The succession of screen stories about the martial arts master Ip Man, sparked with Wilson Yip’s Ip Man in 2008, is showing no signs of letting up. Yip’s Ip Man 2 in 2010 continued with cinematic spectacle inspired by the story of Ip, the founder of the wing chun school of kung fu, and in the same year Herman Yau served up a fine prequel in The Legend Is Born - Ip Man. Earlier this year Wong Kar-wai’s The Grandmaster also brought Ip back to the big screen, and now Yau has returned with Ip Man – The Final Fight, a smaller picture that takes the Ip Man story into engaging new territory.
Audiences this time meet Ip, now played by Anthony Wong, in 1949 when he arrives in Hong Kong after leaving his southern Chinese hometown of Foshan. He soon sets about teaching wing chun at a makeshift rooftop school and attracts a new set of followers. Ip stresses virtue to his pupils and doesn’t wish to see them get into street fights, but tensions rise when a rivalry forms with the local White Crane school of kung fu. And come an epic showdown in the city’s notorious Kowloon Walled City, Ip has no choice but to put his talents to full use and bring gangsters to justice.
When it comes to kung fu displays in Ip Man – The Final Fight, Yau capably delivers, even with stars not popularly known for martial arts prowess. An early fight between Wong and actor Eric Tsang, who plays the jovial White Crane master, turns out to be a masterful display of martial arts filmmaking, mixing a delightful playfulness into the high-impact choreography. A lion dance is the setting for another set of fisticuffs, and the fierce finale at the Walled City, with action ace Xiong Xin-xin menacing as the lead opponent, draws on an underground boxing setting and plays out amid a ferocious 1962 typhoon.
Ip Man – The Final Fight isn’t just a martial arts feast, however. Unlike the earlier films helmed by Yip, which focused more on great battles and pumped-up nationalism, the Ip Man films by Yau devote more time to Ip’s character. This time quieter moments with family and disciples, as well as in a scorned relationship between Ip and a singer (Zhou Chuchu), deliver more on the man and his thinking, and the involvement of Ip’s son Ip Chun in the production, as in Yau’s previous 2010 picture, lends a suggestion of credibility. Lead actor Wong, a long-time collaborator with Yau, brings a great sense of dignity and maturity to the Ip Man role, and is in top form when capturing the far-from-showy character of Ip through the final years of life. Accompanying Wong is a community of students played by Jordan Chan, Gillian Chung, Timmy Hung and martial artists Marvel Chow and Jiang Luxia, among others, while Anita Yuen turns up for tender scenes as Ip’s wife and Zhou becomes a focal point in a later, more ambiguous, relationship.
Nostalgia and history also figure greatly into the picture, which skips through snippets from Hong Kong’s past – from the influx of mainland immigrants to union action and riots to police corruption – to create a feel for the periods covered and deliver an appreciable local focus. Part of Ip’s fame comes from his having taught child actor Bruce Lee, and this too rates a reference late in the piece through awkward contact with a young star returning from the US. Aspects familiar from 1950s and ‘60s Hong Kong movie melodrama, like the songstress character and a scene of a couple who sold their child, also make a welcome appearance, and the old-style cityscape is depicted with the help of a new huge new set built at Foshan, complete with re-created landmarks. While Ip Man – The Final Fight won’t be the last word in screen stories inspired by Ip’s life – there’s now a 3-D picture in the works – it nonetheless stands apart as a refreshingly different look at not only martial arts master Ip, but also the city he called home.
Tim Youngs