Ip Man 2 (2011)

To me, this movie is perfection.

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I saw the original "Ip Man" movie about five months ago, and on the strength of that film, decided to watch this sequel. I enjoy the occasional martial arts flick for the action and excitement and on that score, this one delivered. However I still maintain the reservations I have about single individuals in stories like this that can take on ten men at a time and come out victorious, or have the ability to absorb the kind of punishment these fighters do and still be able to walk around afterwards with little or no effect. And unlike the first movie, this one included some entertaining wire work that allowed it's principals to defy the law of gravity in interesting ways. The table fight between Ip Man (Donnie Yen) and Master Hung (Sammo Kam-Bo Hung) being a case in point. The story line, following up on "Ip Man", had it's title character relocating from the Chinese city of Foshan to Hong Kong during a political purge. Ip Man finds himself in a situation similar to saloon owners during Prohibition, having to pay monthly protection money to a local gang lord. In this case, the gang lord is Master Hung, the recognized Grand Master of all the martial artists allowed to offer training to prospective students. What I found somewhat unlikely was Ip Man offering his opponents a conciliatory "Thanks for letting me win" each time he defeated one of them in order to earn his own school. Even though I didn't like his character, the British boxer Twister, portrayed by Darren Shahlavi, had one of the most incredible physiques you're likely to find anywhere; almost to the point of making me wonder if there was some sort of CGI enhancement used for his rugged features. He was as ripped, or maybe even more so, than Stallone in "Rocky III", and that's saying something. His arrogance and condescending attitude toward everyone he came in contact with made him a superb villain. But with pictures like this, you have to know going in that in the final analysis, he's going to meet his defeat at the hands of the movie's star, so no exception to the rule there. So as I say, I thought the film was an action packed, entertaining film with plenty of exciting fight sequences, both one on one and in one particular case, a massive street brawl between rival gangs that virtually destroyed an entire village block. Only trouble is, one must suspend disbelief and consider only the athleticism and physical skills involved in choreographing those battle scenes. Reality doesn't play a large part in establishing winners and losers here, so if you're OK with that, then you'll have a fun time with the movie. I also liked the way this one came to a close, with Ip Man meeting a young, arrogant lad who would one day become his most famous pupil - Bruce Lee.

...And not only in the life of our protagonist, Grandmaster Ip Man (Donnie Yen), but Ip Man 2 fails to become as good and soulful as the first movie.It's like you'd watch Rocky 2-3-4 in a Hong Kong setting. The plot is pretty much the same. Ip Man and his family moved to HK. They are poor, are expecting their second child and Master Ip struggles to set his feet here as a renowned martial arts master. When he finally finds some students, he quickly finds himself in a hostile environment, as rival masters want him to pay fee and join their club to become an 'official' master. But after dealing with this situation, there comes the third act, and it's bad foreigners disrespecting and abusing Chinese all over again.---SOME SPOILERS FROM NOW ON---I had to ask myself while watching this the first time ever: am I watching Rocky 2-3-4 or is this Ip Man 2? The similarity is exceptional here: the financial struggles, the pregnant wife, the adversary (Sammo Hung) who proves to be an equal of Ip, but later they became friends and they respect each-other, the unbeatable foreign fighter who hates this culture and beats said friend, the revenge match under heavy circumstances, the final speech given by Ip Man with the used to be hostile British accepting and praising him after-wards. The list might be longer, but these are the cornerstones of this movie's story.---SPOILERS END---And don't get me wrong, I like Rocky 2-4, I liked this one as well. Even when it was increasingly difficult to take this seriously. My problem with the movie is different though. You see, while Ip Man had amazing fight scenes, it also had a heart, a great atmosphere and a message. It was nice to see how Ip stands against the Japanese, defends his culture while being so humble and elegant. Actually, the story is the same here but without the elegance. Much of the fight scenes are over the top (I know, it's what you expect when watching a kung-fu movie, but it's at least one level over the first movie), and they follow each other without much logic. The only reason here is to have a good fight. "You claim to be a master? Prove it. Beat me" - says the student. "You claim to be a master? Prove it. Avoid falling" - says the guild of masters. "You claim that Chinese kung-fu is superior to boxing? Beat me." - says the British champ. Everyone wants to fight here. And this sadly shadows the soul of the movie and also Donnie Yen's great performance (example: Ip vs 10 Japs was believable under those circumstances. It was a serious and sad scene, powerful. Ip vs 20 students trying to kill him at the fish market is not.) Ip Man 2 is not a bad movie, and is highly recommended to anyone who loves martial arts movies! But if you only enjoyed the first film because of it's atmosphere and soul (while tolerating the action), you may want to avoid this one.

