The loosely biographical big-screen story of martial-arts grandmaster Yip Man continues in Ip Man 2. In the original Ip Man, a fan favourite and winner of Best Film at the 2009 Hong Kong Film Awards, star Donnie Yen thrilled with an athletic performance as Yip, a local hero standing up for compatriots in the Chinese city of Foshan and pummelling the occupying Japanese. But a new life awaited Yip in postwar Hong Kong, the epilogue text told viewers, and it was there that he would make his greatest claims to fame: spreading the wing chun school of kung fu and becoming an early teacher of child star Bruce Lee.
Ip Man 2’s story picks up after Yip flees China in 1949 and opens his wing chun school on a Hong Kong rooftop with the help of a newspaper editor (Pierre Ngo). Familiar faces from Foshan dot the local milieu: there’s Yip’s patient wife (Lynn Xiong), northern ruffian turned Hong Kong coolie Jin (Louis Fan) and injured ex–factory boss Zhou (Simon Yam).
Among Yip’s first Hong Kong students is Wong Leung (Huang Xiaoming), whose battles with local toughie Cheng Kai-kei (To Yue-hong) ends un dragging Yip into battle at a local fish market. Cheng's a proponent of the hung kuen martial-arts style, and soon his sifu, Master Hung (action choreographer Sammo Hung), steps in.
Hung's a heavyweight in the local martial-arts scene, acting as a go-between for a spectaculary corrup British cop (Charlie Mayer) and runnung a well-funded school. After fists fly in a follow-up teahouse showdown, Hung cautiously recognises Yip as a bona fide master. But once action shirfts into tournaments with a foreign boxer (Darren Shahlavi), and charges of racial discrimination start flying, Yip and Hung gain a true respect for each other and stand up for chinese dignity and personal honour.
Ip Man 2 continues efforts by helmer Wilson Yip and producer Raymond Wong to build folk-hero status for the grandmaster. The movie cant'be viewed as a straight biopic, however: over-the-top set pieces and the use of genre standards put paid to that. it's also difficult to see it as an authentic representation of old Hong Kong, with the mainland Chinese studio sets never truly looking the part and the caricartures of corrupt, loudmouth Britons comically exaggerated. (There are however, moments in Yip's hand-to-mouth home scenes that recall classic 1950s Hong Kong screen melodramas, and other references to local cinema history also sneak it.)
But the whole point of Ip Man sequel is to deliver a action spectacular, and on that front Ip Man 2 doesn't disappoint. Second time around the grandmaster, Yen delivers an appreciabily more well-rounded take on the title character. In full flight he's playful and entertaining, then fierce and filled with rage - and that's to be expected from a star of Yen's calibre. But useful detail on Yip Man's kungfu approach emerges in quiet moments too. His is a style thet's strightforward, reserved and humble, and with an emphasis on quiet dignity. It's a side of Ip Man 2 that makes for compelling action cinema, and a strong lineup of opponents including screen veteran Hung and British actor Shahlavi helps too. The filmmakers play up contrasts in style between fighters as they're sent punching and kicking down a gauntlet of fluid and engaging showdowns, giving admirers of the 2008 hit their money's worth in the action stakes.
Tim Youngs