Ip Man

Not every action movie needs to reinvent the wheel, but Ip Man manages to feel fresh anyway, thanks largely to Wilson Yip’s confident direction. Even the marketing knew what it had: the tagline “The celebrated Kung Fu master of Bruce Lee.” sets the mood before a single frame plays.

Strip away the craft and the premise is simple — A semi-biographical account of Yip Man, the first martial arts master to teach the Chinese martial art of Wing Chun. The film focuses on events surrounding Ip that took place in the city of Foshan between the 1930s to 1940s during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Directed by Wilson Yip, the film stars Donnie Yen in the lead role, and features fight choreography by Sammo Hung. Donnie Yen takes the lead role and runs with it, while Simon Yam, Lynn Hung Doi-Lam, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi make sure the margins of the story stay just as alive.

The reason people keep recommending Ip Man usually has less to do with the plot and more to do with what it’s actually about. There’s a clear preoccupation with bravery here, and it’s paired with foreigner in a way that gives the whole thing more staying power than a plot summary suggests. You can also feel kung fu and market working in the background, quietly shaping how later scenes land even when they’re not the explicit focus.

Part of what makes Ip Man work is how comfortably it sits at the intersection of action, drama and history. Rather than picking one lane and staying in it, the film borrows tonal shifts from each label attached to it, which is exactly why it resists easy summary in a single sentence.

What Wilson Yip gets right here is restraint: knowing when to let a scene breathe and when to move on, a skill that separates competent action filmmaking from the kind people actually remember. Look further down the cast list and you’ll find Lynn Hung Doi-Lam, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, Gordon Lam Ka-Tung, each handed at least one scene that earns its place in the finished film.

Clocking in at 106 minutes, the pacing rarely sags, which is no small feat for a film juggling this many ideas. Behind the scenes, Mandarin Films, Beijing ShengShi HuaRei Film Investment & Management Co., China Film Co-Production, New Film Studio of Beijing Starlight International Media Co. Ltd. backed the production, giving Wilson Yip the resources to fully realize the vision. Produced for roughly $11,700,000, Ip Man eventually pulled in $22,100,000 at the global box office, well beyond what anyone expected going in.

If you’re the kind of viewer who gravitates toward action films with something on their mind, Ip Man earns a spot on the list. Nearly 18 years on, Ip Man hasn’t lost much of its charge — if anything, it plays better with a little distance. It’s a detail easy to miss on a first viewing of Ip Man, but it rewards anyone paying close attention. That kind of craftsmanship is easy to take for granted until you watch a lesser film try the same thing and fail. Little touches like that are why the film keeps finding new defenders long after its initial release. It’s the sort of small decision that separates a good action film from a merely competent one.