The release of Ip Man 2 was quite an event, a lot of fans (including me) were so astonished by the first movie that the sequel instantly became a "must see".
For those of you who have no clues about what I'm talking about, you should know that Ip Man was a very famous Wing Chun Kung Fu (詠春功夫) master. He lived in China (Foshan until the end of the Chinese civil war, Hong Kong then after) during the middle of the 20th century and passed most of its life teaching and promoting Wing Chun around the world. He's no less than Bruce Lee's master... Two years ago or so was released a movie of its life (only a fiction, you can't possibly tell to a mainland Chinese audience that Ip Man was actually a KMT agent/policeman and that he fled to Hong Kong because of the communist, not because of the Japanese (which would be silly as Hong Kong was controlled by the Japanese...)) starring the Hong Kong big shot Donnie Yen, choreographed by Sammo Hung and Ip Man's son, Ip Chun. The movie was just a blast, awesome fight, awesome actors, awesome story (retracing the first part of his life before and during the Japanese occupation) one of the best martial arts movie of the past 20 years. So last Saturday I avoided the crowd that came to see Iron Man 2 (by the way, did you know Ipron Man 2? :-D) to join the Yip Man2 one! To resume quickly, I loved the movie (so obviously did the whole audience), it was still amazingly choreographed, less dark (war is over), quite funny at some point, but with big big flaws that we will later talk about. Pros:- Yip Man is still awesome.- The movie is in Cantonese (If you follow me you know that I just LOVE Cantonese).
- Chinese actors are GREAT, especially that now Sammo Hung is in front as well as behind the camera.
- Some parts are really really funny (Cantonese make them even more funnier).
- Gorgeous spare
- We discover what was the Hong Kong in the 50s daily life (not as glamorous and wealthy as it could be today).
- There will clearly be a 3rd one (It'll obviously cover the last part of its life, from the 60s until his death) Cons:There are three BIG HUGE cons, the movie is still great with them but, ho god, they are deeply annoying, thanks to the "Chinisation" of HK/TW's movie (that is fitted to please a Mainland Chinese audience). - Chinese nationalism: This not a new trend, I've spotted that in almost all the past Hong Kong movies I've seen this past three years.
- We discover what was the Hong Kong in the 50s daily life (not as glamorous and wealthy as it could be today).
- There will clearly be a 3rd one (It'll obviously cover the last part of its life, from the 60s until his death) Cons:There are three BIG HUGE cons, the movie is still great with them but, ho god, they are deeply annoying, thanks to the "Chinisation" of HK/TW's movie (that is fitted to please a Mainland Chinese audience). - Chinese nationalism: This not a new trend, I've spotted that in almost all the past Hong Kong movies I've seen this past three years.
Basically during all the movie you keep hearing that "China is so great", "Chinese people are so good","Chinese Culture is SO beautiful", "Chinese Kung Fu is so powerful", "China....China....Chinese..." and of course at a point of the movie, all the chinese people gather themselves (even enemies) to beat the ugly bad western guy who has stolen our great motherland!
Ouai ouai c'est bon WE UNDERSTOOD!! (But you will notice that they actually just do what US movies did for the past 40 years, see "Independence Day" or "Rambo", I heard that Iron Man 2 was pretty the same thing) - UBER SUPER DUPPER LAME western actors: OMVG, WHERE DO THE HECK did the hired them? Don't tell me... Lan Kwai Fong at 4am?- SUPER MEGA PETA LAME western actors dialogue: just UNBELIEVABLE! Stuff like :
"Hohoho we're the British, the best of the world, let's bully these little weak Chinese..."
"He told me everything, you are the bad guy! Shame on you!"
It's really similar of a VERY famous French show where the actors made fun of the Japanese heroes called "Super Sentai", such as Bioman or Ultraman.
Basically the dialogue goes like this:
Nice Young Girl: I'm scared, I'm a nice girl and I'm chased by a bad monster
Monster: Ho Ho Ho I'm the bad monster and I want to kill the nice young girl
Heroes: What's happening?
NYG: My name is Natalie, please save me!
Hero 1: You name is Natalie? With your lemon face and your Asian eyes?
Hero 2: Shut up idiot, her real name is Chinese, but Natalie is better to export the show in France.
Hero 2: So what's happening?
NYG: My name is Natalie, I'm a nice young girl and I'm chased by a bad monster
Heroes: A BAD MONSTER?! Where is it?!
Monster: I'm the bad monster and I want to kill the nice girl!
NYG: Why does he want to hurt me?
Hero 2: Because he's the bad monster
NYG: But why me?!
Heroes: Because you are the nice girls!
...etc... :)Beside that and as I said, the movie is great, a must see.
EDIT : There is a very valuable comment written by Philip Tam, a Hong Kong lawyer and former classmate at HKU:
A very nice and fair review! The film is serious in the making which I think is rare among local productions. The street scenes, costumes and even the magazines and newspapers were carefully done to reproduce what it was in Hong Kong in the 1950s. However, the part about patriotism among Chinese martial artists is really out of place anddisturbingly overdone. Whether or not Yip Man was a KMT agent is not important to his career as a master of a generation. One thing for sure is that he was not coming to Hong Kong to escape from the Japanese. His move did maintain the bloodline of the art of Wing Chun Kung Fu which has virtually disappeared since the change of power in the mainland China in 1949.Wing Chun was not as famous as it has been since the 70s through the promotion of some outstanding players of the art including Bruce Lee. Wing Chun players have been known to be combative and like to fight. Master Wong Shun Leung, Yip Man’s first student in Hong Kong and the de facto teacher of Bruce Lee had a nickname “講手王”or “King of Hand Talking”. Yip and his students had to do that perhaps as a marketing technique, because unlike other styles of Chinese martial arts, Wing Chun does not have the Lion Dance and does not have the Chinese bone-setting and only has two kinds of weapons. Another important reason is that the art itself has a not so favourable nickname as “the women’s fist” because of the founder of the art was a woman, Madam Yim Wing Chun. So the Wing Chun players in those days had to engage in combats to prove their strength and skills in “Hand Talking”.
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