The Legend Is Born: Ip Man (2010)

Riding on the heels of Ip Man 1 & 2's success, this prequel is an alternate version of the earlier years of Ip Man's life in Foshan, China when he was just learning the art of Wing Chun. Under the tutelage of Chan Wah Shun (bizzarely played by Sammo Hung with the same look and cloth as his Hung Gar character in Ip Man 2), Ip Man went through rigorous Wing Chun training, while building friendship with two other classmates and a stunted courtship with his future-wife-to-be.The narrative suffers from overtly fictitious setup, with a strange concept of Japanese youth spies sent to China to infiltrate the society ala Infernal Affairs. Then there is the pleasantly quirky encounter with Leung Bik in Hong Kong, played by Ip Chun himself, the character Ip Man learnt non-orthodox Wing Chun techniques including high kicks, wrestling and trapping movements.It was nice to see Yuen Biao again on the silverscreen, in a limited role as Ng Chung Sok. The production value of the movie is certainly on par with the previous two movies, but little can be said of the story, acting and fight sequences.They border on the mediocre and superfluous, although one would welcome the toned down nationalistic sentiment which plagued Ip Man2.Overall, it was a fun movie to rent, but falls flat when compared to its predecessors. Director Wilson Yip wisely declined directing this prequel for a good reason. How many times can they milk the cow?

Based on some of the reviews, I feel this film is misunderstood.It is somewhat harsh to compare Yu-Hang (Dennis) To's to Donnie Yen's portrayal of Ip Man because Donnie has been an actor for a long time. From a martial arts standpoint, Donnie's portrayal of Wing Chun in his two Ip Man films were often not a correct rendition of the form, as he had no Wing Chun background, but took a crash course just prior to filming and his fights in the film were often not Wing Chun. What we saw on Donnie's Ip Man films were more arts than reality of Wing Chun combat techniques.On the other hand, Dennis To is a Wing Chun champion in Hong Kong and is not an actor by background. He might lack acting prowess but he more than makes it up in Wing Chun abilities. Dennis was correctly portraying Wing Chun techniques in the film, especially the lesser known Wing Chun moves, such as the high kicks, use of knives and staff. Dennis is the pupil of the director of this film, who himself is also trained in Wing Chun and is the pupil of Ip Chun and he wanted a true exposition of the real Wing Chun combat techniques in this film through his pupil Dennis To, and which Dennis loyally exhibited the form to his master's delight. The Wing Chun sparring scene between Ip Chun and Dennis is a masterpiece, so was the sparring between Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao (he was one of the doubles for Bruce Lee in Game of Death when he died). Incidentally, both Sammo and Yuen Biao are older pupils from the same master as Donnie Yen, so they are 'colleagues'. One should view The Legend is Born: Ip Man in this context to appreciate what we saw in Donnie Yen's Wing Chun are often fancy moves and not real Wing Chun, while we saw a far more accurate rendition of its techniques here by Dennis To. Hopefully, one can appreciate the finer qualities of this film which it truly deserves.

"The Legend Is Born: Ip Man" is a film which chronicles Ip Man in his teenage years which focuses much on his learning of Wing Chun. The film is a prequel to the previous two Ip Man films which starred Donnie Yen as the titular character of Ip Man. Now, the star has been changed and the film has gotten a different style.First, let me tell you about the cast. The cast choosing here in this movie can be called really bizarre. Dennis To who became a temporary minor antagonist on "Ip Man 2" became the teenage titular character in this prequel. That totally got me shocked. It's so rare to see such happening. Then, we have some of the same cast used in the previous Ip Man films on a different role such as Sammo Hung (plays the teacher of the teenage Ip Man) and Louis Fan (plays the brother of Ip Man). That was really confusing. But, something surprised me. A character named Leung Bik was played by the son of Ip Man no other than Ip Chun. Secondly, there are quite a lot of perspectives. There are around six perspectives here which really got me confused. There's one from Ip Man, then one for his brother, his love, his other jealous love and the enemy. It really got my mind turning around. Next, the special effects were kind of cheesy. There were two scenes that showed a train leaving somewhere to somewhere. You know that those trains produce smoke. The smoke was pretty fake as it didn't suit the background. It was not good.The acting of the characters. Not bad. Dennis To on Ip Man was not bad at all. The others were also normal. Just like a normal movie. The emotions were well acted by the actors.Then we have the action scenes. They were also well directed. But, I still say the previous two films related to Ip Man still had better action scenes than this prequel. The moves were less cooler than the previous two pictures. But, it's not really cheesy. Not a problem.This movie has a different style. It has a different theme. "Ip Man" and "Ip Man 2" had the theme where the people were seeking freedom (although "Ip Man 2" was not totally about seeking freedom). Whereas, this movie has a different theme of love. For me, the freedom theme from the previous two films is only a small percent of the film. The directing and division of the emotional moments are also differently set. There's also another confusing thing. If you've watched "Ip Man" and "Ip Man 2", you might notice that the titular character of Ip Man doesn't know English at all. He didn't even speak any word in English language. But, in this PREQUEL, he is able to speak English quite fluently. He also spoke to an English or American person in this movie. That was strange and that totally made my mind confused too.Well, the movie provided some sad moments too. But, they were not so sad, they were only like 40% sad moments for me. But, if you're easy to cry, you might want to just provide a piece of tissue in case you have tears flowing down your face.The movie is different from the previous two Ip Man related films. I say this is worse than the previous ones. I'm not really satisfied with the result of the film. The previous films were much better than this. But, this movie might just entertain you with its action scenes. I half- heartedly recommend you this movie. It's still entertaining to be watched and not really a waste of time. 6 stars for this movie.

