"Ip Man 2"

After learning the sequel to “Ip Man” was out, titled “Ip Man 2” obviously, I had to check it out. I loved the first movie for the sheer amazing martial arts. To quickly sum it up, it was amazingly choreographed and beautifully performed. Everything was fluid and eye catching. I just hoped “Ip Man 2” did not Hollywood themselves up too much. Read on for more details.

We start off directly after the first one; Ip Man now lives in Hong Kong and buys a local property to start a martial arts school. He desperately needs the money for rent and his child’s tuition. After weeks of nothing, a rebel comes by to challenge him. After Ip Man defeats him, the rebel brings a few of his friends and wants to be trained under his watch. But not everyone is happy with Ip Man training; the other martial arts masters are against this. He needs to fight his way to prove his worthiness. It gets real good when the British get involved. Watch as Ip Man battles his way to the top, again.

One of the Masters jumps on the opportunity to defeat Ip Man on the table top.

There are two parts that really separate this movie. First being when Ip Man is being challenge to fight his fellow martial arts masters to be allowed to teach. These battles are the best in the movie. But there is a bit of a unique twist involved, it being that the battles take on top of a table. But this is not any regular table; instead it has a small centre of balance. It might at first seem a bit gimmicky, but I assure you this allows for some of the coolest fight scenes I’ve ever seen. Just like the first movie, the fluidity of the martial arts is something to be desired. It almost looks like art. 

Thought not all of the movies fights are on the table. There are a lot of other fights, all unique. This kept me interested and doesn't dull down the fight. It is actually quite amazing how a lot of these fights never feel the same. All the stunts are different and all the fight scenes are fantastic. I don't think I found one scene that I didn't like.

The last part can be taken differently by different people. I felt THIS was a bit to gimmicky. As the British want to set up a Boxing Match, Master Zhen has to do all the work. Later he find out, he won’t get paid for doing any of this and gets bullied around by the Brits and their boxer. Master Zhen wants the boxer to apologies, but for ‘Twister’ the boxer to apologies, Zhen needs to defeat him. This goes all wrong as Twister defeats Master Zhen in the ring. Ip Man can’t take none of this and challenge Twister to a fight, and a weird fight it is.

Ip Man vs Twister is a weird fight in this series.

The fight is unique; it is a hybrid battle between the western boxer and the Chinese martial arts.  I guess it is kind of like the MMA style of fighting. So we have Ip Man with his martial arts and Twister with his western boxing. I just didn’t like the fights as much as the other ones. Because the boxer is slower than Ip Man, there is a break in the fluidity, something I didn't like. It was like taking peanut butter and ketchup and mashed it into one. Two great ideas, one terrible outcome. Even though this is my biggest complaint of the movie, the fight is still really enjoyable and still better than most fight scenes out there. There are no quick edits and shaky cam. You see both fighters, taking care of business.

A cool little scene they added on to the end, a small boy approaches Ip Man to teach him martial arts. Why? So he can beat up kids he doesn’t like. Ip Man smiles and tells him to come back when he is a bit older. Who was this young boy? Well watch the movie and you'll be surprised. 

Master Zhen and Ip Man fight numerous of times in this movie.

To sum it all up, this movie did not let me down. It was still filled with amazing martial arts and was wonderful to watch. If you want to see a great action movie, with none of the bs definitely check out Ip Man 1 and 2.