User reviews

Ip Man: Kung Fu Master is the latest entry in a number of various series chronicling the life of Wing Chun grandmaster Ip Man. This might also be the weakest of depictions full of sloppy choreography, unnecessary wire work, and a fragmented story that should have been Ramen-noodle-simple but was instead as complex as fugu preparation. Dennis To plays the role with charisma and honor, which is unfortunately wasted on this Saturday afternoon Kung Fu Theater special.

Set during his time as a police captain, Ip Man is on the path to become a full-on Wing Chun master. He becomes involved with a hostile Japanese agent who is seeking to pave a way for the oncoming invasion. Torn between his duties as a police officer and his responsibilities as a martial artist committed to the Foshan community, Ip fights a wronged clan, and eventually the Japanese themselves.

The plot cannot decide what it wants to be: a historical action piece or a silly crime drama. Characters are introduced, and then rudely dropped, without reason or development. Even the time period is largely obscure; timelessly in limbo somewhere between the 1930s and Morpheus' Matrix. Kung Fu Master is as haphazard as the drunken boxing style with considerably less grace.

Dennis To is a great martial arts action star. He moves with precision, fights with a smile, and has range enough to show loving care for his burgeoning family. As Ip Man, To brings honor to the role but the storytelling certainly does not give much to play with. Is he a master? A student? Police? A masked man? There is no cause, only action as a form of reaction, which certainly does not make a compelling narrative.

Ip Man: Kung Fu Master plays out in a series of barely-connected events and bland kung fu battles. Dennis To seems to work best in those intimate moments of combat when his feet and hands clap with power. However, he is all too mute when being forced to encapsulate Liming Li's vision of Ip as a rallying cry for Chinese unification.

I must admit that when I stumbled upon the 2019 movie "Ip Man: Kung Fu Master" here in 2021 then I was fairly surprised and thrilled. I didn't know that they had made another Ip Man movie, so this was a nice surprise. And needless to say that I needed no persuasion to sit down to watch it.

Well, hold your horses there for a second. This movie is not as good as the most other Ip Man movies were, particularly the ones with Donnie Yen. No, not even close.

Sure, "Ip Man: Kung Fu Master" was watchable, but don't get your hopes up high for this 2019 movie from writers Liming Li and Qingshui Shi. It was watchable, yeah, but this movie was just lacking a properly thoroughly thought-through storyline. Everything in the movie seemed rushed and shallow.

Yu-Hang To - playing Ip Man - definitely knew his martial arts and put on a rather impressive display. But a movie about him just fighting was hardly something that counted as properly entertaining. A shame really, that the writers had failed to come up with a more interesting and complete storyline.

While I managed to sit through the entire movie, this is hardly a martial arts classic, nor is it a movie that warrants more than a single viewing.

My rating of "Ip Man: Kung Fu Master" lands on a four out of ten stars. The movie came and went without leaving much of a lasting impression. If you enjoy martial arts movies, there are far better movies out there. And if you enjoy movies about Ip Man, there are far better movies out there.

Just not in the same realm as the other Ip Man films, Donnie Yen is still the King.

This movie is waste of time. It manages make the talents (who are accomplished, legitimate martial artists) look like they don't know how to fight. The action scenes are marred by horrible pacing and camera angles so tight it is impossible to follow any of it.

There is questionable use of music and the plot makes no sense as it switches between unrelated narrative threads that all have no consequence on the main character. The attempt to creative weight falls way short of its mark and the shallow moments will make you writhe on your seat from how forced it is.

Finally, the film fails to find any original moments as it plagiarizes from its far superior predecessors Ip Man 1, 2, The Grandmaster, and Chen Zhen Legend of The First. Do yourself a favour and watch those movies instead.

30 minutes in the movie and i feel so bored.

