Ip Man 2: Legend of the Grandmaster 葉問 2: 宗師傳奇

 Released Year: 2010

Directed by 叶伟信 Wilson Yip

Casted by:

甄子丹 Donnie Yen as 葉問 Ip Man

洪金寶 Sammo Hung as 洪震南 Nam

黃曉明 Huang Xiao Ming as 黃梁 Leung

熊黛林 Lynn Hung as  張永成 Sing

任達華 Simon Yam as 周清泉 Chuen

樊少皇 Louis Fan as 金山找 Chau

鄭則仕 Kent Cheng as 肥波 Fatso

Darren Shahlavi as Taylor Miller "Twister"

Charles Mayer as 華萊士警司 Wallace

 Story: 

Wing Chun master Ip Man and his family move to Hong Kong in the mid-1940s after their escape from Japanese-occupied Foshan. There, Ip desires to open a school to propagate his art, as well as make a living during the difficult times, but he has difficulty attracting students due to his lack of reputation in the city. One day, a young man named Wong Leung appears and promptly challenges Ip to a fight, but is easily defeated. Wong leaves humiliated, only to return with some friends to gang up on him. Ip beats them as well. Stunned and impressed by his skills, Wong and his friends become Ip's first students, bringing more disciples to help the school thrive.

Wong is later caught posting promotional posters for the school by some Hung Ga students. One of them challenges Wong to a fight and loses, but his friends take Wong hostage in revenge and demand a ransom from Ip. Ip goes to the local wet market as directed, but the meeting ends in a confrontation with a growing mob of Hung Ga students. Ip and Wong fight their way outside to meet Jin Shanzhao, a martial artist and former bandit, who comes to their rescue with his own gang. The students' master and head of the coalition of Hong Kong martial arts clubs, Hung Chun-nam, arrives to break up the fight. Ip introduces himself, and Hung informs him that before setting up a school, he needs to attend a special fighting ceremony to test his worth. Ip, Wong and Jin are subsequently arrested by Officer Fatso for disturbing the peace but are later released on bail. Hung and Fatso are then shown to be acting as reluctant collectors for the martial arts schools (including Hung's) as part of a protection racket headed by Superintendent Wallace, a corrupt officer in the Hong Kong police.

Ip attends the ceremony and defeats his first challengers, before striking a draw with the last challenger, Hung. Ip is allowed to keep running his school on the condition that he pay his monthly protection fees, but he declines. Hung thus has his students loiter in front of the Wing Chun School and harass anyone interested, causing a street brawl between them and Ip's disciples. Ip is thus forced to close up and move the school nearer to home. Ip soon confronts Hung, who blames him since he wouldn't pay his protection fees, whereas Ip criticizes Hung's management of his students. Hung insists that he is doing what he must and also insists they finish their fight, but during this encounter, Ip stops Hung from accidentally kicking his son as he suddenly appears, earning respect from him. Ip leaves, and the next day, Hung invites him to a British boxing match he has helped to set up, quietly coming to terms with him.

The boxing competition allows for a demonstration by the various martial arts schools to help promote themselves and their Chinese culture. However, the event's star boxer, Taylor "The Twister" Miller, an arrogant, racist and brutal man, openly insults and attacks the students, causing chaos as the masters try to restore order. Hung accepts Twister's challenge to a fight so that he can defend his culture. Although Hung has the upper hand at first due to his wider range of skills, in the second round he suffers a devastating blow that severely disorientates him. As he fights on, he begins to weaken from his asthma and is eventually beaten to death by Twister, as he refuses to concede and allow the man to insult his culture and people. News of Hung's death rapidly spreads throughout the enraged Chinese populace, causing a scandal that spurs Wallace to hold a press conference where he lies that Hung's death was an accident and that he was a weakling who died after a few punches. Twister announces that in order to clear his name he will accept any challenge from the Chinese to participate in a fair, public boxing match, but proceeds to proclaim that he could kill every Chinese boxer in Hong Kong and that he doubts any of the Chinese are brave enough to fight him. Ip Man has already arrived to challenge Twister to a fight.

