Rated: MA15+
Directed by: Li Liming
Produced by: Kai Pictures/Palm Entertainment
Starring: Dennis To, Yuan Li Ruo Xin, Michael Wong.
Mandarin with subtitles
‘It’s not important when you die, but how to live,’ says San Ye (Michael Wong), an honourable mobster who will deal in anything. But opium.
San Ye believes in the Axes – a gang of axe wielding martial artists. Ip Man (Dennis To) is a police captain. He believes in the law.
But when the Japanese start smuggling opium through the docks of Foshan, the Axes and the Law make unlikely allies.
The story gets way more complicated than just a drug smuggling feud.
There’re double crosses, triple crosses, with each rapid shift of scene spliced with another story so a Kung Fu fight cuts to a game of checkers, the game pieces like the black hats wielding axes. Or a misunderstanding leading to more Kung Fu fighting cutting to Ip Man’s wife having a baby (named Chun, of course).
Then there’s the classic comic character, the drunken uncle, who’s really a master in disguise and willing to fight. When bribed with the promise to pay for his wine for two years.
And that’s before the introduction of the Masked Man.
Based on the legendary teacher of Bruce Lee, Ip Man, there’s many other previous instalments of Ip Man movies out there: Ip Man (2008), Ip Man 2 (2010), Ip Man 3 (2015), the spin-off Master Z: Ip Man Legacy (2018) and another sequel Ip Man 4: The Finale (2019). The above directed by Wilson Yip and starring Donnie Yen.
This is the third time Dennis To plays the role of Ip Man, after 2010’s Ip Man: The Legend is born (directed by Herman Yau), and 2018’s Kung Fu League (directed by Jeff Lau).
So it’s a popular character, Ip Chun, the son of Ip Man, praising Dennis To as the most accurate portrayal of his father.
And there’s a lot of action here as the film dives from one thought to the next, keeping up the pace.
What wasn’t successful was the change in emotional tone.
The drama in, Ip Man: Kung Fu Master relies heavily on a cheesy soundtrack, at one point the lyrics part of the scene, so there’s this superficial skating over every opportunity for depth in the relationships just to get to the next part of the story as quickly as possible. But that pace doesn’t stop the story going to those tearful goodbyes at the train station or a sacrifice for family. And that’s OK because the film isn’t about the drama, the theme is more about Kung Fu versus Karate. Or is it?
The only foundation of the story is the honour of Ip Man and the setting up of those action, martial art scenes.
Although emotionally transparent, some of those action scenes were shot with vision, the camera shot from above to see the patterns of fighters running like water down a drain. A little like the emotional content of the film.
But if you can stomach the cheesy attempt at drama and the patriotic tone of good (Chinese) versus bad (Japanese), there’s some fun twists in the story that keeps the action entertaining.