On my Ip Man rewatching spree, I now stumble on the first spinoff the franchise starring rival/antagonist “Cheung Tin Chi” from Ip Man 3. It is not directed by Wilson Yip who did Ip man 1-4 but rather directed by Yuen Woo-ping who was the action director for Ip Man 3 and 4. He was also an action director for big American movies like Kill Bill and Matrix. I really liked Cheung Tin Chi (Max Zhang) from Ip Man 3 and felt there was a lot of depth to his character so I was thrilled he was getting his own movie. Furthermore, there were some big names in this movie with Michelle Yeon who is a big Chinese Actress and Dave Bautista from Marvel and WWE fame. I was very hyped for this movie. The question was if this movie lived up to the Ip Man legacy?
Let’s talk about the action scenes, firstly it is a drastic departure from the Ip Man movies. In Ip Man 2 there was a fair amount of wirework which took away from the grounded, realistic style of the first movie but here there is LOADS of wirework. I didn’t hate it in Ip Man 2 but felt like it wasn’t as great as the first one but here it is kind of crazy and over the top to the point I found it ridiculously entertaining. A lot of the fight scenes have the actors do a lot of floating and gravity-defying moves with one memorable acrobatic fight scene on neon signs way above ground that was very thrilling to watch. Nearly every fight in this movie is cartooney and unrealistic but it is so entertaining with superb choreography. There are a lot of characters thrown through tables or windows and a lot of slow-mo and close up shots that embody the cliche of the 90s and it goes all the way with it. However, it just works really well and is oddly satisfying.
I loved Max Zhang as Cheung in Ip Man 3 and here still delivers a great performance. His character Cheung has a very interesting arc in this movie where he is struggling with his desire to live a simple life while coping with his loss to Ip Man and his reputation as a martial artist. Throughout the movie, he refuses to use Wing Chun and instead uses a more brutal style of fighting which makes the fights grittier and less elegant than the main series. He then gets wrapped up in some mafia staff which causes him to come into meetings with many different characters but the closest being Julia (Liu Yan) and Fu (Xing Yu) who become friends. Cheung is different from Ip Man in that he feels flawed and having room to grow whereas Ip Man feels near perfect and invincible. Cheung takes a fair amount of damage and hits while also making a fair amount of mistakes which makes him a lot more relatable. He does come out by the end of the movie learning valuable lessons with it even amplifying Ip Man’s word of wisdom to him in the 3rd movie and of course, ends up using Wing Chun again.
Most of the supporting cast do a great job as well. Michelle Yeon as “Tso Ngan Kwan” gives a very convincing performance as the leader of an organised crime gang. Her character is also interesting in that she is menacing against those who oppose her but kind in that she wants to turn the crime gang into a legitimate business. Kevin Cheng as “Tso Sai Kit” gives a great performance in being a completely hateable character who wants to be a drug dealer while usurping his sister Ngan Kwan. Dave Bautista as “Owen Davidson” is great as well in that he gives a lovable and charismatic performance in certain scenes while in others a terrifying, hulking menace. He is way better than Mike Tyson was in Ip Man 3 and feels more like an actual antagonist.
Unfortunately, Dave Bautista is very under-utilised with him barely having any dialogue, he isn’t the main villain either with Tso Sai Kit being the main villain while Owen Davidson is more of a final boss. Which is a shame as one of my complaints of Frank (Mike Tyson) in Ip Man 3 was that we don’t really get any backstory or motive of his character and this is also the case with Owen sadly. Likewise, Tony Jaa of “Ong Bak” fame is in this movie as an assassin with an obsession with black clothing and a top hat. He is a glorified cameo with no dialogue whatsoever and just appears to have a random fight with the main character and then vanishing for most of the movie until the end. It is very jarring as the fight appears out of nowhere and doesn’t have any real significance to the story in any way. That is such a downer as Tony Jaa is amazing and they didn’t utilise him properly. Additionally, his character just doesn’t fit in the Ip Man universe and just feels extremely out of place.
The plot is also a complete mess with it attempting to cram in way too many things into the plot. The story tries to be a redemption story for Cheung, a sibling rivalry story between Ngan and Tso, a gang story, a drug addiction story, British colonialism, racism and corruption. It’s very convoluted and a fair amount of these stories aren’t even good. It also retreads a lot of Ip Man’s 2 and 3 stories with the corruption and racism which is just lazy and disappointing.
It’s extremely corny at times as well and that is fine if it was done well but it isn’t in this case. There are a lot of moments that feel like they are trying to be a comedy or funny but it doesn’t land and I didn’t feel like laughing at all. The movie also attempts some melodramatic moments but again it never really lands and didn’t make me feel anything. The movie has a lot of moments that are not intended to be stupid but made me end up thinking it was stupid. However, some moments are not meant to be funny but I kind of thought was funny like a man’s arm getting cut off with no blood was just hilariously bad. His arm just gets cut like a plastic toy. Some of the line delivery is also quite bad at times. The child actors are very bad and some of the supporting characters feel one-note and lacking in any range of personality.
I also have some gripes with the editing and set design in this movie. The editing is so weirdly bad in which it would transition to the next scene while abruptly ending the music score before it even ended properly. They also do a lot of fades out which is usually done when ending the movie or to signify the conclusion to an act but it is done a couple of times in this movie where I felt it was odd to do so. Also, the set design feels really empty or too open. It makes the city feel lifeless. This could be due to a lack of extras as there weren’t many people roaming around until the final act of the movie where they all come out of nowhere.
Overall, it is a ludicrous movie but there is a charm in that. Spinoffs are a good way of doing something different while embodying the spirit of the main series and Master Z does kind of do that. The movie was aiming to deliver on epic action set pieces and it does so successfully. They are exciting, electrifying and extremely well-choreographed but just don’t expect much from its story.
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