Ip Man 叶问

[abcdefg]

Ip Man 2 was disappointing. Didn't have the depth of Ip Man 1, only mindless action. Murky or silly motivation. Everything, and everyone, was very "black or white" and two dimensional. The bad guys were demonized and the good guys were saints.

Donnie Yen （叶问） takes on wave after wave of armed thugs and still remains noble enough to only smack them with the side of his sword in a “to-the-death” fight. The venerable Sammo Hung almost saved the day by portraying an interesting character, but he was not quite enough.

I saw it when it first came out this spring in a theater and then again recently on DVD to be sure I hadn't missed some redeeming features that made the film great. Unfortunately, it seems I hadn't.

[muirm]

I agree that Ip Man 2 was not as good as the first, but it still had high quality choreography and managed to get me fired up in the end.

I also recently watched 葉問前傳 （"Ip Man: The Legend is Born", or something like that). It is a prequel of sorts that tells the tale of a young Ip Man acquiring his 詠春 mastery. It has Sammo Hung and that other dude who plays the northerner in the previous films, but as different roles. As a side note, I find Sammo Hung too overweight to be believable in Kung Fu films these days. Anyway, it was so-so at best, but I still enjoyed it because of my infatuation with the Ip Man character.

[aristotle1990]

I find Sammo Hung too overweight to be believable in Kung Fu films these days.

Actually, I found his being overweight gave his character a very authoritative feeling. Kind of reminded me of 梁小龙's toad attack in Kung Fu Hustle. ;)

[Obi-wan]

Isn't 咏春拳supposed to be effeminate? 甄子丹is skinny enough and 'fit' the role better imo.

[siqi_cn]

I had see the "叶问前传". It's told the story of his student days.

I think you will like that.