As his wife goes into labor, Ip finishes training and begins his fight with Twister. Ip exchanges blows with the boxer and seems overwhelmed by the westerner's sheer muscle at first, but begins to make a comeback using his more diverse techniques and great speed. He receives an illegal punch from Twister after the second round's bell, and is also told that kicks would not be allowed due to the judges changing the rules during the match. When it looks like the end, Ip remembers Hung's patriotic spirit and is spurred to go on. He changes his strategy and attacks the boxer's arms to disable him. The fight is brought to a climactic finish as Ip Man rains blow after blow into the knocked-down Twister's face, with flashbacks reflecting the latter's killing of Master Hung. While the Chinese celebrate, Wallace is arrested by his superiors for corruption, as Fatso has secretly reported him. Ip then gives a speech to the audience, stating that despite the differences between their race and culture, he wishes for everyone to respect each other regardless of their status. Both the Western and Chinese audience give him a standing ovation while Twister's manager walks away, unhappy at the defeat. Ip goes home and reunites with his family, including his newborn second son, Ip Ching.

A final scene shows Ip being introduced to a boy named Bruce Lee who wishes to study Wing Chun in order to "beat up people [he does not] like". Ip smiles and simply tells the boy to "come back when [he has] grown up".

 L² Scored: 9/10

L² Comment:

Comparing to the first movie, this time the rival change from Asian to Caucasian. Both Karate & Boxing master has loss to the ultimate Wing Chun. Lol, it might be true or it has been make it up, but this definitely has make a strong impression on Bruce Lee, Ip Man's apprentice, and all his movie was toward this kind of storyline.

Hiroyuki Ikeuchi & Gordon Lam are out from this second movie, replacing by strong and good acting Sammo Hung, Huang Xiao Ming & Kent Cheng; while Darren Shahlavi is a British Persian actor who is actually an expert in Judo. *Note: Darren Shahlavi has passed away in 2015 at his age of 42yo by a fatal heart attack, RIP.

Same comment I'm gonna give since the first movie's review, both Simon Yam & Lynn Hung should be out from the picture as their character is useless and I believe paying them are not cheap as well. I can understand Lynn's character is a continuous, but Simon? He appear less than 3 minutes in the whole film, but maybe he is on a guest appearance form, who knows?

Ip Man 葉問

 Released Year: 2008

Directed by 叶伟信 Wilson Yip

Casted by:

甄子丹 Donnie Yen as 葉問 Ip Man

池內博之 Hiroyuki Ikeuchi as 三浦將軍 Miura

任達華 Simon Yam as 周清泉 Chow Ching-chuen

熊黛林 Lynn Hung as 張永成 Cheung Wing-sing

樊少皇 Louis Fan as 金山找 Kam Shan-chu

林家棟 Gordon Lam as 李釗 Li Chiu

釋行宇 Xing Yu as 武痴林 Master Lam

黃又南 Wong You-nam as 沙膽源 Yuan

 Story: 

In the 1930s, Foshan is a hub of Southern Chinese martial arts, where various schools actively recruit disciples and compete against each other. Although the Wing Chun master Ip Man is the most skilled martial artist in Foshan, he is unassuming and keeps a low profile. As an independent wealthy man, he feels no need to accept any disciples and instead spends his days training, meeting with friends, and spending time with his family. However, his wife is often resentful of the time he spends training and discussing martial arts with friends and colleagues. Though not a professional martial artist, Ip is respected in Foshan due to the abilities he displays in friendly, closed-door competitions with local masters. Ip's reputation is further enhanced when he defeats an aggressive, rude, highly skilled Northern Chinese martial arts master, Jin Shanzhao, thus upholding the regional pride of fellow Southern stylists and others in Foshan.

