Every few years, a martial arts movie comes along that’s worth watching by mainstream audiences – Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) was one, Ip Man (2008) is another. Very loosely based on the life of Bruce Lee’s kung fu teacher, the plot tracks how he, his family, friends and rivals struggled through the Japanese occupation of China in WWII. While Yip Man’s exploits are exaggerated to the level of legend and even sainthood, viewers can still connect with Donnie Yuen’s conflicted martial arts master-protagonist.

The choreography is stunning and on the whole seems realistic – no flying around on wires here – and even the uninitiated can appreciate Donnie Yuen’s spare, elegant ‘Wing Chun’ style in contrast to his opponent’s. Only jarring note is the ra-ra Chinese propaganda and the caricatured portrayal of at least one Japanese character, but it’s not any worse than Hollywood’s jingoism, especially given estimates that more than twice as many Chinese civilians died due to Japanese WWII atrocities (12-23M) than did Jews in the Holocaust (5-6M).

½ (out of 5)

P.S. While Hong Kong cinema (like Hollywood) produces a lot of trash, there are some gems that are worth tracking down.  For example, let me plug Infernal Affairs (2002), which was remade by Martin Scorsese as the Oscar-winning The Departed (2006), but which in my view is far superior: characters, storytelling structure, pacing, were all masterfully constructed. Scorsese’s best scenes were pulled shot-for-shot from the original, but he directed them in such a way as to reduce their dramatic impact … what are you waiting for, go and see it!