I'm not going to rate this film, I'm just going to recommend, perhaps controversially, highly against seeing it. It may be a competent martial arts/action film, but it is also an unabashed piece of anti-foreign/pro-China propaganda.
Of course, if I'm calling it propaganda, then it must have some aim. That, I would argue, is to inflame Chinese nationalism by angering the Chinese people regarding historical injustices, and further, as China currently is on the rise to become a dominant world power again, to create a feeling of patriotic righteousness that they deserve this prosperity against any challenge or criticism by foreign countries.
It is in particular virulently anti-Japanese, but that feeling is spread out to the humiliation China suffered under the Western powers in the 19th and 20th centuries, present in the film, all who colluded to control and keep China in the service of their own national benefits.
Quite honestly, I see no problem with that. I've seen plenty of Chinese films that have addressed the victimization of modern China by Western powers and which have blasted Japan's wartime aggression and subsequent lack of contrition, even denial, regarding atrocities on the Chinese mainland.
The Chinese have all the right in the world to constantly re-hash this history, especially against the Japanese, and I totally support it. It shouldn't be forgotten, but this film, I think, takes it to a whole new level. As a Westerner, it's a scary level, because the Chinese are a scary people when they get nationalistic.
Current China continues to flout international conventions on human rights. China could be congratulated on having one of its citizens, Liu Xiaobo, awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, except he's under arrest by the Chinese government for promoting fundamental human rights. After the announcement was made, his wife was placed under house arrest and had her cellphones confiscated. The Great Firewall of China made it impossible for ordinary citizens to even hear the news. Nice going, China!
My visit to Tibet really opened my eyes to the atrocities the Chinese have committed there and I am convinced the cultural genocide the Chinese are accused of trying to commit is real. Tibetans are becoming marginalized in their own country and their sacred monasteries tourist sites. The Chinese are trying to undermine and destroy Tibetan Buddhist institutions and then have the gall to call the Nobel Peace Prize award to Liu Xiaobo "blasphemous".
I do believe Chinese civilization will become dominant again. I do think its struggles in its early modern era were largely intentionally caused by more modernized foreign powers who took advantage of the weak Qing Dynasty government. I reluctantly admit that Chinese civilization has been the most enduring, continuous human culture on Earth – a point that is alluded to in the movie.
China has the potential to rise to that level again, but the thought of this current Communist Dynasty leading the rise is pretty scary. And with even the U.S. kow-towing to and drooling at the economic opportunities presented by Chinese markets, there is no one who dares go up against this arrogant and authoritarian government.
That said, I don't think any Westerner needs to be subjected to this kind of propaganda just to enjoy a decent martial arts/action film. Donnie Yen is great in this film, but I would recommend Ip Man instead. And for anyone familiar with the pedigree of this film, I also recommend just sticking with Bruce Lee's "Fist of Fury" and the Jet Li re-make of that film, "Fist of Legend", from which one can see the pedigree of this film's title. If you haven't seen those films, I recommend seeing those instead.
In short, the Chen Zhen character was originated by Bruce Lee in "Fist of Fury", and Jet Li played the role in "Fist of Legend". Donnie Yen played the role in a 1995 Hong Kong TV series, and is reprising the role from that series in this film.
These comments on this film are actually a continuation of the above film. Both star Donnie Yen, both were filmed roughly at the same time – I think he filmed Ip Man 2 first – and released in 2010, and both are heavy-handed in the way they portray foreign subjugation and humiliation of China and Chinese people.
Actually, I rented this film because I was trusting it to be more even-handed, based on how good the first Ip Man movie was, and I wanted to make sure I could tell the difference. But watching this film, it was more of the same thing, except the Japanese are out of the picture, the Japanese having been atomic bombed and defeated in WWII and this film taking place in 1950.
The villain now, or continues to be, the British. Westerners. White people. Snarling, sneering, spitting, bellowing, arrogant, condescending, big-nosed White Devils. They are so one-dimensional that they are caricature.
Having been subjected to racism by white people growing up (thus learning how to be racist back at them in the process), I didn't mind this portrayal of the British. However, it was still hard to watch because of the impact of racism. It still felt real, these were accurate portrayals of the feelings racism, whether individual or national, evokes.
Times are different now (pull out the jumbo-size salt shaker, folks - future ed.), and even though racism in the U.S. still exists, it's not as prevalent, and U.S. society has diversified considerably so that people are much more aware of racial issues and sensitive to them, and are directly exposed to so many different cultures. And communities are much larger and stronger so that the impact of racism is more readily absorbed. There's more support, safety in numbers.
Back to the film, I had a hard time whether to label this another propaganda film and give it the short "don't see it" shrift I gave "Legend of the Fist". I don't want to do that because then I'm starting to cry wolf.
And it had all the elements I accused "Legend" of having that made it arguably propaganda and less so art (yes, I know I'm softening my stance by calling it "arguably propaganda", because I admit that it is arguable). But for me, what pushes a movie over the line is when there is a scene that is so unlikely, and has a clear propagandist message, that it distracts from the integrity of the film.
Now the portrayal of the British probably qualifies right there, because it is caricature and is distracting to the integrity of the film. It's unchallenging and is intended to inflame the passions of Chinese people over the injustices and humiliation they have suffered from the West.
But that's not enough, because it has no point. What's the use of anti-British propaganda now? England and China are nominally friends now. So for it to be propaganda now, there also needs to be a pro-China message, and this film has that, too, and it distracts from the integrity of the film.
The film is set in 1950. Ip Man has just arrived in Hong Kong and tries to set up a martial arts school, but encounters resistance from rival martial arts schools and he has to prove himself. That's the first half of the film, and the villain in the first half is Sammo Hung's character and the students of his school.
But the film morphs in the second half when we find Sammo Hung's school has been recruited to be workers for an event showcasing Western boxing. The go-between between their school and the British authorities is a spineless Chinese lackey who agrees to do the white devil's evil bidding, and convincing the Chinese to accept it. So in the second half of the film, Sammo Hung's character and Ip Man bury the hatchet and the villain becomes the British.
The distracting pro-China scene is when the lackey unpredictably goes against his British superiors and gets a backbone and eventually becomes a hero. In fact, even the students of Sammo Hung's school that the viewer despises for being cowardly and having no honor, also are included in the Chinese hero camp in the second half of the film. All the Chinese are heroes, just because they're Chinese.
The film does go too far for me and I consider it a propaganda film. However, an arguable element against that claim is the film ends with words of reconciliation by Ip Man himself, calling for respect between cultures, because Ip Man is a paragon of virtue (I'm not being sarcastic, it was established in the first film that is what he's supposed to be). It was thoroughly appropriate for Ip Man to say that at the end. Even though the film itself is a big diss of the British.
Oh, that's not the film's end. I've been waffling about whether to give this film a nominal fresh rating or a nominal rotten rating, but the film's last scene pushes the film down into a comfortable rotten rating. For "Ip Man 2", they were trying to get the rights from the Bruce Lee estate so that they could have a plotline that included him, but they couldn't get the rights.
But Ip Man's fame is known in popular culture to the extent it is now because he was Bruce Lee's teacher. I think the producers thought how can they tell Ip Man's story without even a mention of Bruce Lee? Donnie Yen already said he wouldn't do a third Ip Man movie. So they tagged on this dumb little scene when a young Bruce Lee is introduced to Ip Man, sporting well-known Bruce Lee mannerisms. All they were missing was a children's-size yellow and black track suit.
Rotten 5 out of 10 tomatoes.
