Staff Book and Media Recommendations

Ip Man (葉問-Yè Wèn)

Ip Man is a semi biographical martial arts film loosely based on the life of Ip Man.  Ip Man was a Wing Chun master and was the first person to commercially teach the art.  He is most famous for being the first and fundamental martial teacher of Bruce Lee.  The film focuses on events in Ip's life that supposedly took place in the city of Foshan during the Second Sino-Japanese War.  The film was directed by Wilson Yip, and stars Donnie Yen as Ip Man, with martial arts choreography by Sammo Hung.  The supporting cast includes Simon Yam, Lynn Hung, Gordon Lam, Lam Ka-tung, Xing Yu, Fan Siu-wong and Hiroyuki Ikeuchi.

Ip Man is set in the 1930s in Foshan, China before the Japanese invasion of 1937.  Ip Man (Donnie Yen), who is an independently wealthy man, is the most skilled martial artist in Foshan but tries keeps a low profile by not taking on students or fighting in public and only displays his martial skills in friendly, closed-door competitions with local masters.  Once Ip Man defeats an aggressive, rude, highly skilled Northern master, Jin Shanzhao (Fan Siu-wong), his reputation is further enhanced and upholds the regional pride of fellow Southern stylists and others in Foshan.

The Japanese invade the city and destroy the peaceful lifestyle of the Chinese people of Foshan.  This is no different for Ip, with his house sequestered by the Japanese for their military headquarters.  This forces Ip and his family it to a life of poverty.  Eventually Ip finds work at a coal mine to support his family.

The Japanese general Miura (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi), who is a highly skilled in the art of karate, begins fight arena where the local martial artists fight with his soldiers for bags of rice person they are able to defeat. Not wanting to disgrace his martial art, Ip is reluctant to fight and declines to partake in the bouts.  This changes when his colleague Lin (Xing Yu) disappears.   He decides to fight in order to find him.  After watching Ip Man fight, Miura becomes interested and wants to learn more about Ip and see him fight again.  This creates the tension that leads to the impending match between the two martial arts masters. 

Even though the movie was not historically accurate, I thought that the movie was awesome.  It had great fight scenes and beautiful backdrops.  Martial arts movie fan or not, I would recommend this splendid movie to anyone. ~ Will McLain

Reviewed March 2013