Ip Man / Ip Man 2

These movies are about martial artist Ip Man (though I always knew of him as Yip Man; I guess the two are interchangeable), who is famous in the martial arts world not only for being the teacher of Bruce Lee, but for spreading Wing Chun... and, according to the movies, he did some other pretty amazing stuff, too. I'm not sure how much of it is true, but I wouldn't be surprised if all or most of it is. There are always wild stories about the feats of martial artists, especially "back in the day", but I've personally seen some things that make me wonder if the stories aren't exaggerated as much as they seem.

The movies aren't your average martial arts flicks, or, martial arts flicks are getting "better" and I just haven't noticed until now. Where most other new-ish martial arts movies I've seen concentrated more on doing crazy stunts, off-the-wall acrobatics, and lots of parkour, these are more dramatic, like Crouching Tiger or Hero, with a lot more focus on the story itself than just using the story to fill the spaces between the fight scenes. Also, they seem to have a higher budget than most martial arts movies. The scenes and the camera work and all the stuff you don't normally notice until it's lacking is all done very well.

Ip Man is played by Donnie Yen, who was in Iron Monkey, Hero, Blade II, and a bunch of other Hong Kong movies. He's pretty badass.

I don't think anyone really knows the true origins of Wing Chun, and I don't feel like looking on Wikipedia right now. When I was researching it (in the pre-internet days), the prevailing theory was that it was developed by fishermen for fighting on boats, and somehow ended up becoming mainly a woman's martial art. Supposedly this is why Bruce Lee learned it; his parents dressed him up as a girl to avoid the demon and blah blah you probably already know that story. Anyhow, the story starts with that idea in mind - Wing Chun as a woman's martial art.

And just for the record, if anyone was interested in learning a martial art and Wing Chun was an option, I would recommend it over anything else. It's simple - simplicity is one of its goals - and obviously effective, though if you don't practice and you fight someone else of any other style who does practice, you are going to lose, so... not saying I think it's better than any other style, just saying that it's easy to learn and as an American that appeals to me. It was a "woman's" martial art for so long because strength is not really a requisite, and as a lazy American, that also appeals to me.

All that being said, Tai Chi > *.*

Ip Man

(free streaming with Amazon Prime!)

This story starts with Ip Man as some sort of rich guy who just happens to be a badass master of Wing Chun in the Fu Shan (Foshan) province of China, which is renowned for its great martial artists from the Boxer Rebellion era and stuff (Wong Fei Hung, the kid from Iron Monkey, is probably the most famous). The Japanese invade and totally wreck the shit out of everything, and Ip Man and his family are left penniless and struggling to survive under the rule of the corrupt Japanese governor or whatever. The head Japanese guy is a martial arts fan, and so the inevitable happens. But there's a bunch of other stuff inbetween; betrayals, friends lost and gained, Ip Man starting to train people to defend themselves against the bandits who try to steal their meager earnings from their textile mill, and some miscellanous fighting.

Here's a crappy trailer that makes it look like the movie is nothing but fight scenes:

[video=youtube;5DDhFKURmas]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DDhFKURmas[/video]

Ip Man 2

This story starts a few years later, in Hong Kong, where Ip Man and his family have gone to escape the Japanese. Unfortunately, Hong Kong is under British rule... Ip Man tries to start up a martial arts school, but runs into trouble from the mafia-style association of martial arts teachers, and the corrupt British. Sammo Hung plays the head of the martial arts mafia-thing. Eventually there is a "tournament" to settle a dispute of sorts - namely, the death of one of the martial artists at the hands of some British asswipe - and of course our pal Ip Man ends up in it. This one was a little more lighthearted than the first movie (if you can consider people being beaten to death in the name of honor to be "lighthearted"), but the fight sequences were just as awesome, and whoever plays Ip Man's wife (Lynn Hung?) is just as hot.

Here's yet another trailer with just a crapload of fighting and nothing else, for Ip Man 2:

[video=youtube;ZC1XuSkpBxI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC1XuSkpBxI[/video]


Probably not many martial arts fans on this website, but hey... maybe someone will watch, and at the very least, be entertained!