The fight scenes are good, but would be a lot better if we cared more for the characters. In previous installments of all of the other Ip Man movies and spin offs, they always build characters based on Chinese virtues. This is usually contrasted with western virtues. I believe the producers of "Ip Man Universe" if you will, do this because of the contrast between traditional Chinese ways during Ip Man's life in Hong Kong vs the changes that took place after the revolution by the Maoists and the British rule in Hong Kong. However, America was never an enemy of the Chinese residing in Hong Kong at this time. The thing I love about the Ip Man Universe is how they emphasize the virtues of Chinese culture.
The bias here in this film diminishes the quality of the story. When I say bias, I mean the blatant catering to modern days "post-Obama" global politics. Every white person is apparently racist in San Francisco 1970s according to this movie. Immigration officers apparently have unlimited power of arrest and detention and the Marines are more concerned with beating up Chinese than they are about training recruits. Utter nonsense! The final battle in the movie based on American white people as the ultimate bad guys is preposterous. The globalist message of this movie should be an embarrassment to the film makers. Look at Hong Kong today! The people are being slaughtered because of the Chi-Coms as they hold up signs inspired by western democracy.
On the plus side, Donnie Yen is a master of portraying Ip Man as a kind-hearted virtuous hero. I believe Donnie Yen exemplifies this character better than any other actor. I would have liked to see a lot more character development regarding his son Ip Chun who is portrayed as a bitter young man who eventually realizes his father is dying and he seeks to bond with him. It is a good set up to Ip Man The Final Fight starring Anthony Wong. The minor involvement of the Bruce Lee character in the film is also not very well developed. The actor who played him was a decent look-a-like but there was hardly any involvement of the character in the climax scenes so it comes across as being a sort of "shiny object" that will attract viewers to the film. At this point in the Ip Man Universe there is no need to lure people into a theater to watch the film, Ip Man stands on his own. I think the biggest flaws in this iteration of the series is that it doesn't develop any supporting characters that we can care about. The closest they come to creating a character the audience can care about is the Chinese daughter of the CBA chairman. The actress did a very good job here of endearing us to her character as she bonds with Ip Man.
My final conclusion is that you should see the film but definitely watch other films in the Ip Man Universe as well, especially I recommend Ip Man: The Legend is Born. Which includes the real Ip Chun in a supporting role. But this is still a good martial arts movie for the fight choreography, but again they could have improved this by bringing back Sammo Hung as the choreographer, sadly this film doesn't measure up to the films that involved Sammo which were Ip Man 1 & 2 based on his earlier movies "The Prodigal Son" and "Warriors Two." Anyway, I sound really critical here but it is still a good movie please go see it because it is a very good Hong Kong style kung fu movie.
Review by Bryan “Ironman” StarkVIP 2BlockedParent2020-02-15T16:51:40Z
The fight scenes are good, but would be a lot better if we cared more for the characters. In previous installments of all of the other Ip Man movies and spin offs, they always build characters based on Chinese virtues. This is usually contrasted with western virtues. I believe the producers of "Ip Man Universe" if you will, do this because of the contrast between traditional Chinese ways during Ip Man's life in Hong Kong vs the changes that took place after the revolution by the Maoists and the British rule in Hong Kong. However, America was never an enemy of the Chinese residing in Hong Kong at this time. The thing I love about the Ip Man Universe is how they emphasize the virtues of Chinese culture.
The bias here in this film diminishes the quality of the story. When I say bias, I mean the blatant catering to modern days "post-Obama" global politics. Every white person is apparently racist in San Francisco 1970s according to this movie. Immigration officers apparently have unlimited power of arrest and detention and the Marines are more concerned with beating up Chinese than they are about training recruits. Utter nonsense! The final battle in the movie based on American white people as the ultimate bad guys is preposterous. The globalist message of this movie should be an embarrassment to the film makers. Look at Hong Kong today! The people are being slaughtered because of the Chi-Coms as they hold up signs inspired by western democracy.
On the plus side, Donnie Yen is a master of portraying Ip Man as a kind-hearted virtuous hero. I believe Donnie Yen exemplifies this character better than any other actor. I would have liked to see a lot more character development regarding his son Ip Chun who is portrayed as a bitter young man who eventually realizes his father is dying and he seeks to bond with him. It is a good set up to Ip Man The Final Fight starring Anthony Wong. The minor involvement of the Bruce Lee character in the film is also not very well developed. The actor who played him was a decent look-a-like but there was hardly any involvement of the character in the climax scenes so it comes across as being a sort of "shiny object" that will attract viewers to the film. At this point in the Ip Man Universe there is no need to lure people into a theater to watch the film, Ip Man stands on his own. I think the biggest flaws in this iteration of the series is that it doesn't develop any supporting characters that we can care about. The closest they come to creating a character the audience can care about is the Chinese daughter of the CBA chairman. The actress did a very good job here of endearing us to her character as she bonds with Ip Man.
My final conclusion is that you should see the film but definitely watch other films in the Ip Man Universe as well, especially I recommend Ip Man: The Legend is Born. Which includes the real Ip Chun in a supporting role. But this is still a good martial arts movie for the fight choreography, but again they could have improved this by bringing back Sammo Hung as the choreographer, sadly this film doesn't measure up to the films that involved Sammo which were Ip Man 1 & 2 based on his earlier movies "The Prodigal Son" and "Warriors Two." Anyway, I sound really critical here but it is still a good movie please go see it because it is a very good Hong Kong style kung fu movie.