IP MAN 2
June 28th, 2010 by Planet Chocko
The anticipation of the screening of Ip Man 2 on opening night of the New York Asian Film Festival on June 25th created palpitations that only job interviews & colonoscopies can rival, but in a good way! Ip Man, the 1st movie told us about a story of the man himself who lived an aristocratic lifestyle & loved his art of Wing Chun in Foshan, China. The occupancy of the japanese created a rougher grit of sandpaper being added to the daily life of the chinese so many families escaped into the arms of Hong Kong under British rule. Enter, Ip Man 2. Ip Man 2 shows us the humble Ip Man, his pregnant wife, & his son struggling to pay the rent. Finding Wing Chun students to teach on the rooftops of Hong Kong proves to be difficult when other martial art schools take this as competition for business. This all comes to a head when Donnie Yen who plays the Wing Chun master, Yip Man is challenged by the “Kung Fu federation” to see if he is worthy to teach his art. After Yip Man’s fierce martial battle with the organization , the chinese martial art schools have other issues to deal with like the big bad British authorities & their big bad western boxer named “Twister”. I’ll spare you the details of the movie, but I’m sure you aliens can predict the outcome! What I can tell you is that at the end of the movie surfaces a young brat who wishes to learn wing chun from Yip Man with his hair slicked back, flicking his nose with his thumb, wearing jeans, & professes his desire to learn how to fight! His name is Lee, the “little dragon”, otherwise known as Bruce Lee to all the “Gwei Lo’s” & martians like myself. Can you say IP MAN 3? Gwei Lo roughly translates to “Foreign devil” or “western ghost”. Many chinese use the gwei lo term to identify westerners. I wonder what the chinese character for Martians or Aliens is?
Seriously speaking, Ip man 2 was chock full of refreshing energy on a real life character that many martial artists in the asian & western world can directly point their kung fu lineage to. Yip Man was a humble person practicing his art of peacefulness & destruction while not appearing to walk on water like other characters being portrayed on the screen like Wong Fei Hong. Wilson Yip did a great job directing the film in my opinion. The consultation with the real life son of Ip Man, Ip Chun on the movie in respects to the martial art & history is priceless. The additions of some well known Shaw Brother actors from the 1970’s like Lo Meng & the character that played the “Ba Gua” master in the film were fantastic. I wished these 2 great shaw brother actors of yesteryear would of gotten better choreography in the film instead of the quirky styles & characters that they portrayed, but I might be getting too technical here. Overall, the film housed some real badass old school kung fu choreography, but there were some flashes of wire “FU” work that I wasn’t too keen on. Why do you need wire fu when you’ve got the horses in your film that can display real kung fu? This crap still boggles my mind, but I guess the concensus of the chinese market is that they like the walk on water & fantasy crapola. In my mindless thinking, Wing Chun is the most direct & non-flashy of all the Chinese martial arts. We definitely don’t need any artificial enhancements to this fighting system. Come to think of it, none of the martial arts needs any performing enhancing attributes. A skilled martial artist provides his own stroke to create a painting with no help from technology. With Sammo Hung, Donnie Yen, & a world of real practictioners on your movie set, you would think there would be no need for any instances of “The Matrix”. Let me not digress to this Wire Fu stress because I’m about to blow an artery. Back to the man himself, let’s not forget that IP Man was a very important figure in the chinese martial arts world. Yip Man was a simpleton at heart with a complex mind. Yip Man went on to train relevant kung fu practictioners that would propagate the art of Chinese Kung Fu to all parts of the galaxy. With the likes of Bruce Lee, Leung Ting,William Cheung, Ip Chun(son), & Moy Yat(NYC) to name just a few accomplished students of the MAN! Many martians forget that Chinese Kung Fu is not just about the technical aspects of punching, kicking, & whoopass. Don’t get me wrong, Chinese Martial Arts was created to defend thyself from offensive neighbors, galaxies, & circumstances. However, the deep roots of Chinese Kung Fu also circles back to the cultural aspects of the art that many martians will never understand & grasp for those just wanting to learn how to kick & punch.
Fellow monchichis, do yourselves a favor & watch this film at your nearest Independent movie theatre! At the very least, catch it on netflix or buy it on DVD when it becomes available! I guarantee that there will be an increase in signups at your nearest Wing Chun school after a viewing of this movie! Wha..bisch…Wha..bisch..awe..awe..Suecky..Suecky!
–Mr. C (Ip Man 2 is 7 out of 10 stinky tofus!)
(pics,article,& video courtesy of Mr. C @planetchocko.com)
Tags: donnie yen, ip man 2, new york asian film festival, nyaff, sammo hung, simon yam, walter reade theater, yip man
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