****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Tracing the legend of Bruce Lee's master, Ip Man, back to the beginnings in Foshan, China, Ip Man: Legend is Born tells the true life story of this grandmaster of Wing Chun, played by 2010 World Wushu Champion, Dennis To, and features some of the best martial arts choreography ever captured on screen as well as ranking as one of my top ten martial arts movie of all time and also incorporating what can easily be deemed one of the best five story lines in a martial arts film. This movie has it all -- martial arts training as a disciple, the challenge from different schools (in this case a misnomer, as the challenge actually comes from the Japanese), the defence of Chinese pride against disrespectful foreigners, love, betrayal, intrigue, and an historically accurate spy story thrown in.The story revolves around the lives of two boys, one the son of a rich man and the other an adopted son whom their father had found abandoned in the blind downpour of rain; and as the movie proceeds, they are introduced to the grand master of Wing Chun, Chan Wah Shun, portrayed by Samo Hung in a cameo appearance, who passes away within an extremely short span of time. Then, the story turns to Ip Man leaving Foshan for Hong Kong to pursue tertiary education and sees him defending the Chinese against foreign aggressors, by the way of a British teen who calls the Chinese pigs during a football match, and having challenged the foreigner, who further insults the Chinese by calling them the sick old man of Asia, they engage in a duel that sees Ip Man breaking the foreigners hand, and having taught the British a lesson through that feat, sets the bone straight again. Following this encounter Ip Man's reputation in Hong Kong grows and, searching for medication for his new found friend, the foreigner, Ip enters a Chinese medicine shop where he is challenged and badly humiliated by Leung Bik, played by Ip Chun - the real life son of Ip Man, who had broken away from the traditional school of Wing Chun as founded by his family, thereby, cementing a conflict with his brothers Ng' Chung So and Chen Wa Shun, who are considered the orthodox school of Wing Chun; and, having been so humiliated, accepts Leung Bik as his master and begins training as Leung Bik's disciple. When he returns to Foshan, he demonstrates and proves the superiority of Leung Bik's style over traditional Wing Chun and is punished by his master, played by Yuen Biao, who had taken over the reins from Chan Wah Shun.Meanwhile, the Japanese have challenged Yuen Biao's school, and having been defeated by the Ip Man's adopted brother, who we will later be made to realize was a Japanese agent who had been sent to Foshan as a child to infiltrate Chinese society so that the Japanese could further their imperial ambitions in China, seeks to convince Yuen Biao's school to accept the Japanese as disciples.The movie culminates with Ip's adopted brother finally being made ,by the Japanese, to slaughter everyone at Yuen Biao's school of martial arts, and the climactic battle between the two which is one of the most exhilarating fight sequences you will ever see on film.Highly recommended.
