Ip Man

So this is the first movie I reviewed solely from the suggestions from people responding to my blog posts.  I definitely was not disappointed!  Here's the review:

Ip Man is based on a true story and for the most part revolves around a village where martial arts is well practiced in China and what happens there during the Japanese invasion in the Second Sino-Japanese War which coincided with World War II for the most part.  The actual character Ip Man later became a grandmaster of martial arts with many students, including the legendary Bruce Lee.

The film follows Ip Man, a peace loving martial artists who refuses to take any students despite many wanting to be taught by him.  He is essentially forced into teaching some of the villagers to give them a chance at self defense when the village falls into serious poverty during the invasion and people begin to get desperate.

Despite how often and how many fight scenes there are, I'd actually consider this movie as a drama first.  The fight scenes are extremely well done and flow seamlessly with the plot, which many martial arts style movies lack.  Every fight has a reason, and every one is important.

My only real issue with this movie is that it has what I call a bait character. Someone that is introduced early in the movie who you can tell right away is going to die to get the main character emotionally involved or to push the plot forward.  I'm sure you'll know exactly who I'm talking about upon your first watch.  It's not a big problem since this is so often used in cinema, but I'm tired of it, there are other ways to get the viewer involved without this technique.

Other than that, there is very little to say against this movie.  It's highly entertaining, has great art aspects, and the audio/visual in general is excellent.

Definitely check this one out.

Grade: A-