Beystiman
It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
Afouotos
Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
Quiet Muffin
This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.
higherall7
Donnie Yen comes across as a Chinese version of Shane. Instead of a Western, IP MAN 2 is a true Eastern. Humble and unassuming, it is easy to see how Bruce Lee reached international status after encountering the calm, self-controlled mentorship of such a Master Martial Artist. Donnie Yen's Ip Man is one of the most memorable characters to appear in Cinema in the last 25 years. Only Jet Li's Wong Fei-hung from the ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA trilogy rivals this portrayal.Donnie Yen's performance in the original IP MAN had me thinking Oscar; something I don't usually associate with Martial Arts movies. Loved the scene where Ip Man sets up his first Martial Arts school in Hong Kong. Truly enjoyed Donnie Yen as Ip Man demonstrating his level of knowledge to potential new students and gradually building up a body of students. To have individuals come to you to learn what you know must be a very gratifying feeling. This came across very poignantly in the scenes where Ip Man the Martial Arts enthusiast slowly becomes Ip Man the Martial Arts teacher. I loved the scenes where he was in his Dojo going over and correcting techniques with his students. I would have wished there were more scenes of him mentoring Bruce Lee in his school.Enjoyed also Ip Man having to meet with the Martial Arts Masters of his community and having to earn his right to teach and practice in their territory. The scenes of contest between him and them make a memorable and brilliant directorial set piece. These scenes where Ip Man starts his own school and meets with the Masters makes the whole movie to me. Sammo Hung as Master Hung Chun-Nam orchestrates very impressive Martial Arts choreography and presents a true three dimensional character. The climatic fight between Ip Man and Twister is simply a plus. People have likened it to the ROCKY IV movie, but I don't believe this particular action sequence suffers from the comparison. I never got the feeling that Ip Man was fighting for anything more than a restoration of community standards of civility and respect. There was no cocky posturing or desire for self aggrandizement in his body language. He fully came across as a teacher seeking to teach an arrogant Westerner an important lesson in Respect. Darren Shahlevi as Twister plays his role a little broad, but comes across as a worthy villain for Ip Man. The only thing I could have wanted more would have been to have Bruce Lee in the audience rooting him on to win.When Ip Man speaks at the end of the fight you know he is delivering the moral of the story. This is something heroes used to do in my youth. Returned was the idea that right makes might rather than the other way around. Fascinating to observe a man of high moral stature speaking through his most exhaustive effort to restore community order through the practice of his Art.
spsw-722-228342
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.
jeff light
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!
edwithmj
I turned on the TV a few nights ago to see if any good films were on as it was late and I was bored. I turn to Ip Man 2 which after first thinking it was a film based on a video game character, I learn is supposed to be a biopic.The first half of this film was a standard martial arts film with lots of Chinese men fighting each other. I think the main character Pac-Man - sorry, Ip Man was apparently not respected because of his style but gains respect from masters of other styles after he beats them. The fight scenes are pretty ridiculous and over-choreographed; wires were obviously used. The first half was therefore acceptable standard fare for Hong Kong films.Unfortunately, the second half is where it gets worse. All the way through it, I was asking myself "what on Earth is happening?" and "how is this even possible?" There is no way any of this could be real, it's just too stupid.Firstly, all the white people are complete caricatures of colonial stereotypes. Every white person hates Chinese people and mercilessly beats them, subdues them and oppresses them. There were three main white characters: firstly, a police chief who said his lines so woodenly and with so little emotion that he couldn't possibly be an actor: he just can't be; secondly a police inspector who has so little respect for the local population that I fail to see how his superiors thought employing him was a good idea: he was bound to cause an incident sooner or later; and thirdly, a British boxer who for some reason hates everything Chinese with a passion: he also couldn't act.Somehow, and I kept asking myself how the plot turned this way, the police inspector organises a boxing competition by importing a British boxer named "Twister" (we never actually hear his real name; perhaps he's like Cher and has only one name). The boxer is so one-dimensional he makes Dr. Evil look deep. Anyway, the boxing tournament with only one boxer (!) was supposed to follow a demonstration of Chinese martial arts. The boxer can't contain his contempt and anger and no one seems to stop him when he starts beating up every single martial artist in the ring single handedly. Following this, a middle-aged martial arts master called Well-Hung or something feels disrespected and demands an apology and surprise surprise the boxer will only give it to him if he loses in a match to Well-Hung.By this time, I thought I was watching a comical, ironic parody. The boxer wears his gloves and easily defeats the martial arts master, Well-Hung, and kills him in the ring. Why on Earth would this happen? The boxer is wearing gloves, and only uses his fists while the martial artist uses bear knuckles and kicks! It's ludicrous! After Well-Hung dies I realised this film is quickly turning into a blatant rip off of Rocky IV except not as good. Pac-Man looks on while the master is dying, he refuses to throw in the towel because Well-Hung wants to defend his honour even at the cost of his own life and then Pac-Man decides to fight the boxer in the ring to get revenge. There's even a small training montage with Pac-Man's wife and son looking on! How can people take this Rocky IV parody seriously?! The pre-fight talk where Pac-Man challenges the boxer has some sort of speech by the boxer who says that he will fight someone for as long as a joss stick burns. He then laughs about how stupid joss sticks are and Pac-Man gets offended. Needless to say, we never hear about joss sticks again.So we get to the fight and we KNOW what's going to happen and who'll win don't we? Firstly, problems with the fight: Pac-Man seems to be able to defeat numerous skilled martial artists and masters sometimes simultaneously as seen in the first film and in this yet he has difficulty with ONE boxer who only punches AND is wearing gloves; believable? As if. After Pac-Man kicks the boxer and performs low blows, the judges change the rules so that he can't kick. Except, he still kicks afterwards, oh and he does rabbit punches, elbowing, choking, eye gouging, arm twisting and other moves about which no one complains all with no gloves on. Why did the judges only think of the rules after the fight starts? They would KNOW Pac-Man would want to do all these moves!The boxer knocked down Pac-Man twice and was beating him mercilessly and the referee didn't stop the fight and one time he was knocked down, the count went to nine and he wasn't up on ten yet was allowed to continue! What sort of boxing match is this? It's completely unbelievable! After getting knocked down again and remembering his fallen hero, Well-Hung, Pac-Man decides to get up again and uses various moves the boxer isn't allowed to do and gets him down and starts punching his face repeatedly all while the referee does nothing. Why does the referee allow Pac-Man time to get up when the boxer knocks him down but allows Pac-Man to punch the boxer repeatedly in the face after he's been knocked down? Oh, but the boxer's unfair too because he got ONE (count it, ONE) punch in after the bell went. All while this was going on, I was asking "what the hell is happening here?" The Rocky IV rip off continues afterwards too. Pac-Man gives a speech about how we should all get along with the boxer listening from the corner and the evil white men clapping along in the audience having changed their minds and gained respect for the foreign underdog.Awful, awful rubbish. The acting, the concept, the plot, the fight scenes and the clichés make this film one of the worst I've seen.
