Ip Man 2

An energetic, witty and altogether well-built martial arts drama that is familiar in many ways but distinguished by its high level of craft, its sincere sentiment and drama, and the forceful charisma of its star, Donnie Yen.

A reminder of the pleasure of classic martial-arts films in which skilled athletes performed many of their own stunts.

More slick mainland melodrama than rough-and-ready chop-socky picture, Ip Man 2 often finds itself struggling to reconcile those conflicting impulses between drizzly emotional moments and slap-happy frenzy.

Compared to his stellar hit "Ip Man" - a biopic on the Wing Chun master who tutored Bruce Lee - Wilson Yip's more lavishly produced sequel Ip Man 2 is a fistful of hits and misses.

If you're searching for pure, unadulterated fisticuffs joy, you could do far worse than Ip Man 2.

With action this strong, the script just needs to be serviceable - and that's exactly what it is.

If the movie packs a weaker punch than the original, it has less to do with the action sequences than the script (by Edmond Wong, son of Raymond, who wrote the first), a flimsy affair with subpar villains.

On the one side historically interesting, good action, some scenes were unrealistic. On the other hand the bad guys were so clearly "bad", it was almost like propaganda.

I am a HUGE fan of the original Ip Man. It is by far the best martial arts film I have ever seen. The fighting is amazing, yet so is the story. This is another solid martial arts film where the fighting is incredible, and the story here is still really well put together. I villain, Twister, was cracking me up, and I haven't been able to stop saying "APOLOGIZE?! FOR WINNING?!"This is excellent Kung Fu which is specifically around Wing Chun, the fighting style Yip Man made famous. Absolutely spectacular Martial Arts that keeps your on the edge of your seat. This is a Period Drama based around 1940's-50's China-Britain relations. There is plenty of Action in this with some very stylish scenes, especially when Ip Man fights the other Masters. This is loosely a Biography based around the real Yip Man. There is a lot of Drama in this, both emotional and physical. This is based around real History from our past.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

I remember watching Ip Man 2 and loving it after watching it. Now after rewatching it again, I came out feeling rather different than the first time I watched it. Starting with what this movie improves upon is the much bigger action. Sammo Hung returns as the choreographer for this movie but also as a new character "Hung Chun-nam" who is an arch-nemesis of sort and rival for IP man. For example, in the first film IP man fights 10 people but what if fought dozens of them or the fight against the martial artist on the table. These fights are exciting, thrilling and very creative such as in the fight above with the use of the environment and wooden board to create interesting choreography. The introduction of western boxing against Chinese martial art makes for an amazing fight and Sammo Hung utilize both styles in a great way for fluidity vs brutality. The different styles of Chinese martial arts are also blended very well which allows for fluid interplay between the contrasting styles. Another improvement is that within these fights, IP Man feels like he is in danger. In the first movie, IP man always dominates every fight without any real issue which worked for the movie but as the audience, we never really felt like IP Man was in danger. He fights the martial art master Hung Chun-nam (Sammo Hung) who rival IP Man in speed and power. When IP Man was fighting dozens of men who had knives at the same time it felt to us the audience that it was even too much for him to cope as he had to try and retreat. The boxer "Twister" played by Darren Shahlavi (who sadly passed away January 2015) is more ferocious and physically stronger than IP Man. I give props to Darren for giving a very arrogant and narcissistic performance to make him very hateable to the audience. The final fight against Twister is 11 minutes of fist curling excitement and is an amazing fight. While the fights are "bigger" there not necessarily better per se. IP man 1 had a more grounded and realistic fight which is what made the first movie very unique whereas IP Man 2 uses over the top and cartooney sorts of fights. IP Man 2 utilizes a lot more wirework which is very noticeable. Additionally, a fair amount of supporting character's performance (especially the British actors) are cartoonishly bad and just feel dumb. The story is also very weak when compared to the first movie. The movie centres on IP Man's struggle to start a martial art dojo in Hong Kong as he is challenged by cartooney martial art masters. The second half then becomes a Chinese remake of Rocky IV with his fight against the British and racist boxer twister. IP Man also gives a speech that ends racism which is similar to Rocky ending the cold war in Rocky IV. Some of the returning characters from the first movie such as Chow Ching-chuen (Simon Yam) IP Man's friend who is now amnesiac and Kam Shan-Chau (Louis Fan) a robber who has now mended his ways feel very irrelevant in the overall narrative. They don't add much to IP Man's character and honestly just feel like they are there to make people go "oh remember him from the first movie!" and that is rather disappointing. Furthermore, the first movie invoked a more intense struggle with the World War 2 invasion but this movie focuses more on Chinese pride and that results in a cliche message at the end. IP Man never really goes through a character arc like the first movie which makes the story irrelevant for his character as well. There is one good aspect of the story that I wished was kind of explored a bit more or focused upon which is the relationship between IP Man and Wong Leung (Huang Xiaoming) his first student. His student actually goes through a character arc with his relationship with IP Man causing him to improve himself. There is only a couple of scenes where its just IP Man and Leung but they are great non-action moments that show IP Man's wisdom being used to help others. Sadly, this is kind of tossed away once the boxer Twister comes though... Overall, I am surprised after rewatching this movie. It was not as great as I remember it. While the fights are more flashy and bigger, it doesn't have the same charm as the more brutal and grounded fights of the first movie. The story was surprisingly not great but despite all that I kind of enjoyed this movie still. This movie is more reminiscent of older martial art movies instead of doing something different like the first movie. Doing something that is already done but doing it great isn't necessarily bad. This movie has it's own charms and if you just take it as its own thing then its a really good martial art movie. However, it is a sequel and when I think of it like that then it does make me feel slightly disappointed. In the end, its a good martial art movie and you will still come out of it having a good time.

La suite de la vie mouvementée du Maître de Bruce Lee (une pointure donc, excusez du peu) qui vient de s'installer à Hongkong pour ouvrir sa propre école de Kung Fu... Mouvementée, car naturellement le Maître va devoir se coltiner tous les cadors du coin et distribuer des patates à la cantonnade (3615 kinenveu) toujours dans le respect et la bonne volonté (les enseignements du Bouddha sans doute). Il tombe éventuellement sur un os avec le gros Sammo Hung, lequel avec l'âge n'a rien perdu de son embonpoint ni de sa vélocité : toujours aussi impressionnant avec en prime de son expérience une intensité dans son jeu (en dehors des gnons) étonnante. Sammo n'est plus un rigolo comme jadis, c'est un caïd et tu ferais bien de pas le faire chier. Donnie n'est pas en reste et interprète toujours avec à-propos et sobriété l'humilité des arts martiaux chinois faite homme, une légitime fierté nationale. A propos de fierté, Ip Man 2 **** un peu trop souvent dans la propagande du parti communiste revancharde -pauvres Chinois opprimés, méchants Anglais corrompus- quitte à mettre sur le même pied l'envahisseur japonais d'antan et l'ex-colonie britannique ! Voilà qui énerve sensiblement alors que le film propose par ailleurs de belles bastons et un peu moins de guimauve que dans le premier opus. On regrette néanmoins une réalisation perfectible avec des plans trop resserrés et un montage souvent trop nerveux pour être honnête. Cette suite reste cependant et globalement agréable à suivre malgré ses vicissitudes regrettables.