At first when I read the title to this movie, I thought it was just some kind of film that used the fame of Ip Man and try to gain audience by adding his name. But when I saw the trailer, I realized it would be interesting. Will go into that more below. OK, so let's start with it.
Brief Story Line
After beaten by Ip Man, Cheung Tin Chi (Max Zhang - SPL II: A Time for Consequences, The Brink etc) decided to leave town and stop being teacher of Wing Chun martial arts. Together with his young son, they opened a small grocery shop. But his peaceful life would soon be ruined when he was involved in altercation with the gang led by Sai Kit (Kevin Cheng - Ghetto Justice TV series etc) who were trying to collect money from Nana (Chrissy Chau - An Inspector Calls, 29+1 etc) and her best friend Julia (Liu Yan - Badges of Fury, Martial Universe TV series etc).
Sai Kit was the brother of Ngan Kwan (Michelle Yeoh - Crazy Rich Asian, Police Story 3: Supercop etc) who was also a notorious crime family leader. Feeling vengeful, he always tried to get back to Tin Chi who had no choice but to seek the help from Julia and her brother Fu (Xing Yu - Flash Point, Shaolin etc). There was also the mysterious restaurant owner Owen Davidson (Dave Bautista - Hotel Artemis, Blade Runner 2049 etc).
So what would happen to Tin Chi and his boy? Find them all in this fine martial arts movie.
End of Brief Story Line
OK, so when I said above that the movie was different from other films that had the words Ip Man in their title, it was because this one was a spin off or you could also call it a direct sequel as it happened after the events of Ip Man 3. However, the lead character now was Cheung Tin Chi who was a great Wing Chun master as well. I actually was fond of this character in that movie and I thought the shift of focus to him was quite a smart move. And unlike those other movies, this one was actually co-produced by Donnie Yen and Raymond Wong who produced the previous Ip Man trilogy.
Anyway, since the story was focusing more on Tin Chi, we got to see him fight a lot of bad guys frequently. However, what I did not really like was the early part of the movie which did not seem to be explored enough and created a bit of confusion (at least on my part) and in the end felt a bit forced to include Tony Jaa in the movie. Now I personally do not have problem of him appearing and I also liked his fight style which was fast & violent (ever since I saw him in Ong Bak), but even though he did provide a wonderful fight scene, I still thought it would be better if there was more story to justify his appearance.
Aside from that early part, the rest of the story was pretty standard. There was sufficient amount of dramatic moment and a bit of brief romance as well. The plot was a bit predictable but it did not really bothered us audience who wanted to see a lot of fight scenes anyway. And in this part, I thought the movie quite delivered. Some of the fight sequences were quite amazing. We got to see various fights throughout the movie, whether it was a one on one, one against many, few against many and so on. My most favorite ones would definitely be the fight towards the end and the finale fight scene. One thing that I would have liked better was the sound effects. It was said to be having Dolby Surround 5.1 but it did not feel like it in our theater. My wife also thought the sound seemed muffled and it would be more satisfying if the sound of glass shattering or furnitures broken during the fights were maximized.
The fights scenes here were good most likely because it was directed by Yuen Woo-ping who had experience in directing movies such as Drunken Master (starring Jackie Chan), Iron Monkey (starring Donnie Yen) and many more. But he was also famous being the fight/action choreographer for movies like Lethal Weapon 4, Kill Bill, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and some others. And Max Zhang, Michelle Yeoh, Xing Yu and Dave Bautista all performed their task admirably. So it was no wonder the movie could turn up like it was.
Now if you compare this movie to the Ip Man trilogy though, this might not be up to par yet especially on the story area. However, if you wish to see a movie with some good martial arts fights, then this one could definitely be an option. It is a movie categorized for 17+ which I thought was perfect since some of the fights were violent (but not up to the really violent & bloody) & it had brief scene more suitable for adults. So it was surprising to see some small children watching the movie last night. Btw, this movie had a duration of 107 minutes which I thought was not too long and too short. Quite perfect to my opinion. It also had brief fun mid post end credit scene that you could enjoy.
Overall this was a movie that you could see to enjoy the martial arts fights. My wife and I were quite entertained by it. But those looking for deep meaningful movie with perfect plot/scenario or wanting to see the most violent & bloody fight scenes, would not find it here. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out 5 stars
PS: Cheung Tin Chi also known as Sum Nung was an actual Wing Chun grandmaster. Although I doubt that his actual life story was as colorful as portrayed in this movie. That's why this one was not called a biography.
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