Ip Man: The Final Fight

Plot

In 1949, Ip Man, who has been suffering from chronic gastric pain, travels alone to Hong Kong. He starts by teaching Wing Chun on the rooftop of a building which houses a hotel staffs general association. He meets and accepts new students, including Tang Shing, Leung Sheung, Wong Tung, Lee King and Chan Sei-mui. During that period of time, Ip Mans wife, Cheung Wing-sing, also comes to Hong Kong to join her husband, but returns to Foshan shortly after because life in Hong Kong is hard. The couple never saw each other again because Cheung died not long after returning to Foshan. His son Ip Chun comes from Foshan to Hong Kong to join him.

Ip Man: The Final Fight portrays a more realistic account of Ip Mans life in Hong Kong. He struggles against the vicissitudes of life and has to cope with his gastric pain. He also insists on having a relationship with the singer Jenny after his wifes death, even though his students strongly object to it. He also gets into conflict with Ng Chung, a White Crane Style master, but they become friends later. When Wong Tung gets into trouble with a mob boss called Local Dragon, Ip Man and his students show up and rescue Wong. Ip Man also defeats Local Dragon in a fight, captures him, and hands him over to the police. After the fight, he briefly meets Bruce Lee and Lees two students. The film ends with Ip Man practising Wing Chun on a wooden dummy while Ip Chun records it on a camera, followed by actual footage of the real-life Ip Man doing the same thing.

Cast

Production

Anthony Wong said in an email interview with Singapores The New Paper that he was drunk when director Herman Yau called him and asked him if he would like to portray Ip Man in his movie, and he replied "yes". Although he regretted his decision later, he eventually agreed after reading the script. To prepare for his role, Wong went on a diet and started practising Wing Chun on a wooden dummy given to him by producer Checkley Sin.

Ip Mans elder son, Ip Chun, who played Leung Bik in Herman Yaus previous Ip Man film, The Legend Is Born – Ip Man (2010), makes a cameo appearance in Ip Man: The Final Fight as the shop owner who lets Ip Man use the phone in his shop. The story of Ip Man: The Final Fight was written by Checkley Sin (one of the films producers), who is a student of Ip Chun.

Checkley Sin invested over HK$100 million for the construction of the Xiqiao DreamWorks film studio in Mount Xiqiao, Foshan, Guangdong, recreating sets that imitate colonial Hong Kong of the early 1950s. Principal photography took place in August 2012 at the studio. Anita Yuen remarked that she felt like she had travelled back in time after entering the studio.

Release

Ip Man: The Final Fight was the opening film at the 37th Hong Kong International Film Festival on 17 March 2013. It was released in mainland China on 22 March 2013, and in Hong Kong theatres on 28 March. Ip Man: The Final Fight was chosen for the 2013 San Diego Asian Film Festival.

Reception

Deborah Young of The Hollywood Reporter wrote:

... Herman Yaus Ip Man - The Final Fight is an enjoyable if far less sophisticated tale that nostalgically taps into Hong Kong cinema of yesteryear, while still delivering considerable excitement in the fight scenes. Offshore, it may hitch a ride with dyed-in-the-wool martial arts fans on the coattails of The Grandmaster, but more likely will get lost in the shadow.

Yvonne Teh of South China Morning Post wrote:

And while veteran writer Erica Li Mans treatment of the Ip Man story can at times feel like its been stretched too thin, her script helps to flesh out the principles of wing chun and provide an added layer to the martial art whose moves action choreographers Li Chung-chi and Checkley Sin Kwok-lam have captured to great effect in this movie.

Hong Kong film director Patrick Kong commented in Headline Daily:

The most exciting part is actually Anthony Wongs vivid performance. He brought Ip Mans emotions to life. That is not acting, its a way of getting along swimmingly [with his character], something that cannot be described in words. Only through watching can we feel it and discover that its breathtaking.

Hong Kong film critic Sek Kei said:

One of the advantages of Ip Man: The Final Fight is that it has a good mix of culture, martial arts, nostalgia and realism. However, disappointingly, it avoids the actual political situation of that era. It does not mention the civil war nor the riots in Hong Kong during Ip Mans time, so it fails to reflect the truth in history.