Revisiting: Ip Man 3 (2015)
And now we’re coming to a close with the Ip Man trilogy as I finally revisit Ip Man 3. If you want, catch up on my write ups of Ip Man and Ip Man 2. Let’s also pretend Master Z and Ip Man 4 don’t exist for the time being ;) Ip Man 3 definitely washes out that bad taste of the prior film despite also having more boxing in it. I’m wondering if the film makers responded to the complaints from that movie and tried to fix them in this one? Let’s find out.
Ip Man 3 opens up with a pandering cameo from a now older Bruce Lee who wants to study under the wing chun master. In an origin story that someone is probably trying to get financed, I’m imaging Bruce Lee as a child getting his nose dirty and his mother constantly scolding his because he’s not wiping it clean. Or something even more stupid than that, like his nose gets covered in blood after witnessing the death of a family member and he can never wipe the stains off? Whoa, I’m going way off course here. So we’re treated to so some incredibly silly shots of Ip Man flicking cigarettes at Bruce while he kicks them in slow motion and letting out his signature high pitched battle cries. Ip Man finishes off Bruce by throwing some CG water at him and the actor, character, and audience are now all embarrassed by what just happened.
But let’s move forward. Like with the last Ip Man movie, the story is pretty forgettable and just there to throw cannon fodder (or in this case fist fodder?) into Donnie Yen’s general vicinity. For some reason, and I’m pretty sure they never tell us why, Mike Tyson wants to get the property where the local school resides and sends thugs to bully their way into taking it over. It’s a good thing Ip Man’s son goes to school there, otherwise that building would probably be a brand new boxing gym because I’m just making up my own story at this point. Ip Man decides that he and his students will protect the school since the police have better things to do like………………oh well who cares, how are the fight scenes?
Taking over for Samo Hung from the first 2 films is famous action choreographer Yeun Woo-ping. It’s an interesting change that adds some more variety to the film as it seems like the second movie was kind of running out of ideas. The first big set piece has the local gang fighting Ip Man and his students resulting in a mess of a brawl. My problem with Yeun’s action set pieces are that while they are wide in visual scope and feature some nice crane shots, Donnie Yen seems like he’s sleeping through these scenes as he nonchalantly walks around beating people up in a very carefree fashion. Sure he has his signature speed and 100 hand slap (punch) but they’re not really doing anything new to keep me interested.
“What if we have him jump on the side railing of stairs and make his way down? It looks cool right?”
No, that’s not doing anything for me either.
Things do start to change up when Max Zhang’s character, Cheung joins the fight and displays his own version of wing chun. He becomes an interesting counter to Ip Man as his moves show off more aggression and power and his take downs feel more brutal as he literally sends his attackers flying across the screen. I hope Donnie Yen wakes up from sleep fighting because Max Zhang is definitely one to watch out for.
This same scenario pretty much happens later in the film after some school children are kidnapped and held for ransom except now the location is at a ship yard. Ip Man literally walks in holding his big dick, I mean stick, and another giant brawl ensues. It’s all just ok, I guess. Punches, kicks, zooming crane shots, and a whole lot of extras running into Donnie Yen attacks make up for another mediocre fight scene. Once again when Cheung joins the fight, the action gets a little more interesting. It’s here where the film really starts to develop some bad blood between the two wing chun fighters because as the scene finishes, Ip Man stands on top of some scaffolding holding his son close tight as the police and press swarm into the warehouse. The camera man takes the very obvious hero shot and Ip Man is publicized as the one who saved the school children. Meanwhile, Cheung is actually arrested even though he saved a majority of the kids without anyone realizing.
Thankfully, the tail end of the film throws up 3 pretty great encounters that all vary in style. Ip Man and his wife stand in an elevator but just before the door closes, a Muy Thai fighter enters with them. Here we have some great shot composition as everything is framed in an uncomfortably close way as the doors close, Ip Man steps in front of his wife, and the Muy Thai fighter takes off his shoes. An odd choice but one that actually comes back around. The fight here is very tense as the close quarters of this tiny elevator gives Ip Man little room to move as he dodges knees and elbows, all while shielding his wife from the incoming attacks. It’s short but a great taste of things to come as the two men exit the elevator and continue the fight outside. We’re treated to a great one take overhead shot as the 2 fight counter clockwise down the stairs with Ip Man playing the defensive position. It ends as Ip Man knocks the Muy Thai fighter down the stairs and it’s still all in the one take. The fight actually ensues and they progress down to the next set of stairs with only one moment of obvious wire work momentarily taking you out of it. Ip Man finally uses his adversary’s lack of attire to his advantage and steps on his toes to gain the upper hand. It sounds silly in writing but watching it all unfold actually makes sense and it’s a nice win for the wing chun master. Without skipping a beat, cue the elevator doors and his wife steps out unfortunately missing one of the best choreographed fight scenes the series has to offer.
