Very Cool!!!

An action-packed slog

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

After reading up on the life of the ip man it seems that the makers tell quite a few major fibs in this movie and it is something of a nationalism propaganda film. Despite this i found it pretty entertaining, albeit for the wrong reasons. This movie gets more and more ludicrous as it progresses, highlights include old men flying about like they are in the matrix, a part where ip man manages to fight off about 50 machete wielding blokes with only a wooden pallet as a weapon, and also the ultra dramatic scene when old sammo is being punched to death to really sad music by 'twister' the evil racist English boxer. I nearly cried. The representation of the English 'foreign devils' in this film is absolutely stunning, in fact its worth watching this film just for the funny lines and menacing laughs that the English characters deliver as they strut about and ruthlessly torment the Chinese. This is definitely no martial arts masterpiece but worth a watch for the unintentional hilarity and ridiculous fight scenes.

Firstly, I think some people will look at any martial arts film, even one based on a real person's life, and say "What does the story matter? As long as there's good action!" Even if that's you, do not waste your time on this film.Donnie Yen is amazing, and Sammo Hung is also a legend, they both do great work. There is ONE scene with them that is worth looking up on Youtube. However, there are many other scenes in the film that focus on other martial artists, or more likely actors who TRY to do martial arts. The quality level just isn't there. There is a lot of use of wire-work, and lots of quick editing to make it look like there is power and speed to the fights when actually there is none (even for some of Yen's moves). There is even a fight in the movie with a character wearing boxing gloves, and this is portrayed as not making him any slower or less-damaging to the other fighters. Not only is it a fair fight, he's even MORE powerful than them. Most of the fights are just ridiculous, not close to the level of the first Ip Man film.Another comparison to be made to Ip Man 1 is that these films both claim to tell a story based on Ip Man's life. Now, while the first film showed Ip Man doing manual labor and having a public fight with a Japanese general (which weren't true), the film was at least based on truths from the real time period. Many Chinese were impoverished, were victims of Japanese brutality and atrocities. It was modern Chinese propaganda, but it had a historical basis.Ip Man 2 is just blatant propaganda. Ip Man did move to Hong Kong and open a school. There was a boxing match between his STUDENT and a Russian boxer. And.....those are pretty much the only parts of the film that have any basis in reality. Every British person in the film is only interested in exploiting the Chinese and keeping them making money for them. I actually looked online to find any basis for this and couldn't. All the main roles are such one-dimensional, raging, racist assholes that it's hard to believe they wouldn't be killed in their sleep their first night in Hong Kong. The Chinese characters, on the other hand, do some pretty horrible things to each other, and show zero concern for the lives of other Chinese. But the message in the film is that if you unify against non- Chinese, then you prove your worth and all will be forgiven.This is a 2 hour piece of propaganda, plain and simple. "Hong Kong, don't fight China! Our real enemy is the foreigners who hate our skin color and history! It is what binds us together, so ignore any oppression by Chinese in power, and instead tell the foreigners that they must respect us!"The EndP.S.- For a good Yen/Hung film, watch S.P.L! It has awesome fights AND an actual plot!

