Movie Watch: Ip Man

I remember my eldest's first reaction when I told her that I had bought this DVD. "IP Man? Is this movie about an IT guy? Something similar to The Social Network?"

If you had any such idea akin to my eldest above, rest assure that Ip Man is not some hacker trolling the internet. Take it out of your mind now. Ip Man is wonderfully written and if you watch it with an open mind, it will even surprise you.

The movie has been in circulation since 2008. But I only stumbled upon the movie recently when a Chinese friend recommended that we watch it. I was not the least bit skeptical in purchasing my own copy of the movie because most of the Chinese movies that I've watched with my family have not failed me yet. They've enjoyed most of the movies even if they could not understand a single word said and could only follow the subtitles.

Ip Man is an autobiographical look at the life of Yip Man, a martial arts grandmaster who later became the mentor of the famous Bruce Lee. The movie follows Yip Man's life in China and the hardship that followed during the Japanese invasion of China in 1937. He uses his knowledge and mastery to survive and in the end, after defeating a Japanese leader in a public martial arts fight, he gave hope to the Chinese people to break free from the abuse of the Japanese.

The storyline seems simple enough but it is beautifully portrayed and narrated. Donnie Yen, a Hong Kong actor, represented Yip Man with such subtlety. His mannerism, poise, in fact, his whole demeanor depicted that grandmasters do not need big muscles to be great men.

The DVD I had did not come in English and was only available in Cantonese with English subtitles. But you know what? The family enjoyed it. Hubby was really blown away with all the action scenes.

So if you want a night in and a good movie, go and borrow this DVD at your local rental shop now. You won't regret it.

See my post about the sequel here.