Producer Checkley Sin had long wanted to make a movie about Ip Man, but it wasn't until he met veteran producer Raymond Wong that his plans came to fruition. Raymond brought on board undeniably the two most crucial elements that made Ip Man and Ip Man 2 such resounding successes- lead star Donnie Yen and action director Sammo Hung. With newfound interest in the subject and his newfound credibility, the real-life Wing Chun practitioner and disciple of Ip Chun (eldest son of Ip Man) has finally been able to make his own movie about Ip Man- without for that matter, Donnie or Raymond."Ip Man: The Legend is Born" takes place before the first Ip Man movie and chronicles the younger days of the Wing Chun pugilist. From a young age, Ip Man was already learning Wing Chun from Chan Wah-Shun (played by Sammo Hung), and then subsequently from Leung Bik (played by Ip Chun) when his father sent him to Hong Kong's St Stephen's College to study. Unlike the first two movies which arguably took some creative liberties with Ip Man's story, this prequel tries to be a more accurate biography of the life of the Grandmaster.I say more accurate because audiences should know that though this film takes itself very seriously, sometimes too seriously, as a biography of Ip Man, it is only a semi-biography. Those familiar with Ip Man's history will immediately know that he had no adopted brother by the name of Ip Tin- Chi (played by Louis Fan Siu-Wong) and by extension, no romantic triangle with Tin-Chi and a fellow disciple (Rose Chan). Why these characters were added into the film becomes clear only much later- but this also ultimately proves to be its undoing.For almost two-thirds of the film, director Herman Yau sets up an interesting premise about the rivalry between descendant schools of the same martial arts form. Leung Bik was in fact Chan Wah-Shun's elder fellow-disciple, and son of Wah-Shun's master Leung Jan. When Ip Man returns to Foshan after learning a modified form of Wing Chun from Leung Bik, Brother Chung Sok (Yuen Biao) who is in charge of the Wing Chun school after Wah-Shun's passing objects to Ip Man's new techniques and declares those movies unfitting to be called Wing Chun.The opposition among different schools of Wing Chun is no doubt an interesting and in fact prescient topic to explore, considering how the number of Wing Chun schools would have increased dramatically in recent years following the success of the Ip Man movies. How many of them can claim to be teaching authentic Wing Chun? Have the techniques been modified over the years? Does any form of refinements in fact dilute their essence? Despite a promising discourse on the subject between Chung Sok and Ip Man, screenwriter Erica Li abruptly casts the matter aside in favor of more dramatic tension by way of Ip Man and Ip Man 2.Ah yes, both Ip Man and its sequel advocated a strong sense of nationalistic pride for the Chinese as Ip Man fought against the Japanese in the first movie and the 'gwai-los' in the sequel. The threat of the Japanese is once again revived in this prequel- which accounts for the sudden change in tone in the last third of the film- as someone close to Ip Man turns out to be more than meets the eye. Yes, the filmmakers have tried to work in a twist at the end, but it is not only rushed, it is also unconvincing.It doesn't help that the climax is only barely more interesting than the rest of the unspectacular fight sequences in the movie. Though the film tries to showcase some rarely before seen Wing Chun techniques, these are lost amidst a bland performance by Dennis To. He may bear the physical resemblance to Donnie Yen, but Dennis lacks Donnie's screen charisma and acting prowess. Obviously imitating Donnie's understated performance as Ip Man, Dennis takes it one step too far by not injecting enough emotion especially in the fight sequences. Sure Dennis can fight, but by playing it too low-key, one never gets the sense that Ip Man is in any sort of real trouble.But really, the fault isn't with Dennis since neither director Herman Yau, screenwriter Erica Li nor of course producer Checkley Sin seem adventurous enough to move out of the shadow cast by the earlier two Ip Man movies. So the cast remains largely similar (except for swapping of roles), the theme remains largely similar and Dennis tries to portray similarly Donnie Yen's performance as Ip Man. That's a shame- given that there is much wasted potential here that could have been used to take this prequel in a bold new direction away from the earlier films. This prequel could very well have taken a leaf from its own advice from Ip Man to Chung Sok- without change, how can there be progress? Indeed, how true.