While watching this movie I barely kept myself from calling the paramedics and telling them I need an ambulance NOW - I am in mortal danger of dying from a boredom stroke in the central cortex.Where to begin... The movie looks good as far as camera-work goes, choreography is decent, but so much for the little that is good about this "movie".The current review that is on the film's main page speaks of "a good ol' fashioned moral tale and lots of exceptional fight sequences that will leave you breathless." Let me decrypt this for you: "moral tale" means "stereotypical corrupt western capitalist corrupting poor Chinese" and "people rising up against capitalist injustice" and "underdog kung- fu teacher becoming an everyday hero" and "poor people suffering under this and that". Yes, believe me, all that is contained in this cryptic pair of words. Or - to put it even more clearly - it is a classic genre of commie Chinese propaganda with the usual dash of nationalism. The "exceptional fight sequences" is not cryptic however, it is a lie. This movie is no better or worse than your average kung-fu movie. It is just that - tasteless, standard issue fighting flick that has nothing to show for. Not saying the fighting is bad, but it is just so flat and generic that watching this movie is like drinking tap water - you know it is tasteless, and you should thus not expect anything from it. The plot is also just as predictable - you got your basic underdog hero, the fight start up gradually, taking on bigger and bigger enemies, and eventually climax in the "good vs evil" fight at the end. Add to that the above mentioned "twists" and some usual afternoon soap drama and a bit of tearjerking, and that's it. There's nothing that is really a buzzkill about this movie, but that's only because these is no buzz to be killed. If there's anything that's putting nails in the coffin of Chinese cinematography then it's useless nonsense like this movie. I'd rather watch a perfectly honest North Korean propaganda film praising the Fat Leader instead of watching more of the modern trash that China produces, at least North Korean movies are so bad they are of bottom-of-the-barrel-bad category that they become fun again, like Bad Taste.For real, good old-school kung-fu movies that do not try to shove down your throat the age old Chinese communist propaganda, or that don't bore you to death with completely stupid and stock plot, better watch some of Jackie Chan's work from the early 80's to mid 90's.

Call me crazy, but I did thoroughly enjoy Wilson Yip's 2010 feature "Ip Man 2" much better than I did "Ip Man" (2008). "Ip Man 2" achieves that rare distinction of being a sequel that's far better than its predecessor. As you may know, the films are a loose telling of the life of real-life Wing Chun Grandmaster Sifu Yip Man (1893-1972), who is responsible for helping to spread Chinese martial arts around the world; he was also the teacher of deceased martial arts legend Bruce Lee (1940-1973)."Ip Man 2" is a direct sequel to "Ip Man," and follows Ip Man (an effective Donnie Yen) after he flees Foshan province and arrives in British-occupied Hong Kong in the early 1950s. His attempts at opening a school and propagating Wing Chun meet with heavy resistance from the locals - especially Master Hung (Sammo Hung, also the film's fight choreographer with Ip Chun, the son of the real-life Yip Man) - who attempt to challenge him at every opportunity.But because Hong Kong is under British colonial rule and Chinese pride has been nearly eroded, Taylor "The Twister" Milos (Darren Shahlavi), the reigning British heavyweight boxing champion - and a known sociopath - begins to openly insult Chinese martial arts and the Chinese people, and issues a challenge to beat any Chinese boxer in the ring. And who better to accept the challenge than Ip Man, culminating in a highly symbolic, "Rocky IV"-styled death-match at the end of the film."Ip Man 2" is a film that begins to work from its opening moments. Again, the Chinese are shown to be the underdogs here, as they were in the first film under Japanese oppression during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Here, it's the British who have got their boots on their backs, and Ip Man is again their champion for Chinese pride and nationalism. Unlike the first film, though, there is also a fair amount of English-language dialogue (with largely unknown British actors filling in roles that in an American feature, would be occupied by minorities), in addition to the native Cantonese tongues.I also enjoyed the fights better in this film, than I did in "Ip Man." I was impressed to see that Sammo Hung was able to choreograph hand-to-hand combat sequences where Donnie Yen's Ip Man character (as well as Hung's own Master Hung) was able to sometimes face opponents who were just as skilled as he was - like with Ip Man's climatic showdown with "The Twister."I was really impressed with "Ip Man 2." It has a gripping storyline, a better performance by Donnie Yen (with strong performances also by Sammo Hung and Darren Shahlavi, the latter of whom is not just there to play a villainous - white - foreigner but has a fully developed personality that makes him more than just your standard one-note white antagonist), and more masterful fighting sequences. It's a riveting martial arts feature that will keep you glued to your see through & through. All in all, it's a better film than the first one, that beloved rarity in cinema - a superior sequel to its predecessor.10/10