Its obvious that tries to mimic the Ip Man 1/2/3/4 and fail flat out,

This was so bad. Opening scene of one (only hands/feet) against over a hundred adversaries (and with hand axes). Defeats them all. More mass disparity fight scenes follow; all have been seen so many times before. Nothing creative; lots of stereotypes; no acting; no story; good promotional commercial for a kung fu style. Vague ending to make money off of a sequel.

What a disappointment. We have loved all the other Ip Man stories, but this one was completely ridiculous and unbelievable. The story felt silly and pathetic. Such a disgrace to have this movie linked to the Ip Man character.

From the opening scene this movie does more to make wing chun look stupid than it does to entertain. It's very much performed in the style of "lots of movement, little visibility" and usually against numbers that makes the burly brawl from the Matrix Reloaded look positively gritty and realistic by comparison, while reducing wing chun to mostly chain punching. Poor representation of the art, retelling a story you've seen plenty of times before, and all of them done a lot better.

Music's good, though.

ITS LIKE A DONNIE STYLE HE TRY TO ACT LIKE HIM , BUT ITS NOT BUT , COUSE NOBADY CAN REPLACE DONNIE YEN , ITS TIME TO GET MORE FROM DONNIE BEFORE HES GONNA OLD TO MUCH LIKE JET LEE , JACKIE CHAN ETC , SO THEY CANT NEVER EVER REPLACE AND WE GONNA MISS FOREVER , SO ITS GOOD TO WORK HARD IN THE LAST YEARS AND GET AS MUCH AS THEY CAN FROM DONNIE TO MAKE MOVIE A CLASS ... Europa fans !!

Yu-hang To is champion in many martial arts competition and he is a better martial artist than Donnie by a large margin. He started on the wrong foot with the comedy genre a while ago and his face is comedian because of that. It's hard to come back to serious genre when people see him as a funny guy but he is the real deal. In his other movie "The Legend Is Born: Ip Man" he has a fight scene with grandmaster Ip Chun, the son of the real Ip Man himself. It's one of the best fight scene in any Wingchun movie ever made. People can open their mind a bit and see another aspect of Ip Man in Yu-Hang's movie branch. Enjoy every fight scene of this champion where his whole body movement is shown and not some close-up, slow motion or speed up action like Donnie's movie (Donnie has better plot for sure but he use camera trick to make his action looks more impressive). Watch To's movies like a martial artist, not an actor and you will appreciate them a lot more.

As a Wing Chun practitioner in one of the many branches started by GM Ip Man I have no other words for whatever these 1 hour and 24 minutes are. Bad propaganda maybe?

Terrible plot.

Terrible actors' play.

The fighting scenes are not humorously fake. Just unrealistic and silly. Whether the multiple ones or the one-on-one jokes.

Even the basic stance of Ip Man breaks the Wing Chun principles.

Like the Donnie Yen series this one keeps making up facts about the real life of Ip Man. And the further they are from the possible and meaningful, the more is his real life disrepsected.

At least the other movies are better made from the fighting to the color of the blood.

When you cannot tell if it supposed to be a comedy or a martial arks movie, then something is terribly wrong. It somehow reminds me of KingFu Hustle by how goofy it is.

The only thing done extremely well is the scenery, filming locations, costume design and overall time period feel.

It had the potential to visually be absolutely stunning, but the plot and acting just ruins the experience. Hence, the wasted potential. Such a sad fizzle ending to the extraordinary Ip Man series.

This movie is worthless propaganda for the militant police state that is 21st century China. This post will probably be cited if I ever try to visit China, but so what? The Ip Man name should never have been applied to this trash.

Apparently the Chinese government desperately needs a heroic mythology to rival what is offered by the West by way of Greece, Rome, Scandinavia, Tolkien, and Marvel/DC Hollywood. So they're exalting Ip Man to cop superhero.

Donnie Yen is the real deal. He ain't in this mess.

The same storylines from all previous Ip Man films are here in this boring and blandest of martial arts films.

