Respond to these rapid questions in our Ip Man 4 The Finale quiz and we will tell you which Ip Man 4 The Finale character you are. Play it now.
The films based on the legendary martial artist Ip Man have grown into a small industry in their own right. Aside from Wong Kar-“The Wai’s Grandmaster,” Wilson Yip’s “Ip Man” series is hard to beat for charm and verve. Wong Kar-“The Wai’s Grandmaster” is the best of the recent works about the Foshan-born icon. He began his career as an irreverent genre re-upholsterer, specializing in the production of violent and punk genre films, the most well-known of which is 1998’s “Bio Zombie.” His collaboration with Donnie Yen began in 2005, and he gradually shifted to a more conventional rhythm and style, with his mise-en-scene expanding to include the balletic performance of his star, who became his main inspiration. When they released the first “Ip Man,” which featured the incredible Sammo Hung choreographing the fight scenes, it became an instant hit. In the film, Ip Man is depicted as a humble folk hero who, in the years leading up to World War II, liberated the people of his province by teaching them to defend themselves with Wing Chun-style kung fu against greedy bosses and the invading Japanese army. Hung appeared in a supporting role in a hastily produced sequel that made even more money at the box office than the first film. “Ip Man 3,” which grossed $157 million dollars against a $36-million-dollar budget, had established itself as a showcase for some of the world’s most well-known mixed martial artists by the time the film hit theaters. “Ip Man 4: The Finale” is reportedly the final time that Yen will don the iconic black cassock to portray Ip Man, and Yip orchestrates a spectacular conclusion to the saga that is both fitting and satisfying.
Several months had passed since we last saw Yip and writer Edmond Wong’s version of Ip Man, and his wife had passed away from cancer, leaving him to raise his son (Ye He) by himself. The man’s fortunes are further harmed when he learns that he, too, has been diagnosed with cancer (which would kill him in 1972), which means that he has only a limited amount of time to ensure that his son’s life takes the right turn as well. He travels to America at the request of his most famous student, Bruce Lee (Kwok-Kwan Chan), and takes advantage of the opportunity to look for a suitable school for his son. Trouble finds him almost immediately. In the guise of being invited to a meeting of the heads of martial arts schools in the United States, he believes he is simply being extended hospitality as the world’s most renowned Wing Chun practitioner. It turns out, however, that they are all enraged by Bruce Lee’s decision to teach kung fu to westerners. Wu Yue (Yue Wu), the head of the Tai Chi school, demands that Ip Man put a muff on Lee, but he refuses, believing that everyone should have the right to practice the art form if they so choose. Their disagreement is on the verge of coming to blows. Things aren’t going to get any easier for Ip Man in the coming days. His visit to a prestigious school concludes with the admissions officer telling him that, absent a $10,000 donation or a letter of recommendation from other wealthy Chinese emigrants (such as Wan Zong Hua), his son will never be admitted to a respectable American institution.
While he’s touring the grounds, he notices Wan Zong Hua’s daughter Yonah (Vanda Margraf) being bullied by a white cheerleader (Grace Englert) and comes to her rescue, which starts the Tai Chi master on the path of recognizing Ip Man as a more principled man than he initially gave him credit. The INS and the military will be called upon in the coming days when that cheerleader informs her parents that she has been attacked by Chinese people. The INS and the military will then be called upon to assist them in their efforts to evict the Chinese from the area. Because there’s an army sergeant named Barton Geddes (Scott Adkins) who’s been itching for an opportunity to put the local Chinese in their place, this provides the perfect pretext for him to start cracking skulls on the battlefield.
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Yip’s “Ip Man” films are constructed like golden-age Hollywood musicals or “Step Up” movies, and as they were never going to be perfect history (four movies come and go without a single mention of Ip Man’s illegitimate child), this is a wise and welcome decision. After a brief plot introduction and the introduction of a new character, the film transitions into a jaw-dropping sparring scene. After “Ip Man 2,” the legendary Yuen Woo-Ping takes over as Sammo Hung’s replacement, and his work here is as stunning as it is nerve-wracking, as he has become accustomed to doing. Yuen Woo-Ping also directed this year’s similarly rich “Master Z: Ip Man Legacy,” following Zhang Jin’s character from “Ip Man 3,” and is planning a sequel as we speak, a small comfort to fans of these film’s winning aesthetics and gorgeous choreography.
Ip Man 4 The Finale Quiz
Having already traded blows in show stopping duels with Sammo Hung, Mike Tyson, Darren and Shahlavi among others, Donnie Yen shares lovingly orchestrated fight scenes with martial artist Chris Collins, Wu and finally Adkins in “The Finale.” There’s also room for Chan’s Bruce Lee to show off in a back alley brawl with some racist Karate experts. Chan’s Lee impression is truly wonderful, perfectly capturing his swagger and his signature body language. He’s almost charismatic enough to steal a little of Yen’s thunder. Yen, the Fred Astaire of kung fu, is finally beginning to look somewhat his age, which adds poignancy to his performance and adds no little extra tension to his fight scenes; can he still defeat his opponents as handily as he used to? His scene with Adkins, especially, is a nail-biter. Adkins isn’t usually framed by other directors to emphasize his relative enormity as so much of his screen persona revolves around him being underestimated by his opponents. Here he’s a tank, swift and sledgehammer-hard, and you genuinely worry about Yen’s body standing up to Adkins’ legwork and formidable fists. It’s one of the few times in the four “Ip Man” movies that it feels like the filmmakers aren’t stacking the decks in their hero’s favor.
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To go with the film’s musical dramatic structure, Yip and Johnny To’s regular cinematographer Siu-Keung Cheng create a world alive with brilliant color and ornate design. This feels at times like a Stanley Donen or Li Han-hsiang movie, with precise framing of weightless bodies in wonderfully lit presentational spaces. Yip’s maturation from his early Category 3 days to one of the most dependable directors of martial arts has been most rewarding because he’s realized that being a more serious director doesn’t mean losing vibrancy. The first two “Ip Man” movies had sombre, reserved color palettes, grey and brown to match the depressive mood of pre-and-post-war China. In “The Finale” Yen’s signature black clothing can’t help but stand out against the neon set design. Yip seems like he’s having as much fun with every single production element here, as opposed to just saving his energy for the death-defying combat sequences. Kenji Kawai’s music is still too emphatic for its own good, but when the dancing’s this good, the tune hardly matters.
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The “Ip Man” movies have always been nationalistic triumphs, with Yen as the savior of the downtrodden, protecting China from the tyrannical Japanese in the first film, and then from Americans, and from the avaricious character they brought to China in the latest two. “Finale” leans hard into the series’ anti-racist message, turning Adkins sadistic sergeant into a mouthpiece for Trump-era bigotry (Adkins is the best actor among the villains; the sadistic cheerleader and her family seem to be reading their lines phonetically). Slowly the enmity the other masters feel toward Ip Man dissolves because there’s greater threat to their way of life than Lee. It’s a clumsily delivered but deeply felt message of cooperation in trying times and surely there’s no bad time for such a thing. Through four movies now Yen’s beatific kung fu master has taken punches for every kind of person, helping others by staying his best self in a violent world and only resorting to violence when it’s absolutely necessary. Yen’s Ip Man will be sorely missed if this is indeed his last match, but at least he walked into the sunset on an exuberant and heartfelt note.Also, you must try to play this Ip Man 4 The Finale quiz.
For more personality quizzes check this: The Last Full Measure Quiz.
