Ip Man: Le combat final

Well it can't be said for sure, if it's the last one, but it does feel like a closure to a series that has spawned for movies altogether. While the first two remain the best (with zero being the weak link in that chain, though there are always worse movies as I like to say), this is a fine addition and nice round up.

Not only do you have two fine (mature) actors opposite/side-to-side, you also have a story that is told. A story that tries to show us, that violence is not key. Don't worry though, there is plenty of great action scenes in it. It actually heightens those scenes, when you have something solid in between them, that makes you wait for them

I've spent the 1992 year in Beijing, People's Republic of China. While I was there to work as a foreign expert, I had the chance to work for China Films, where they were writing subtitles for Chinese movies which were exported to abroad customers. Most of the films were Kung Fu movies, and in all of them, the dialogues were so dumb it was laughable. it's not the case with this film. This a well-made movie, with nice battle scenes, but also with an interesting story about a real character. This Master of Wung Shin was the teacher of Bruce Lee. The story is going on from 1949 to the end of the 1960's. It's rather interesting. The version I've watched was in Cantonese, with subtitles, and I recommend it.

I am accustomed to Donnie Yen but this actor was not bad. This film shows Ip Man in his older years which was an interesting portrayal. His team of students was another highlight.

Not the worst HK movie I've ever seen, but pretty far down there. Overall, I think the movie just never figured out what it wanted to be. Does it want to be a biography of Ip Man? Does it want to be a nostalgic piece to serve as a trip down memory lane for older Hong Kong citizens? Is this a movie to profile an iconic figure or a movie to give as much air time to multiple movie stars? In its attempt to honour Ip Man, the movie creates a wooden character of him which leaves little room for character development or interesting acting from Anthony Wong. Weakness is a trait that all humans have, but the movie does its best to remove as much of this trait from its portrayal of Ip Man as possible to immortalize him as some sort of legendary figure. Even in scenes where weakness is demonstrated, so little of it is explored that the audience is left with little to empathize with.

As part of that attempt to honour him, the movie makers tried to tie in as many characters and story lines from Ip Man's real life as possible. But again, its a mess. Few of those characters are developed and we never really get a chance to care about who they are below the surface. For example, I would have loved to see more of who Eric Tsang and Jordan Chan's characters really were.

As a final disappointment, scenes near the end of the movie totally betray the tone and style of the overall movie as well.

Watchable, but unfocused, disjointed and unorganized. A reminder to me why I have slowly drifted away from Hong Kong movies...

"Yip Man: Jung gik yat zin" is a Biography - Action movie in which we watch Ip Man being called to prove his skills in what it seemed to be a simple challenge. Now he has to fight against some Kung Fu styles and soon he will have to protect himself by the dangerous underworld of Hong Kong.

I have to admit that I did not have high expectations from this movie because it does not belong in the Yip Man saga. This movie presents us a different aspect of Ip Man and what happened in postwar Hong Kong. The interpretation of Anthony Chau-Sang Wong who played as Yip Man is good but it cannot be compared with Donnie Yen's interpretation. Regarding the direction which was made by Herman Yau I have to say that his main focus was on the fights of Ip Man and not his life.