publically defeats all the other masters and it’s up to Ip to defend the honor of Foshan.  Things get even darker in 1937 when the Japanese invade and occupy China.  Food and jobs are hard to come by in Foshan and Ip and his family loses their opulent lifestyle.  General Miura (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi) is a karate master and has his sadistic minion Col. Sato (Shibuya Tenma) gathers fighters for Miura’s students to challenge. 

Former police officer Li Zhao (Lam Ka-tung) acts in a seemingly traitorous role as a translator for the occupiers.  When Lam is killed during one of the tournaments, Ip, who hadn’t wanted to fight to begin with, feels the need to challenge ten of Miura’s men.  Chow (Simon Yam) opens a cotton mill in Foshan during this occupation and when Jin and his raiders threaten the factory, Ip finally gets the chance to teach the workers Wing Chun, but the real challenge comes when Miura forces him to a fight to the death.  

Don’t go to the movies for your history lessons.  Ip Man’s, who was also called Yip Man but that moniker was wisely abandoned since it can be seen as derogatory, claim to fame seems mainly to be that he was the trainer of the legendary Bruce Lee.  However, that isn’t much covered in this biopic beyond the opening and closing crawls, though a sequel promises to go into more detail on that front, and instead covers Ip’s beginnings. 

There appears to be a move to transform Ip into an action super hero… not that there’s anything wrong with that.  Indeed the highlights of the film are the scenes of Ip kicking the crap out of his challengers, with much thanks to the fight choreography of Sammo Hung. 

This transforms Ip more in line with the screen persona of his famous student Bruce Lee - although, Donnie Yen plays Ip as a quiet, non-assuming man who is not apt to showboat his skills for the general population.  So the movie leans more towards dramatic action and might not be a true biopic. 

Ip’s oldest son Ip Chun served as technical advisor so there might be some point-of-view of events.  Wikipedia mentions in his bio that Ip was fond of chasing the dragon (aka opium) but none of that is covered in the film.  Ip also probably didn’t kick ten Japanese soldier’s asses as he does in the film, but he may have been asked to train soldiers in Wing Chun but refused. 

Ip, in the movie, seems a genuine superhuman practitioner of Wing Chun, but after all this is a movie and in that manner it does succeed.  Ip in reality may also have been a master indeed, just don’t expect any dirty laundry covered in this glowing film. 

We all have feet of clay, but you certainly shouldn’t expect the film to be a historical record.  What it is though is an entertaining film that is full of martial arts action thanks to that great choreography.    

Ip Man is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (2.35:1).  Disc one is a Blu-ray and the special features are in high definition.  They include the 2 minute trailer, the 2 minute original theatrical trailer, an 18 minute making of, 3 minutes of deleted scenes (presented in an weird fame so you can only see them in the middle of the screen), and previews of other Well Go USA films. 

Disc two is a DVD so it’s in standard definition.  Included is a 5 minute shooting diary, 6 minutes of behind the scenes footage, and 86 minutes of interviews, including extensive ones with director Wilson Yip and star Donnie Yen.    

Ip Man may not be a historical record and reality might be tossed aside for action derring-do, but the film is compelling and action packed.  Ip may not be as well known as his star pupil, but the film does have the power to entertain through the direction of Wilson Yip, quiet yet powerful performance of Donnie Yen, and the grand fight choreography of Sammo Hung.  

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