Continuing from where the first film ended, Wing Chun master Ip Man and his family move to Hong Kong in the early 1950s after their escape from Foshan. There, Ip desires to open a school to propagate his art, as well as to make his living, but he has difficulty attracting students due to his lack of reputation in the city. One day, a young man named Wong Leung appears and promptly challenges Ip to a fight, but is easily defeated. Wong leaves humiliated, only to return with some friends to gang up on him. Ip beats them as well. Stunned and impressed by his skills, Wong and his friends become Ip's first students, bringing more disciples to help the school thrive.Wong is later caught posting promotional posters for the school by some Hung Gar students. One of them challenges Wong to a fight and loses, but his friends take Wong hostage in revenge and demand a ransom from Ip. Ip goes to the local wet market as directed, but the meeting ends in a confrontation with a growing mob of Hung Ga students. Ip and Wong fight their way outside to meet Jin Shanzhao — the martial artist and former bandit in the first film — who comes to their rescue with his own gang. The students' master, Hung Chun-nam, arrives to break up the fight. Ip introduces himself, and Hung informs him that before setting up a school, he needs to attend a special fighting ceremony to test his skill. Ip, Wong and Jin are subsequently arrested by Officer Fatso for disturbing the peace but are later released on bail. Hung and Fatso are then shown to be acting as reluctant collectors for the martial arts schools (including Hung's) as part of a protection racket headed by Superintendent Wallace, a corrupt officer in the Hong Kong police.Ip attends the ceremony and defeats his first challengers, and then strikes a draw with the last challenger, Hung. Ip is allowed to keep running his school on the condition that he pay the monthly protection fees, but he declines. Hung thus has his students loiter in front of the Wing Chun school and harass anyone interested, causing a street brawl between them and Ip's disciples. Ip is thus forced to close up and move the school nearer to home. Ip soon confronts Hung, who blames him since he wouldn't pay the protection fees, with Ip telling Hung that he chose to work with the Westerners. Hung insists that they finish their fight, but during this last encounter, Ip stops Hung from accidentally kicking his son as he suddenly appears, earning his respect from Hung. Ip leaves, and the next day, Hung invites him to a British boxing match he had helped to set up, quietly coming to terms with him.The boxing competition begins with the various martial arts schools demonstrating their skills. However, the event's star boxer, Taylor "The Twister" Milos, a Chinese-hating sociopath, openly insults and attacks the students, causing chaos as the masters try to restore order. Hung accepts Twister's challenge to a fight so that he can defend his culture.The fights are superb. The boxer won against Master Hong because he was old and taking medication (mostly probably for the heart). Therefore Ip Man begged Master Hong to give up the fight(same as Rocky Balboa did to Apollo Creed in ROCKY IV). The white boxer nicknamed "Twister", has a truly awesome physique and uses sheer muscle-power to beat his opponent.Next we see Ip Man challenging Twister. Now we see the effect of technique against power. Ip Man's Wing Shun provides him a counter-tactic against the strength of his opponent. Ip man is no longer young in this sequel, so he takes a lot more punishment from Twister. Had he been younger than Twister wouldn't even had a chance to touch Ip. However the sheer willpower, courage and perseverance see Ip through as he exposes Twister's weaknesses and wins the match(again I am reminded of Rocky IV match of Balboa Vs Drago).Ip Man's closing statement to the audience is powerful and though-provoking. He says that he didn't accept Twister's challenge to prove which style was better but to prove that one person's integrity or worth is not OVER that of another. He wanted also that the English and Chinese respect each others customs.This then is Ip Man 2 a worthy sequel that stands shoulder to shoulder with the original Ip Man. The ending scene shows a young Bruce Lee at Ip's door. Ip inquires as too why young Bruce wants to study Wing Chun. Bruce calmly replies: to beat up people I don't like.Ip smiles and tells him to see him when he is much older and the rest as we say is history.

I don't think I have seen the film that this is a sequel to, so early on I was a little lost with the flashback montage in the credit sequence and I felt a little unsure of some of the characters. Within about 5 or 10 minutes though this really doesn't matter because mostly the film is happy with very basic motivations and plotting, in favour of frequent fight sequences. The overall plot sees Ip Man coming to Hong Kong to continue the spread of his teaching but coming up against resistance from other schools in the area and the interference of a corrupt British chief. Although we also have money problems, a pregnant wife and relationships from the first film, that is pretty much all you need to know.This is undeniably a disappointment – not so much because I wanted lots of dialogue and character development, but more because the moments of the film where we do have them tend not to work particularly well because they are just lip-service and not done well. How much of a problem this is though is minimised by just how much action there is and also how good it is. Whether it is an intense fight in a fish market against a gang of others, or the one-on-one boxing match of the finale, all of the fight sequences are exciting and very well choreographed. Although it has pace, the editing is not so frantic and rapid that it masks the action and it is impressive to see all the moves and skills of the performers. Donnie Yen is impressive in all of them.Where Yen is less effective is in the acting side; the film doesn't give him much to work with and he also plays it very quiet and still, respectful perhaps but he is a lot less of a presence when he is not fighting. Fortunately others are more lively in terms of performances and the film benefits from plenty of nice characters and light comedy from the other masters and the students. Sammo is solid in all regards and he gets some good action too.Yip Man 2 may carry characters and story from the first film, but very quickly it gets down to the action and pretty much delivers action sequence after action sequence, all of them engaging and intense. The lack of character and development is a weakness, but the strengths do more than carry it through this.