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Review: The Legend Is Born: Ip Man (葉問前) (2010)
I watched this movie a long time ago but I might as well watch it again. This was a very typical 2000s martial arts movie. The martial arts is the main draw. The story was a very typical patriotic story.
Spoilers.
Story
The story covered Ip Man as a young man, as a prequel to the popular Donnie Yen Ip Man movies in which he’s already the leader of a martial arts school. He briefly went to Hong Kong to attend school and learned some new martial arts, then returned home to Foshan. Back at home, there was conflict surrounding him learning martial arts from other sources and whether what he practised was proper Wing Chun. In addition, there was the patriotic story line related to fighting against the Japanese, in which it was revealed that Ip Man’s adopted brother/sworn brother was Japanese and doing work on behalf of the Japanese.
There were romantic story lines but they went nowhere. There was a shimei who had a crush on Ip Man but eventually married Ip Tin-chi. Ip Man himself was in love with Cheung Wing-sing. Wing-sing’s father didn’t approve of their relationship. At their most chaotic, Cheung Wing-sing fabricated an alibi to get bail Ip Man out of jail. But in the end there were no consequences to their love story so that was poorly executed.
I watched a Cantonese version of the movie and found the dialogue to be lacking. At times it felt that it was directly translated from Mandarin, but that was mostly for the actors who were dubbed and didn’t say their own lines (due to not being Cantonese speakers). What also annoyed me was the quality of dialogue. The conversations were not smooth and were very forced. The story itself was tropey so it wasn’t a surprise that the dialogue was as well.
Overall, mediocre story. Which was expected.
Production
Dennis To is a martial artist, not an actor. So on one hand, you have more interesting fighting scenes from him. On the other hand, he’s giving you nothing in terms of acting and dialogue. At least the fighting was good, which was what I was going to watch this for anymore. In addition, several of the other actors in this movie are martial artists, specifically Louis Fan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao.
Characters
Ip Man
I don’t know if they meant to be self-aware, but at one point, Wing-sing pointed out that Ip Man was pretty wooden. And he was. Ip Man had no personality other than being polite and occasionally cracking a joke. That being said, it somehow felt like Dennis To was playing himself so as a character he wasn’t the most poorly written and executed character I’d seen. But yeah he has no values. He’s all over the place.
Ip Tin-chi
Tin-chi was Ip Man’s sworn brother/adoptive brother. He was smuggled into China as a youngster from Japan, but this was only revealed at the very end. Tin-chi and Ip Man grew up mostly as brothers, and entered the Wing Chun school together. They were on amicable terms.
They only came to conflict after the death of Mei-wai’s godfather, in which Ip Man believed Tin-chi was behind the murder, but the Japanese assisted Tin-chi in framing Ip Man. It was afterwards that Ip Man and Tin-chi fought and Tin-chi revealed that he was Japanese,
Cheung Wing-sing
Wing-sing was Ip Man’s love interest. She was the daughter of a politician, who did not approve of their relationship. As rebellious daughters do, she disregarded her father’s match for her, and continued to pine after Ip Man. As mentioned, when Ip Man was in jail, she faked an alibi to get him out. Her father castigated her, but no consequences came of it. At the end of the movie, she had married Ip Man, moved to the school, and had a child with him.
Overall
Watch this for the martial arts only.
Spoilers.
Story
The story covered Ip Man as a young man, as a prequel to the popular Donnie Yen Ip Man movies in which he’s already the leader of a martial arts school. He briefly went to Hong Kong to attend school and learned some new martial arts, then returned home to Foshan. Back at home, there was conflict surrounding him learning martial arts from other sources and whether what he practised was proper Wing Chun. In addition, there was the patriotic story line related to fighting against the Japanese, in which it was revealed that Ip Man’s adopted brother/sworn brother was Japanese and doing work on behalf of the Japanese.
There were romantic story lines but they went nowhere. There was a shimei who had a crush on Ip Man but eventually married Ip Tin-chi. Ip Man himself was in love with Cheung Wing-sing. Wing-sing’s father didn’t approve of their relationship. At their most chaotic, Cheung Wing-sing fabricated an alibi to get bail Ip Man out of jail. But in the end there were no consequences to their love story so that was poorly executed.
I watched a Cantonese version of the movie and found the dialogue to be lacking. At times it felt that it was directly translated from Mandarin, but that was mostly for the actors who were dubbed and didn’t say their own lines (due to not being Cantonese speakers). What also annoyed me was the quality of dialogue. The conversations were not smooth and were very forced. The story itself was tropey so it wasn’t a surprise that the dialogue was as well.
Overall, mediocre story. Which was expected.
Production
Dennis To is a martial artist, not an actor. So on one hand, you have more interesting fighting scenes from him. On the other hand, he’s giving you nothing in terms of acting and dialogue. At least the fighting was good, which was what I was going to watch this for anymore. In addition, several of the other actors in this movie are martial artists, specifically Louis Fan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao.
Characters
Ip Man
I don’t know if they meant to be self-aware, but at one point, Wing-sing pointed out that Ip Man was pretty wooden. And he was. Ip Man had no personality other than being polite and occasionally cracking a joke. That being said, it somehow felt like Dennis To was playing himself so as a character he wasn’t the most poorly written and executed character I’d seen. But yeah he has no values. He’s all over the place.
Ip Tin-chi
Tin-chi was Ip Man’s sworn brother/adoptive brother. He was smuggled into China as a youngster from Japan, but this was only revealed at the very end. Tin-chi and Ip Man grew up mostly as brothers, and entered the Wing Chun school together. They were on amicable terms.
They only came to conflict after the death of Mei-wai’s godfather, in which Ip Man believed Tin-chi was behind the murder, but the Japanese assisted Tin-chi in framing Ip Man. It was afterwards that Ip Man and Tin-chi fought and Tin-chi revealed that he was Japanese,
Cheung Wing-sing
Wing-sing was Ip Man’s love interest. She was the daughter of a politician, who did not approve of their relationship. As rebellious daughters do, she disregarded her father’s match for her, and continued to pine after Ip Man. As mentioned, when Ip Man was in jail, she faked an alibi to get him out. Her father castigated her, but no consequences came of it. At the end of the movie, she had married Ip Man, moved to the school, and had a child with him.
Overall
Watch this for the martial arts only.