The Japanese invasion in 1937 adversely affects the life of everyone in Foshan. Ip's house is claimed by the Japanese and used as their Foshan headquarters. Ip and his family lose their wealth and are forced to move into a decrepit house. Desperate to support his family, Ip accepts work at a coal mine. The Japanese General Miura, who is a Karate master, establishes an arena where Chinese martial artists compete with his military trainees. The Chinese earn a bag of rice for every match they win. Li Zhao, a former police officer and Ip's acquaintance, is now working as a translator for the Japanese and is making the offer to the martial artists working at the coal mine. Ip at first declines to participate in the matches. However, when his friend Lin goes missing, he agrees to take part in order to investigate. Ip arrives to see fellow Foshan martial arts master Liu executed by Miura's lieutenant, Sato, for picking up a bag of rice from a prior victory after conceding in a second match against three karateka. He also comes to understand that Lin was killed in an earlier fight. Barely able to contain his rage, Ip demands a match with ten karateka at once. Despite having not practiced Wing Chun since the invasion began (in order to conserve what little food his family had to survive), he proceeds to mercilessly crush each of them with a brutal barrage of his martial art mastery, showing none of the restraint he exhibited in previous engagements. His skill arouses the interest of Miura, who seeks to learn more about Ip and see him fight again.

Ip later visits his friend Chow Ching-chuen, who owns and runs a cotton mill in Foshan. Chow tells Ip that a bandit gang led by Jin Shanzhao is harassing his workers and trying to extort money from them. Ip trains the workers in Wing Chun for self-defense.

When Ip does not return to the arena, Miura grows impatient and sends Sato along with several soldiers to find him. The lieutenant then gestures at Ip's wife, prompting Ip to incapacitate them. When the bandits return to the cotton mill, the workers fight back using the techniques that Ip taught them. Ip himself arrives midway through the battle to take care of things personally and defeats Jin Shanzhao, warning him never to harass the workers again.

The Japanese soldiers eventually find Ip at the cotton mill. Miura tells Ip that his life will be spared if he agrees to instruct the Japanese soldiers in martial arts. Ip refuses and challenges Miura to a match, which Miura accepts, both because of his love for martial arts and because refusing the challenge would be a humiliation to the Japanese. The match between Ip and Miura is held in public in Foshan's square. At first, the two fighters seem equally matched, but Miura soon finds himself unable to penetrate Ip's impeccable defense and becomes overwhelmed by his relentless and direct blows. He is helpless to defend himself as Ip effortlessly uses him as a wooden dummy, inflicting a severe beating on him and clearly winning.

As the beaten general lies down after his defeat, Ip looks over to the cheering Chinese crowd and spots his wife and child with Chow. Enraged, Sato shoots at Ip, sparking a scuffle between the Chinese audience and the Japanese soldiers. During the scuffle, Li Zhao kills Sato with Sato's own gun. Ip is taken away amidst the chaos. The epilogue reveals that he survives and escapes to Hong Kong with his family with the help of Chow Ching-chuen. There, Ip establishes a Wing Chun school, where his students come to learn martial arts from him, including Bruce Lee.

 L² Scored: 8.5/10

L² Comment:

Sorry to all Ip Man's fans, but seriously this is only the first time ever I watch this movie :p This series of movie never really attracted me previously even though later on Mike Tyson was invited to play a role in the 3rd movie as well. But surprisingly this movie is not bad, as I thought i would have fall asleep half way through the movie but I did not... 

Few of the characters in this film which i think is overspend on the budget especially Simon Yam & Lynn Hung, i mean, the movie doesn't need to pay so much for them to be in the film as the character is not really important at all. The one whom is really good, I have to say is Gordon Lam, he really acted well in here; Ikeuchi is another surprise for me, as this actor doesn't have much movies or dramas on him, he might be choosy in selecting his character & film, but i think he definitely loves his part here as he is a Judo black belt master :)