When I first watched this movie, I remember not liking it and feeling rather disappointed with it which is the opposite of how I felt when I watched IP Man 2. However, after re-watching this movie I came out rather appreciating it and enjoying it way more than I expected.
Sammo Hung who was the action director of the first two IP Man film does not return for the third one. Instead, IP Man 3 has Woo-Ping Yuen as the new action director who has a lot of martial art movies to his belt such as Kung fu Hustle and Kill Bill so the action was still in safe hands. One of the things I felt about IP Man 2 that was rather off-putting was the very cartoony style of fighting and overuse of wire works. I can safely say that in IP Man 3 it returns to the more grounded and realistic style of the first movie.
This movie also expands upon the use of environments for the action scenes. Ip Man fights a dozen men on a stair, fights in a construction area and fights a Muay Thai boxer in a claustrophobic elevator. Rather than just be open areas like the first movie, this movie incorporates different environments to create very unique fight scenes. For example, IP Man uses the hand rails during the stair fight or having him protect his wife during the conflict within the small area of the elevator. It’s very creative and also very exhilarating fight scenes. One of the biggest advertisement for this movie was IP Man’s fight against Frank played by Mike Tyson and despite being just 3 minutes, the fight is still really amazing. While in IP Man 1 he was invincible and there was no threat in the fights and in IP Man 2 where he actually fought physically struggling fights, IP Man 3 does something different. IP Man is still rather invincible in the fights but its the meaning to these fights that are the real suspense. It’s a very interesting way of keeping IP Man as the all-mighty superhero but still, make it seem like he is genuinely in trouble in these fights.
There is also a very interesting rival and antagonist for IP Man in Zhang Jin as Cheung Tin-chi who is also a Wing Chun user. It’s not like a lot of the movies in which the antagonist is like the main character but evil, Cheung Tin has a lot of depth to him. He will protect innocent people like IP Man and has someone he cares about but is a lot more aggressive compared to IP Man. Zhang Jin and the action director manages to show this contrast by having IP Man fight with more elegance whereas Cheung Tin with more ferocity even though they use the same fighting style. Cheung Tin is also very sympathetic in that he doesn’t get the same respect and recognition as IP Man even when he does a good deed and it plays a part in his jealousy towards IP Man which eventually builds up to an awesome climax fight scene. He is a very interesting character and it is no surprise that he eventually gets his own spinoff movie.
Ip Man himself still manages to get his own character arc in this movie in which the major focus is his relationship with his wife Cheung Wing-sing (Lynn Hung). IP Man throughout the first two movies was mostly calm, modest and restraint but in this movie, we get to see more emotions from him as he has a vastly different struggle compared to the previous two movies. In IP Man 1 he struggled with surviving WWII and in the second movie, he struggled with adapting and physically struggled in fights. In IP Man 3 the struggle is mostly dealing with his fame and his wife’s cancer. Unlike the second film where there is a problem, he can fight directly, in IP Man 3 the problem can’t be solved by fighting. It gives IP Man a unique character arc in which he doesn’t come out by the end of the movie better than before but gaining a new perspective and lesson on what is most important in life. It’s why I really enjoyed the second half of this movie with its more emotional scenes which is praise given to Donnie Yen for giving a great performance in these heart wrenching moments.
While the second half was great, the first half is not so much. The first half is about dealing with a triad gang working for the antagonist Frank played by Mike Tyson. Firstly, Mike Tyson is not an actor and it really shows in his really cheesy performance. It’s even more gear grinding when they make him speak Cantonese and it is just really bad. Secondly, his character is never really explored even though he is the main antagonist for the first half. They don’t explain his origins or his motivations whatsoever. It gets really dumb when this whole gang fiasco gets magically resolved somehow by IP Man engaging in a fistfight with Frank which contrasts the whole theme of the second half. It doesn’t make any sense but it all just gets resolved and brushed under the rug with no one ever talking about it at all in the second half.
There is also this plot thread about Tsui Lik (Louis Cheung) who is a student of IP Man who has feelings for this school teacher which amounts to nothing. It doesn’t add anything to the overall narrative but somehow was put in the movie to just pad time. His relationship with IP Man isn’t even explored. The plot is stitched together poorly with a bunch of different plot lines somehow all connecting. Cheung’s jealously, Triad leader being a student of some martial art master, police corruption, foreigners being in control, Frank in general, Ip Man’s wife, Tsui Lik crush are all stitched together in the first half to create a very messy plot which just doesn’t work. Thankfully the second half is more focused and consistent.
I also have a little nitpick with how unconnected this movie feels to its prequels. Ip Man’s friend and previously bandit but now fisherman friend is nowhere to be seen or mentioned at all in this movie even though it is still set in Hong Kong. There are returning characters such as Fat Po (Kent Cheng ) who has relative importance and Master Law (Lo Mang) who is just a cameo. However, everyone else feels completely different such as the reporters and Tin Ngo-san (Bryan Leung) who is a martial art master with a great and long friendship with IP Man but who wasn’t in previous movies so it just feels really weird. IP Man 2 showed how difficult it is to be martial art master in Hong Kong but I guess its all easier now or something since Cheung Tin seems to be able to start one with ease. One of the things I loved from the second movie was his relationship with Leung, his first student, but sadly he is nowhere to be seen or mentioned and is instead replaced with a forgettable character Tsui Lik who does nothing for the movie. Bruce Lee (Danny Chan) is in the movie but mostly as a cameo for how Ip Man ends up teaching him rather than exploring their relationship which is a shame.
Overall, I still enjoyed this movie a lot. A majority of the problem with this movie is, unfortunately, all in the first 50 minutes but the second half is masterfully done that I almost forgive it. Even in the messy first half, the fights are still exciting and thrilling to watch. This is a good martial art movie and was a very satisfying conclusion to the IP Man saga before they decided to make one more. I enjoyed it more than I expected and the fact it took risk is something I can appreciate. It’s not as bad as many say it is and I think there is a lot of good in it.
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