Time to Watch All Ip Man Movies

You know what could be better than showing a good martial arts movie over the weekend? Diffusion six good martial arts movies during the weekend. There are few pleasures like killing an entire day watching guys get destroyed by expert choreography and fair enough emotional motivation, things Ip man the movies are excellent. Even better? You can stream them all on Netflix right now.

the Ip man the films are a quadrangle of martial arts films by Hong Kong director Wilson Yip starring Donnie Yen as the eponymous Ip Man. They’re mostly historical fiction: superhero movies about a real, extraordinary person doing a bunch of things he’s never done (and a few things he’s done). They rock, probably because they’re extremely quick and cowardly with the story.

At first, that doesn’t seem like something that would make a franchise. The first one Ip man The film is a radical yet succinct epic which achieves everything it sets out to do. He created the flourishing martial arts schools in the Chinese city of Foshan in the 1930s, where Ip Man mainly hides in plain sight. He is cultured and wealthy, and needing no income, does not feel obligated to open a school. Instead, he prefers to privately perfect his then obscure and ridiculed Wing Chun fighting style and spend time with his family. He’s quiet about his skills, but for those who are persistent, he’ll compel the occasional duel.

For an hour and 45 minutes, Ip man then quickly covers a decade of history. The Second Sino-Japanese War begins and the Japanese army invaded Foshan in 1937; Ip Man loses everything and is forced to do forced labor; the oppression of the occupiers causes anarchy to abound. Assaulted from all sides, Ip Man ultimately inspires his fellow human beings by training them both in Wing Chun to fight bandits and by participating in fights organized by General Miura (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi). Eventually, he challenges Miura himself, inspiring a revolt that allows Ip Man to escape with his family and start over in Hong Kong.

Ip man is popcorn cinema at its best, full of exciting, well-choreographed fights and historical dramas. But the reason it works so well is up to Donnie Yen. Yen’s performance portrays Ip Man as Mr. Rogers and Captain America, a friendly neighbor who can destroy your shit but is only really moved if there is a bully that needs to be checked out. But once he does? Watch man move is incredible – thanks in large part to the work of acclaimed choreographer Sammo Hung, who worked on the first two films.

The three suites that follow bear witness to Donnie Yen’s performance. They are even less interested in the biography than the original; most of the time, these are plots built to give Ip Man another reason to fight. But rather than making them repetitive – and they’re obviously worded – they become heartwarming in their rhythms. Taken together, they say more than any movie on its own.

While the films are all named after one man, the stories are always about a community. Following the plan established in the first film, Ip man films always begin with the emerging threat of a colonizing force. In the second film, a British boxer asserts his superiority by killing a Chinese man in the ring, insisting it was the victim’s fault, and daring others to attack him and prove him wrong. The plot of the third film is prompted by an American real estate developer (played by Mike Tyson) with plans to buy the land on which a school sits. The fourth takes place in San Francisco, as Ip learns about the racism faced by the people of Chinatown.

In the midst of all these conflicts, Ip Man is an anchor: always fair, always the best fighter, always kind. In combat, he is a marvel, separating his opponents with blindly quick blows but also grace. He rarely draws blood or leaves his enemies paralyzed, where the bad guys are relatively violent. The most effective threats against Ip Man come from men who practice fierce and brutal styles. Colonizers and cowards draw blood, not Chinese masters, unless they have to prove a point. Movies are, in fact, propaganda, just like American action movies.

the Ip man movies are political in the same way as disney sporting adventures like Remember the titans are political, flattening real life and the beliefs of its subjects in favor of soft nationalism and invoking brutal epoch racism against them. Like Steve Rogers, Ip is a man who seems to take off in time, an idealized version of a bygone era who is called upon to face the evils of the modern age. We’re not supposed to focus on the inequalities of this lost age, but rather on this superhero who represents him. And just like in a superhero movie, it’s appealing to see complex ailments reduced to bad men we can beat, if we’re patient, diligent, and stubborn enough to pick ourselves up every time we kick our ass.

A fascinating ride at Ip manThe latter’s success is how he effectively transformed Ip Man from the person into a popular character, as many other films have followed in the wake of Donnie Yen and Wilson Yip’s blockbuster. There is the famous director Wong Kar-wai The great master, a lyrical and beautiful film that uses the life of Ip Man to mourn the end of an era. Another movie, The legend is born – Ip Man is another studio’s attempt to stake a corner of the Ip Man mythos with an action-packed take on Ip’s early days. Master Z: Ip Man Legacy is a direct impact of Ip man 3, a crime story about Cheung Tin-Chi, who challenged Ip for the title of Grandmaster Wing Chun. (Among these, The great master and Master Z are also on Netflix and worth checking out.)

One of the central tensions of the Ip man is Ip’s desire to be a dedicated family man and also a master of martial arts. Usually an outside force compels him to reassert himself as a capable martial artist, and the dream of returning to full-time domesticity is postponed. The best example of this is in Ip Man 3, when challenged for the title of Grandmaster of Wing Chun by upstart Cheung Tin-Chi (Zhang Jin). Instead of responding, he chooses to stay home and dance with his sick wife, losing her title. It is this, and not the breathtaking fight scenes, that makes the Ip man such endearing films: there is a whole world that demands your time, your attention, your skills. Tackling this world can be rewarding and rewarding and difficult to walk away – but it’s also heroic to stay home and dance for as long as possible.