This was a movie highly recommended to me. As someone who loves martial arts movies I was told I had to watch this one. Plus Wing Chun is a highly respected form of Chinese martial art that has also been recommended to me.

So I watched this movie knowing nothing (it’s on Netflix yay) and it surprised me. I didn’t expect it to get so deep. At first I wondered what the focus of the movie was going to be and it turned out to be Japan’s occupation of China during WWII.

 

(Spoilers Ahead)

 

Before that though it felt like an ego contest. Who’s the best martial artist? Who has the best school? And that guy who came from the North was just extra! I didn’t like him but I think that was the point. It led to some great fight choreography, like really, it was gooood!

It was so smooth, controlled and artistic. I quite liked it.

Then of course there was the fast forward and things took a dark turn as Japan occupied China. This part of the movie made me sad. It caused me to go and see if they actually did fight for the bags of rice (apparently no but correct me if I’m wrong). It added tension to the film and then I understood what the focus of the film was going to be.

Some of those fights were brutal. Like wow. He took out someone’s hip! But it made sense, in the context of the film it made sense that he reacted like that. If I could fight I would react like that.

Overall it was good but I didn’t love it. So I would give it a four out of five.

Should I watch the next one? There are like three more right? At least I’ve seen more Ip Man movies on Netflix.

What did you think?

Did you like the movie?

 

Ps: The cinematography was great! And the use of colours to match the tone of the movie at different parts? Splendid.