Ip Man 2

Ip Man 2 (Yip Man 2) (2010)

Runtime: 108 minutes

Directed by: Wilson Yip

Starring: Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung, Lynn Hung, Xiaoming Huang, Darren Shahlavi

From: Several different Chinese companies

Quite simply, I had nothing I needed to watch last night so I selected this motion picture and watched it via Amazon streaming. It's not the first movie but it's still pretty good, I guess. Read all the details below in my Letterboxd review:

Nothing was on the agenda and I watched the first Ip Man a few days ago so I figured it was time to see its first sequel. Originally it was going to be about Bruce Lee but there were rights issues (which also reared their ugly head during the third film; that was eventually cleared up) so you only saw him in a brief scene at the very end as a kid. Instead, it was about swinging 1950's Hong Kong.

The plot revolves around how the British that ruled Hong Kong at the time were discriminatory against the Chinese, and how some kowtowed to them; a character played by Sammo Hung did this and he controls which martial arts clubs operate in the city. Yip Man isn't down with that so there's conflict. After a real Rocky IV moment (to steal a statement from various Letterboxd users; there certainly is a scene where you expect a character to yell, “throw the damn towel!”) Yip suddenly has to defend the honor of his countrymen against a cocky British boxer, played by the late Darren Shahlavi.

The movie dispenses with the idea of this being an accurate version of what happened in Man's life. It's rather loosely based, what with all the wire-fu and broad stereotypical villains who might as well be Snidely Whiplash, twirling their mustaches. It's not very realistic. Yet I was still entertained. While cliched at times, it's still rousing storytelling, and the film is still well-made, with very memorable fighting sequences; the big one involving a bunch of people wielding machetes is the best, IMO. More than one character from the first movie makes a surprise appearance. And Donnie Yen is still a great man.

It's not the original film but despite it being different it's still an entertaining watch.