First, what is it about? It's about the master of Bruce Lee, and his life before & during the Sino-Japanese war. It's a movie nobody should miss, the kungfu actions in it are simply too good that makes me wonder how could they ever made it to the screen. A perfect blend of comedy, kungfu & history, it mixes so well that audience may have their increased heart beat rate, laughs & tears by allowing the director to walk them through the entire storyline. I'm so tempted to reveal the contents of the movie here, but am also worried that it might ruin viewers' experience later... What the heck, highlight the empty space below if you wanna read it!!
Ip Man (Donnie Yen) is a Wing Chun-style practitioner and kungfu master that resides with his wife & son in a mansion at Fo Shan, a martial art town in China. He does nothing else but practices his kungfu to perfection, and quickly became the best kungfu practitioner in Fo Shan, better than any other patriarches of martial art clubs in the town. One day, a group of hooligans from the north (or south?) visited the town, with the leader beating every single kungfu master in Fo Shan. The leader then forced his way into Ip Man's residency & challenged him into a duel. Ip Man won the duel & reclaimed Fo Shan's honour.
Not long after the incident, parts of China including Fo Shan were invaded by the Japanese after the Marco Polo incident, indicating the start of the Sino-Japanese war. Many lost their lives in the war, and the population in Fo Shan shrank from 300,000 to just 70,000. Food became scarce, people were forced into pawning every valuables they have in order to buy rice from merchants that stocked up before the war. Ip Man had no other options but to work at a coal mine. There, he met a student of his friend, Lin. Lin realised that he lost an iron box while having lunch, and the Japanese Colonel Sato came shortly after, together with a Chinese ex-police captain. A tournament was held, and anyone who could beat the Japanese blackbelts will win a sack full of rice. Lin voluntarily joined the tournament with two of his friends. There, he witnessed his master beating one of the blackbelts and walked away. Upon leaving, his master told him to beat the Japanese to pulps, but the General has got something else on his mind. The General wanted to show the might of Japanese kungfu & asked for a 3 on 1. Lin was killed. Ip Man found the iron box the next day & learned the news from the Chinese interpreter. With anger, Ip Man joined to watch the tournament & saw Lin's master, also his friend, killed by a single gunshot to the head after losing. Ip Man was enraged by Colonel Sato's irrationality, hence asked for 10 blackbelts against him. With the Wing Chun style & agility, he beat every single of the blackbelts, killing a few of them.
The General was shocked & impressed at Ip Man's ability, and asked for his name & requested him to join the tournament again. Ip Man never did return to the tournament. Instead, he taught kungfu to workers at a cotton mill to protect themselves from the same bunch of hooligan-cum-robbers that challenged the martial clubs few years ago. Ip joined the workers into fighting the robbers and found Lin's brother, Yung, among the robbers. After beating the robbers, Ip passed the iron box to Yung & delivered the news that Lin was beaten to death by the Japanese General.
Back at the headquarters, the General was longing to see Ip Man in action again, therefore he commanded Colonel Sato & the Chinese interpreter to search for Ip. It doesn't took them long to find Ip at his temporary hut, but Ip protected his wife & son from Colonel Sato & his men by knocking them out. Ip then took refuge at the interpreter's house, but words soon reached the General's ears that Ip makes frequent visits to the cotton mill. Ip then showed up and surrendered at the cotton mill when the Japanese army jeopardizes the workers' lives. He then challenged the General into a duel, which is accepted when Ip was placed in a cell.
Before the duel, Colonel Sato threatened that he will kill Ip if the General loses the duel. Integrity overwhelmed his fear of death & he won the duel, but the Colonel pulled the trigger and the bullet hit Ip's shoulder. The Colonel was then killed by his own gun in a struggle with the interpreter. Ip Man escaped with his family to Hong Kong where he started his own martial art club, and the war ended soon after.
There you go. LoL. Seriously, it's a movie worth every cent spent. 5/5 stars. If you're a Chinese that understands the Chinese history, then you will appreciate this movie. The Japanese might hate this movie though, due to all the anti-Japanese contents. LoL. My uncle had tears running down his cheeks at the end of the movie as he's a true Chinamen. When I said true Chinamen, I mean it. He's from China, and settled down in Malaysia with his dad during the 70s. The movie is perfect, and the roles are genuinely portrayed. There is no one else better than Donnie Yen to hold Ip Man's character, especially considering the fact that he's a real-life multi-martial-arts master. His kungfu is simply unbelieveably beautiful; an actor with such perfected skills is hard to come by. So, watch this one my friend. You'll never regret it.
Bus at 8:30 A.M. tomorrow, from my own estimation I'll reach K.L. around 12-1 P.M.. Bought some gifts for a number of my friends, let's just see if I still have enough energy to deliver them to ya'll. Oh crap, I miss my car, I miss my computer, I miss my CSi: Miami series, I miss everything & everyone back in Malaysia!! Hopefully the car battery is successfully prevented from discharging by disconnecting it, or else I won't be able to start my car. Jumpstart? Zzz.. See ya'll back in Malaysia on 22/12/2008, my emo date. Huhu..
Beautiful - Elvis Costello.
-MXV-
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