DVD reviews
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"A willing suspension of disbelief should get most viewers across the line."
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Ip Man: The Legend Is Born (DVD)
Year: 2008
Rating: M
Director: Wilson Yip
Cast: Siu-Wong Fan, Simon Yam, Donnie Yen
Release Date: March 02, 2011
Distributor: Eastern Eye
The Film: 3.0
The Disc: 2.0
FILMINK rates DVDs and Blu-rays out of 5“...runs out of steam long before the prosaic ending.”
This film contains two bona fide legends, but the film's focus should have been on the legend of Ip Man instead. A prequel to the first two films, the story follows Ip Man (Dennis To) as he struggles to fight against a rival school and understand his art and himself. Throw in a love triangle and it's kung fu déjà vu from the Hong Kong action film 101 scripting handbook.
To was cast as he greatly resembles the actual Ip Man and whilst his martial arts skills are good, the film runs out of steam long before the prosaic ending. However, fans of Hong Kong cinema should definitely not miss at least 4 key minutes of this film. Early in the piece, Ip Man's instructors played by Sammo Hung & Yuen Biao, two child prodigies of the Peking Opera School (others include Corey Yuen and the great Jackie Chan) demonstrate Chi Sao, the ‘sticky hands' technique that forms the core of the Wing Chun martial art. Both men are now in their fifties but their undiminished skill and power is a truly extraordinary thing to behold.
Elsewhere, Yau's film misses the mark. Let's hope there will be another Ip Man film that follows his later teaching of Bruce Lee and better cements his legend in its rightful exalted place in martial arts history.
The lone special feature is a making-of.
