I really like martial arts cinema. It’s been a giant a part of my beat since I joined the Polygon staff. However that hasn’t at all times been true.
The motion films I grew up with had been extra of the James Bond selection — numerous spy films, some superhero fare, with the occasional Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon snuck in. About 10 years in the past, I occurred to return throughout a flurry of fantastic trendy martial arts films all in the middle of every week. Undisputed 2: Final Man Standing, Common Soldier: Day of Reckoning, and Blood and Bone opened my eyes to what was attainable within the direct-to-video house. Nevertheless it was Wilson Yip and Donnie Yen’s Ip Man collection that cemented my curiosity within the style and pushed me to find extra.
Loosely based mostly on the lifetime of well-known Wing Chun grandmaster Ip Man, the flicks reunite Yip and Yen after the pair delivered consecutive bangers with SPL and Flash Level. The Ip Man films mix terrific struggle choreography with transferring period-piece storytelling, all revolving across the distinctive abilities of their main man, a film star working on the absolute top of his powers.
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Donnie Yen is among the many most charismatic and gifted film stars working right now. Western audiences could also be most conversant in him from his current roles in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and John Wick: Chapter 4, or from Shanghai Knights and Blade II. (He additionally served as Blade II’s motion choreographer). However he has an extended, lengthy historical past of utilizing his star energy to propel glorious Hong Kong motion films, and the Ip Man collection is simply one of many newest examples.
Yen’s unimaginable martial arts ability mixed with the collection’ choreography is the showiest a part of the flicks. However what elevates them to genuinely nice filmmaking is the best way they lean on his deep soulfulness to inform a transferring story. The Ip Man films cowl tragedies on each the non-public and nationwide degree, confronting oppression, cruelty, and the various methods individuals damage one another — not simply via bone-crushing blows.
And Yen is as much as the duty, imbuing Ip with a deep melancholy. He begins out as somebody who fights as a result of he desires to, partaking in pleasant competitions with fellow martial arts masters, however he ultimately fights as a result of he has to, defending the individuals and values he holds most pricey. The flicks’ narratives and Yen’s efficiency do a terrific job of constructing out this readability of function, making it simple for audiences to turn into deeply invested in his fights.
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There’s a lot extra to love concerning the Ip Man films, however the standout factor is the franchise’s glorious motion, helmed by the 2 most influential and completed martial arts administrators and choreographers of the fashionable period. Ip Man and Ip Man 2 have motion directed by Sammo Hung (finest recognized for his collaborations together with his childhood good friend Jackie Chan), whereas Ip Man 3 and Ip Man 4: The Finale have motion directed by Yuen Woo-ping (who helped launch Chan as a star with Drunken Grasp, and is understood internationally for his work on the Matrix films; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; and Kill Invoice). Of their arms (and Yen’s), the franchise’s struggle scenes sing, matching Ip towards a few of the premier display screen fighters working right now, together with Max Zhang, Louis Fan, Scott Adkins, and Hung himself.
The standout struggle from Ip Man sees an enraged Ip demanding to struggle 10 Japanese troopers (all black belts) after he sees them mistreat a fellow grasp. Till this level, Ip has been comparatively quiet and reserved, hesitant to deploy his prowess towards the Japanese troops occupying his house throughout the Second Sino-Japanese Conflict. However after he witnesses this merciless act towards a good friend and colleague, a change is flipped, and Ip brutally dispatches all 10 fighters in a ruthless show of Yen’s unthinkable velocity and martial arts ability.
Not content material to simply replay the hits, the later films add thrilling wrinkles to a few of their larger set-pieces. In Ip Man 2, Yen fights Sammo Held on prime of a barely balanced desk. In Ip Man 3, he fights former Tony Jaa stunt double Simon Kook in a tightly packed elevator whereas taking his spouse house from the hospital.
In every of those struggle scenes, the Ip Man films use spectacular choreography in service of the bigger story and character beats. Sure, they’re spectacular moments of spectacle, however they aren’t simply that. The perfect motion films use the great thing about our bodies in movement to indicate the methods we are able to specific anger, regret, pleasure, redemption, and a litany of different feelings not simply via phrases or facial expressions. There are few higher autos for that than Yen, an unbelievably expert martial artist with the appearing chops to match.
Together with Undisputed 2 (out there for digital rental or buy), Common Soldier: Day of Reckoning (free with advertisements on Crackle), and Blood and Bone (free with advertisements on Crackle), the Ip Man films had been welcoming gateways for me into the world of martial arts cinema, and now they are often for you, too. Simply be sure to catch them earlier than they depart Netflix on July 21.
In case you’re studying this after the flicks have left the platform, you possibly can nonetheless watch the primary three Ip Man films on Peacock, Hello-Yah!, free of charge with a library card on Hoopla or Kanopy, or free of charge with advertisements on Tubi, Crackle, and Pluto TV. You possibly can watch Ip Man 4: The Finale on Hello-Yah! or free of charge with a library card on Hoopla and Kanopy. For extra Ip Man goodness, I extremely advocate additionally testing Yuen Woo-ping’s Ip Man 3 spinoff Grasp Z: Ip Man Legacy (Peacock, Hello-Yah, free of charge with a library card on Hoopla and Kanopy, or free of charge with advertisements on Crackle, Pluto, and Freevee), and Wong Kar-wai’s very completely different tackle the Ip Man story, The Grandmaster (streaming on Prime, or free of charge with advertisements on Tubi).
For extra Donnie Yen excellence, take a look at Within the Line of Obligation 4 (free with advertisements on Tubi, Crackle, and Freevee), Wing Chun (out there for digital rental or buy on Amazon), and his earlier collaborations with Wilson Yip, SPL (free with advertisements on Tubi) and Flash Level (streaming on Peacock and Hello-Yah!, free of charge with a library card on Hoopla, or free of charge with advertisements on Tubi, Pluto, and Freevee).