Revisiting: Ip Man 2 (2010)
I remember going to see Ip Man 2 at the New York Asian Film festival when it was the opening night film. Samo Hung and Simon Yam were going to be doing an introduction so I was extremely excited to hear them speak. When the actors finally came out, they expressed that they had just flown in from an extremely long flight and were very exhausted. They spoke very briefly about the film before leaving and I remember being kind of disappointed but understood that yes, it is a LONG flight to get here. Was this perhaps a bad omen?
After the movie finished and the credits started rolling, I remember the guy who was sitting next to me, leaned over to his friend, and asked, “…so that was Rocky 4 right…?”
Unfortunately for anyone who has seen Rocky 4 and goes into Ip Man 2 you can’t help but think they’re just a little too similar. Sure Rocky isn’t struggling to open a boxing school and later has to fight Apollo Creed in order to be accepted into the local boxing organization but……….SPOILERS…………….once Samo Hung’s character dies in the ring and Ip Man decides to fight the foreign boxer who killed him, you really do start to raise an eyebrow at the similarities. But let’s step back.
Ip Man 2 begins with his family now relocated to Hong Kong after the events of the first film. In a baffling odd inclusion, they decided to add a story element where Simon Yam’s character gets shot in the back of the head while they were fleeing the Japanese and now he’s mentally disabled. Um ok…
As I touched on before, Ip Man has opened his own martial arts school and begins taking on students, but he must fall in line with the local martial arts association’s rules and guidelines in order to do so. A small brawl breaks out where he saves one of his students from the other school’s disciples and he eventually fights against other local masters in order to prove his worth. Here we see he’s in a similar role as the antagonist of the first film and Ip Man shows that wing chun definitely has its place among the other practices. Friendships are formed and then drastically cut short when the true villains, the racist western devils appear and basically give Ip Man a reason to beat someone up for the honor of his country.
As a martial arts enthusiast, I was very disappointed with the fights in this film. While the first movie was pretty grounded in realism with only a few glaring instances of wire-fu, it never strayed into the realm of fantastical. Sadly, you can see some very obvious wire work in this movie from wooden crates spinning mid-air, to kung fu masters floating as they jump from chair to chair. Not all the choreography is like this but when it happens, it sticks out so much that you can’t help but feel slighted. It’s a shame because what Samo Hung managed to accomplish in the first film feels like he wasn’t even involved in this one.
Speaking of Samo, his conveniently named character Hung, is a new additional to the bloated character roster this movie throws at us. His fights are a mixed bag as his first encounter with Ip Man is so silly in execution, I couldn’t take him seriously as the film’s fight choreographer. Their duel on an unbalanced circular table does not fit in context of how physics work and because the first film established gravity as a real force, I’m just baffled as to how exactly these adversaries are not just falling over. Image two children slapping frantically at each other and this is pretty much what the fight culminates into visually. Suddenly the circular table they’re standing on breaks in half, our fighters somehow leap in the air and land on said pieces in perfect poses, and now I’ve pretty much checked out of this film.
Hung does fair better however when he goes up against the English boxer, Twister so I’m kind of drawn back for now. I guess Samo knew his character was going to bite the big one though and decided he didn’t want to go down like a bitch. I thought it was an interesting idea to have Chinese martial arts go up against western boxing because I don’t think I’ve ever seen this in a film before. Hung stands against Twister's power surprisingly well for the first half of the match and holds his own as they trade blow for blow. Yes there are still some obvious use of wire work but all in all, the choreography here isn’t as yawn enducing as the prior encounters. Because this is an Ip Man movie, our hero just HAS to give advice to his new found friend on tactics but really, it’s all lost on Hung, who’s definitely taken one too many hits to the head at this point. Also because this is an Ip Man movie, there’s no way Samo Hung’s character can defeat this western devil so let’s bring back his asthma that was implied in the previous fight. And wouldn’t you know? Lack of oxygen during an exhibition match can get you killed. If only there was a towel for Ip Man to throw in and stop all these shenanigans…
So now Ip Man has to avenge his death for the honor of everyone and China and bla bla bla oh yeah, his wife is pregnant and could go into labor soon. How about we develop their relationsh..NOPE not important, she goes off to live somewhere else so Ip Man can have a montage sequence. And boy what a lazy excuse for a montage it is. Donnie Yen doesn’t even bother taking off his shirt to work out. Missed opportunity here Mr. Director. Instead he practices the same old moves on that same old wooden dummy. No developing strategy or fighting tactics. Just a boring boring montage.
Oh right the final fight. So basically we just get the same retread of Hung vs Twister but wait! Ip Man is actually taking a slight beating. I guess wing chun isn’t as invincible as it……
Cut to flash back of Ip Man remembering the advice he tried to give to Hung in the last fight.
Ip Man uses said advice and manages to turn the tide in his favor.
Ip Man wins because he remembers his own advice.
My eyes roll out of their sockets.
Well I guess I’m mistaken and wing chun is indeed the nuke to all other martial arts. Cue Ip Man giving a “heartfelt” speech about respecting each other or something like that to the British audience and everyone clapping as he saves the honor of China and beats up racism. More obvious similarities to Rocky 4 again. Maybe Wilson Yip just really really liked that movie? Oh we forgot about the characters from the first movie who are still around, let’s cut to them listening on the radio and cheering this victory. Oh yeah Ip Man has a wife and she’s given birth. It feels like the script really wanted to have Ip Man celebrate with his students and just completely ignore her but because we already established he was a terrible father in the first movie, they make him go back to her. The next film should have been Ip Man using wing chun to defeat family obligations because it’s really the only thing that’s holding him back in all these movies.
TL;DR - You can skip Ip Man 2 and just go right to Ip Man 3. But….if you want something to complain about with other martial arts enthusiasts, you should watch this film.
Zero lends his thoughts on martial arts to the Fists of Fail podcast and also creates drink along reviews called Only Nice Things.