Now that the viewers are engaged again the movie throws another fight at us as Ip Man conveniently locates Mike Tyson’s lair and the 2 square off: Wing Chun vs Boxing Part 2. Based on what we got from this scenario in the last film, I went in ready to hate this fight but it’s actually staged very well. This time, we’re no longer constrained to the limitations of an actual ring and no man needs to fight by any rules besides the timer Mike Tyson sets up. Despite how silly Mike Tyson sounds trying to speak the few lines he has in Chinese, he’s definitely an intimidating force and comes across much more threatening than the boxer, Twister, in the last movie. His punches obviously overpower Ip Man as he’s struggling to find a way to take out this larger and much stronger foe. In a great moment, Ip Man actually decides to change his strategy and approach the boxer from a different angle. GENIUS! (I’m not being sarcastic) He goes lower to combat Mike Tyson’s limited leg work and then begins blocking his punches using his elbows in order to psychically weaken his hands. After some quicker cuts and tighter close ups, the time runs out and we’re left at a stalemate. The only loser here being the CG windows that Mike Tyson knocked out during the fight. And then we never see Mr. Tyson again.
Oh I almost forgot, the movie also TRIESSSSSS to give his wife something more to do than just bearing his child………
By letting her die of cancer………………really? *Groans out loud*
Even if this is based on factual accounts it’s pretty sad that her character was reduced to a hindrance of Ip Man and basically holds him back from being happy; which it sounds like they were actually implying at the end of the movie. *Throws CG water at the screen writer* At least this story element does bring out some actual emotion from Ip Man later in the film. Donnie Yen does a good job at displaying grief and despair over the inevitable situation and it’s a welcomed departure from his dull, stoic straight face.
Since Ip Man defeated who we thought was the big bad of the film and the credits haven’t rolled yet, it’s now Cheung’s turn to reveal himself as the final boss as the plot fast forwards his progress of becoming the new wing chun master with newspaper clipping. Yes, they really do this. Will an Ip Man movie ever consolidate its cast and just give us one villain to fully develop?
Doesn’t matter! Because it’s now wing chun vs wing chun as Ip Man and Cheung fight to see who’s stick is bigger. They both look about the same size so I guess we’re going to judge by their motions here. This fight is broken up into 3 sections, with the first having our fighters swinging their big black poles at each other (no lie) and it unfortunately feels too slow because those things have a little too much weight to them. Someone also thought it would be a good idea to show how powerful these fighters are by having WOODEN poles break through CONTRETE using obvious computer graphics.
Seriously? STOP DOING STUFF LIKE THIS! *Throws CG water at the person who greenlit this decision*
Thankfully this section of the fight doesn’t last too long and they switch to dual wielding knives. This for me was the most exciting part as Donnie Yen finally decided to wake up and really delivery some incredibly fast counters to Max Zhang’s strikes. The choreography here is just excellent as these 2 fighters finally get a chance to just go at each other with minimal edits and longer takes. My only gripe here is that we get too many instances of slow motion that personally ruins the momentum of the pacing. I understand that they’re trying to show the push and pull of wing chun but I would have preferred if they just let this dual wielding duel play out in real time.
This leads us into the final section of this battle and it’s fist on fist as Ip Man and Cheung now trade insanely fast blows against each other as they constantly go back and forth on the offensive. I thoroughly enjoy how they display wing chun here as this fight shows off a great display of speed, counters, and possible improvisation. Things take a drastic turn however when Cheng blinds Ip Man with his finger-tips causing our hero to retreat back. I’m still not sure how I feel about this next part as the sound cuts out and Ip Man is now listening for attacks while dodging just out of reach from Cheung punches. It feels a little odd but I can’t think of another way to stage this so let’s just go with it. As Cheung ferociously tries to land a punch at Ip Man’s head, Ip Man is able to sidle away just out of reach until finally striking him in the chest with the infamous one-inch punch to win the fight. The big sin here, however is that they completely break the 180-degree camera rule as Ip Man in consistently on the right side of the screen for the last section of choreography until he does the one-inch punch. After he performs this, the camera breaks and now puts Ip Man on the left side. Logically when you see Ip Man punch Cheung from right to left, you expect to see him move in that motion but because they broken 180 degrees, he flies back to the right and it’s just visually jarring. Yes, this rule can and is constantly broken in cinema with exceptions but I don’t feel it was warranted here at all.
And that’s it. Ip Man wins again because the title of the movie isn't called Master Z............yet!
Ip Man sits alone at the end of the film and you’re supposed to feel bad for him because his wife passed but since I’ve watched these movies back to back, I can’t help but think he got what he deserved for being such a neglectful father and absentee husband. At least he and Bruce Lee can now cha-cha together whenever they please and throw copious amounts of CG water at each other.
Zero lends his thoughts on martial arts to the Fists of Fail podcast and also creates drink along reviews called Only Nice Things.
