This film – directed by Wilson Yip and with Donnie Yen in the title role – seems to take as a platform for departure, the old saying ‘why let the truth get in the way of a good story’. Of course this can be a good thing from an entertainment perspective, but take the story with a grain of salt. Ip Man opens in a shroud of mist – presumably cast to encourage suspended disbelief – with credits emerging from then disappearing again. An overture sets an epic template for things to come, the credits are brought to an end by the grand entrance of the films title accompanied by the silhouette of one Muk Yan Jong (the wooden practice dummy used by Wing Chung practitioners).
This is a mythologised account of Ip Man’s time during the second Sino-Japanese War during the 1930’s and 1940’s. At the time Japan’s sun was on the rise and was attempting to gain control of regional territories and resources. The people of China were in turn subjected to harsh treatment from an invading foe that has formally claimed to have had the intention of “racial liberation from white rule” which in turn cost the lives of some 20 million Chinese. The wounds of this are still a delicate issue in regional politics; Japan has still not denounced its motives and actions of that time. Around the personal story of Ip Man this film creates a mythology of one man making a stand which inspires many.
And Ip Man has attributes that are easy to build a myth around. He was the peerless master of his art at the time and he went on to mentor among others a young Bruce Lee. Man’s story is an attractive platform to mobilise a national struggle from. This film fits snugly into the Martial Arts genre where one man by his force of will and skill alone can take on adversity reluctantly and eloquently triumph.
In the film Man leads a somewhat hermetic life of wealth; he gracefully refuses to take on pupils, prefers to spend his days practicing his art then idling away the small hours with family and hobbies. This all changes with the Japanese invasion, Man’s fall from privileged grace to a black pit of self doubt brings on something of an ‘age of reason’ where questions of what is to be done and civic responsibility haunt the demoralised Man. After the atrocities that he witnesses Man is forced to reformat his life. And if anything of the Martial Arts genre is known, then one will know where things go from here.
Most of the characters are cut out and their developments are in the service of the collective mobilising narrative played out in the film. But this doesn’t stop Ip Man being an enjoyable film that allows the space for some genuine reflection, ruminations upon Confucian philosophic enlightenment and its place in Chinese society which is polemically positioned against a portrayal of Japanese unrefinemen and lack of honour. All this is tucked in amidst some very well choreographed and executed fight scenes that lead to an ecstatic yet solitary reflection that practice can make perfect.
Ip Man as a film can be taken two ways, as a straight out Martial Arts bio-pic or as a subtle piece of mainstream propaganda that continues the recent resurgence and reintroduction of Confucian ideas into Chinese culture that have since the dawn of the Peoples Republic been exiled. So go along for a ride but don’t get taken for a ride.
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