The future international sensation is instead looking reverentially
toward a slight figure in the stands, a quiet man in a traditional long
black Chinese robe, someone sure of himself but composed. Could it be?
Yes, it is. Ip Man is in the house.
A master of the Wing Chun school of fighting, the actual Ip Man was a
revered figure who served as Bruce Lee’s teacher when the actor was
growing up in Hong Kong. But for the last decade this real individual,
who died in 1972, has been the subject of a series of action movies
starring Donnie Yen that intertwine the story of his life with fictional
adventures.
Now comes “Ip Man 4: The Finale,” which moves the story largely to San
Francisco and benefits from the sure hand of Yuen Woo-Ping, first among
equals among action choreographers, whose work includes “Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and the “Matrix” films as well as dozens of Hong
Kong efforts.
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Directed, as were the previous three films, by Wilson Yip Wai Shun, and
written by Edmond Wong, who’s also had a hand in all of them, the Ip Man
movies are basically genre exercises, the martial arts equivalent of B
westerns, albeit with bigger budgets. In this particular film, the bad
guys, instead of wearing black hats, are all white Americans, not just
random citizens but xenophobic racists of the most unapologetic sort.
“Go back to Asia” is pretty much the mildest thing they say.
After that opening moment at the San Francisco karate tournament, the
film flashes back to Hong Kong a month earlier, where Ip has to deal
with some difficult situations. First, he is diagnosed with cancer, and
second, as a recent widower, he is having trouble with an unruly teenage
son who is always getting into fights.
Feeling that being sent to a school in San Francisco might straighten
his son out, Ip decides to visit, but aside from meeting up with former
student Lee (Kwok-Kwan Chan), America is a sour experience.
Even Ip’s fellow countrymen are not a welcoming bunch. Taking a meeting
with the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Assn., led by Wan Zong Hua (Wu
Yue), Ip is confronted by a group of fellow martial arts masters who are
angry because Bruce Lee is breaking with tradition by taking American
students.
This leads to one of “Ip Man 4’s” signature scenes, a face-off involving
a single cup of tea, a revolving circular glass table and two very
powerful wills.
Visiting a trendy private school, Ip is shocked to find Wan’s teenage
daughter Yonah (Vanda Margraf), having to fight off some thuggish fellow
students. Yonah lives for cheerleading (much to her father’s
disapproval) and her skill has sparked some prejudiced resentment.
Though other martial artists have their moments, especially Bruce Lee,
this, as the title indicates, is very much Ip’s show, and he ends up
battling not one but two beefy and muscle-bound Americans who share a
contempt for all things Chinese.
Fought first is Colin Frater (Chris Collins) a karate instructor for the
U.S. Marine Corps who believes “Chinese kung fu is only good for
folding laundry.” He will learn otherwise.
Egged on by Gunnery Sgt. Barton Geddes (Scott Adkins), who encourages
Frater to “shut these kung fu charlatans up for good,” Frater and then
Geddes himself take on the deceptively mild-mannered Ip.
One of the unexpected pleasures of “Ip Man 4” is a warm montage of
highlights from the previous three films that plays at the close. Star
Yen has said there are no more Ip films in his future, but no one would
be upset if another one happened to come along.
