Hong Kong, 2010: Ip Man 2

**Conde Koma** · Posted On: 2/04/2011 11:50pm

Ip Man 2: Legend of the Grandmaster
Hong Kong, 2010
Genre: Action, Historical
108 minutes
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1386932/

Donnie Yen returns as the Wing Chun master Ip Man as he struggles to teach martial arts in British-controlled Hong Kong.

Ip Man 2 picks up almost right where the first film left off, with our hero settling into his new home after fleeing from the Japanese in Foshan. Many of the cast from the previous installment reprise their roles, including Simon Yam, Louis Fan, and Lynn Hung. Veteran actors Kent Cheng and Sammo Hung join them on-screen, truly making this a star-studded affair. The story is essentially a re-hash of the last one, with Ip Man trying to fit in and teach his style of martial arts amidst foreign oppression. The villains are similarly one-note and caricaturized, leading to some absolutely hilarious hammed performances by the British antagonists. Yen and the supporting cast do well by comparison, but in the end the story is so blatantly nationalistic and contrived that it becomes hard to take anyone seriously. Even despite not securing the rights to feature Bruce Lee prominently, they couldn’t resist tagging him along at the end, just to say they did.

Announced even before the first Ip Man film was released, director Wilson Yip made sure to bring all the bells and whistles to the production of the sequel. The cinematography is absolutely gorgeous to behold, every shot taken with care and precision. It captures a sort of romantically harsh image of Hong Kong under British rule, definitely more hopeful and light-hearted than its predecessor. The score is appropriately optimistic and prideful, hitting all the right emotional notes when called for. It’s hard to say whether everything came together too obviously, but the story itself somewhat contributes to this. Regardless, all the production values of the film are very solid, delivering a solid aesthetic experience to the audience.

Sammo Hung returns to the franchise as fight choreographer, and it’s fantastic to see his work again. Everything from the first movie is back and even bigger than before. There are more style on style matches than you can shake a stick at, and every fighter is endowed with great personality and character. The fights are fast-paced and are all nail-biters. The wire-fu goes just a little over the top, as does the cheesiness of the villain showdowns, but these sorts of things are to be expected in modern kung fu cinema. Yen and Hung do spectacularly, performing like true seasoned professionals. Newcomer Huang Xiaoming trained extensively before and during shooting to learn the art of Wing Chun, and his hard work shows. With a great blend between the classical and the modern, Ip Man 2 is great fun to watch, even with the blatant nationalist sentiment. Impressive visuals and even better fights, this is a great popcorn movie for anyone with an interest in Hong Kong film or martial arts movies.

Blog Link: http://fightfilmfriday.wordpress.com...iday-ip-man-2/

**Takeshi** · Posted On: 2/10/2011 12:05am

Nice Review. It's good to see I wasn't the only one who noticed the extreme Nationalism at the end. It offended Karate so bad :(

**chainpunch** · Posted On: 2/10/2011 7:50am

I thought the movie sucked and I did not notice many of what the review praised such as fights, cinematography, choreographer and i did not even notice the music.
The overly nationalistic theme is the icing on this “uneatable cake”.

**Conde Koma** · Posted On: 2/10/2011 1:32pm

so what did you notice?

**chainpunch** · Posted On: 2/10/2011 2:01pm

I have seen most new kung fu movies in Chinese so I admit it can be hard to follow along, the ones that seem well I will watch again when an English version comes out. I might get a more out of the movie the second time since I won’t be trying to read dialogue.

That being said take away the nationalistic plot which is contrived even for a kung fu movie the action was not impressive and the cinematography to me does not seem on par with other notable movies of today. If a kung fu film is not going to deliver on the action part the other areas seem moot but I really dont think this movie has anything to be remember for except it tired theme.

I cant really say I liked anything about the movie but I am still glad you are a consistent reviewer.

**It is Fake** · Posted On: 3/11/2011 8:40pm

Saw it today on the big screen third favorite chun movie of all time. Nationalistic plot is a staple of KF movies. The wire work was minimal which is great. You could tell what scenes Sammo had a hand in and all the cameos were awesome.

I disagree that the plot was anymore contrived than the 100 other nationalistic plots and that includes bruce lee movies. I enjoyed that the boxing actually worked and they actually used the chain punches of death as a diversionary attack to open other areas of the body. I like that they toned down the invincibility of the chun. I also enjoyed the homage to Style vs. Style that is missed in all of the new movies.

I would have seen this sooner if either of you boneheads would have commented on the cameos in that movie.

**JudOWNED** · Posted On: 3/11/2011 8:52pm

Nice review. I look forward to seeing it myself. (And then posting my own review! lol)

third favorite chun movie of all time.

Prodigal Son and Ip Man 1?

**Conde Koma** · Posted On: 3/11/2011 9:35pm

which cameo did i miss? i thought i hit all the big ones.

the plot's not really any more contrived than the other recent KF films, but that doesn't mean it's not contrived.

**It is Fake** · Posted On: 3/11/2011 10:08pm

You got one. Choreography wise I actually like IP2 better than IP. The story in one, although a downer, is much better in IP. The second for me is Warriors 2.

IP is number 4.

which cameo did i miss? i thought i hit all the big ones.

You are like twelve or thirteen or something, you missed the ones that would be important to me and probably Judoowned.

Lo Meng,The guy who fought using monkey, better known as "The Toad" from 5 Deadly Venoms and a billion other Shaw Brother movies.

Also Fung Hak-On, the guy who fought using bagua, was a staple Bad Guy back in the day.

the plot's not really any more contrived than the other recent KF films, but that doesn't mean it's not contrived.

Go read chain's post and then read mine it'll make more sense.