We've had 4 films with Donnie Yen, which has solidified as himself the quintessential Ip Man. However even the other film explorations of the Ip Man character by other actors and directors have still managed to entertain and engage the audience. We were given "The Grandmaster" - Kung fu love story with Tony Leung & Zhang Ziyi done in Wong Kar Wai's unique poetic and graceful style. Then Ip Man: Final Fight with Anthony Wong as an older Ip Man, which had decent action set pieces.

As well as Ip Man: A Legend Is Born which also starred Dennis To in the titular role of Ip Man, was a much better film than the film in question. At least that earlier film showed Dennis To playing Ip Man as youthful slightly cocky young man developing his Wing Chun and his blossoming relationship with Wing Sing. It offered something new and different to seperate it from the iconic portrayal by Donnie Yen. The major problem is Ip Man: Kung Fu Master offers nothing new. NOTHING.

Dennis To as Ip Man is older here and is a Police Inspector, but just plays it straight as the principled stoic and stone faced Ip Man. He has no character development or story arc. Any tease at a subplot isn't given enough time or executed well enough for us to even care.

In regards to the movie's plot, It's all been seen before - Japanese invasion; Japanese Vs Chinese rivialry; Karate vs Wing Chun; same corrupt police and authorities; a Chinese sympathiser for the Japanese; Kung fu master friend dies in battle that needs to be avenged; over patriotism and so many more blatant and lazy plot devices.

It even steals the use of the Kato mask that Donnie Yen used as a tribute to Bruce Lee in Legend of the Fist: Return of Chen Zhen.

This film really feels like it "Missed the Boat." But even if it was released at the height of the Ip Man craze, I think it would have still been considered an extremely poor entry in the collection of Ip Man films. Even if it was judged as a martial arts film on its own merit, it is still a very poor, boring and lazy film. The fight choreography is nothing to get excited about. There's only so many times you can watch straight chain punches, palm slaps and low oblique kicks in the same manner.

Unfortunately I personally feel it highlights the decline of Action/martial arts cinema In China.

Actors/Stuntmen in Hollywood have learned and evolved the craft of martial arts choreography ever since The Matrix and now John Wick. Even the Thais, Indonesians, Koreans, Japanese and Vietnamese seem to be doing better martial arts action than what China has been putting out recently.

The great Hong Kong Chinese tradition and lineage of groundbreaking and exciting Kung Fu/Action that was pioneered by such legends as Jimmy Wang, David Chiang, Ti Lung, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Gordon Liu, Jet Li and Donnie Yen, seems sadly over.

First of all, main actor's acting skill is terrible. He copied Donny Yeng, but he doesn't even know how to move his hands while fighting, moreover the way he act is so immature. This movie alone can destroy all IP man movies. Donny is always IP Man, no one can replace him. Actor fighting scene are so hilarious, he is just moving his head and hand like a puppet. I regret watching this Movie, at first I thought this Movie would be another Donny's movie. Other than main actor, the other actors are fine. Everyone is better than main actor. Why they chose him as IP man. He looks So cheap and so bad in acting. The ending scene was also Like soup Opera. Heavy Make-up and hilarious facial expression.

And i am not saying this as a jab to the main actor, who did a good job. Its all the rest. The story take some of the lines from the first Donnie movie, but is not as well structured or emotional. In this movie you often see Ip Man fighting a gazillion of dudes at the same time, sometimes they are even armed with hatchets etc and yet he never get a scratch. In the Yen's movie, sure he sometimes fight a lot of dudes but its never to the point where it get comical.

I was laughing too often in this one when i shouldn't had. I didn't really get into the story much while i usually really enjoy the Ip movies, even the non Donnie Yen ones. But despite the laughing nature of some fights, they made me laugh so i supose the movie kept me entertained?

I didn't hate it by any mean, its fine i supose to pass time, but its just nowhere as good as it could had been.

It's really an excellent film.

Just love it!

Not a waste at all.

Do never get into world war again.