Ip Man 2 (2010)

Either I watched the first Ip Man before I launched this blog, or I was too unenthused to write a review. I certainly don't remember much of it. Just know that it's an action flick about an RL grandmaster of the Wing Chun style of kung fu, often called Yip rather than Ip even on screen, perhaps best known for teaching Bruce Lee. From what I can tell, the story bears little resemblance to his actual life, and I imagine that the sequels hew no closer.

In 1950, Ip (Donnie Yen) opens a Wing Chun school in Hong Kong. He has no students until young hoodlum Wong Shun Leung (Huang Xiaoming) challenges him and the word spreads of how awesome Ip is. Alas, they develop a fierce rivalry with thugs from the Hung Ga school under Hung Chun-nam (Sammo Hung), who runs a protection racket for martial arts trainers. By the second half, the main villain appears to be dirty Superintendent Wallace (Charles Mayer), who shakes down Hung, bullies journalists who print unflattering truths, and pulls strings for British boxer Taylor "Twister" Miller (Darren Shahlavi) to take on Chinese opponents and assert ethnic superiority. You can guess who the last one will be.

Don't worry; the Brits aren't as vilified as in RRR. Most in the arena audience learn to respect Ip and disapprove Twister's brutality, if not his open racism, and other authorities aren't in on Wallace's crimes. Too bad nobody realizes ahead of time the awkwardness of having the contestants play by different rules. Feels kinda like a typical martial arts fest melded into Rocky IV.

I never expect complexity from the subgenre, and to say we get some herein is a stretch. At least some characters, especially Hung, show that they are not straightforwardly good or bad. But what happens is largely predictable.

The action? Decent. Bloody enough for an R, but not hard for me to watch. There's just a little combat innovation, sadly repeating the tabletop format from IM1 in one scene. The physics is...mostly credible.

I am more likely to retain IM2, and not just because of this review. The 109 minutes passed fast enough. I just don't see myself adding IM3 to my list. ADDENDUM: Watching this dubbed is even more awkward than usual, because the dialogue is supposed to be part Chinese, part English. Translators end up merely repeating what we hear. But when a Brit speaks Chinese, we get no translation.