"Ip Man" is not a biopic in the strict sense, because the film presents only a story before and after Japan's war of aggression against China. Therefore, the film structure of "Ip Man" is destined to be similar to a movie like "Jingwumen". What such a movie appeals to is not the magnificent life of a character, but the use of a character's story to express his own uniqueness emotions, and the story can be fictional or real. In other words, this is a bit of a "borrowing inscription", so in such a film, although the main axis of the film is a character, and all the plot development revolves around this character, in fact, this character It is just a "tool" to carry the theme of the film, and this is the biggest difference between this type of film and biopic, which is more inclined to "legendary film". If a true biopic presents an epic momentum, then the type of film "Ip Man" allows us to feel a more egoistic emotional outlet. At the same time, this is also something that Hong Kong movies are familiar with.
In recent years, as kung fu movies have become more and more eye-catching in action design, the connotation of the story has disappeared with more and more fancy actions. The first few works of the trio of Yip Weixin, Donnie Yen, and Sammo Hung, except for "Slaying the Wolf", the other works are all wonderful in fighting dramas and poor in literary dramas, so that I didn't want to watch the first few works. The desire to do it twice, but this time "Ip Man" is different, but after I walked out of the cinema, I even had the urge to go in and feel the passion. This is not only because the film is good, but the spirit it carries is enough Make me boil.
From the very beginning of the film, the plot revolved around the theme of "fight" or "not to fight". Ye Wei believed this to show the martial arts cultivation of a generation of martial arts masters, which is simple but impressive. Therefore, in the first half of the film, Ye Wen, played by Donnie Yen, strives to "not fight", but when it comes to the Japanese, he frequently takes the initiative. On the issue of whether to fight or not, the film expounds a most exciting and pure point of view-not if you don't fight, you should fight hard! And this is also a theme carried in "Jingwumen", this "roar" that can stimulate the enthusiasm of the audience has disappeared from the screen for several years.
Therefore, the action design in the first half of the film mainly highlights one point to the end, and when it comes to the duel with the Japanese, it is a kind of angry vent. In the final duel of the film, the Japanese are forced to the edge of the pillar without mercy. Double fisting is the most bloody scene in the film! If the "discussion" before the war of aggression against China is full of "beauty of kung fu", then the kung fu design including "one-on-ten" in the second half makes people truly see the "fierce of kung fu". The shock that this kind of kung fu drama brings to the audience is far beyond what those "pseudo kung fu films" can match.
In addition to dividing the film's kung fu design into two styles due to the needs of the plot, the five fight scenes undertaken by Donnie Yen in the film also have no sense of repetition. The first part of the discussion with Master Liao mainly reflected the boxing technique, the next one was a demonstration of short weapons to beat the northern martial artist, and the one dozen ten battles with the Japanese satisfied the pleasure of being one enemy, and the second one with the northern martial artist was a show of short weapons. The second confrontation made me see the shadow of the wonderful stick fight in "Men Become Self-improvement", and the final fight was almost the "killing version" of the first competition. These five movements tailored for Donnie Yen can completely become the representative works of Donnie Yen in his film career.
But Donnie Yen in the film is not as simple as playing beautifully. It can be said that Donnie Yen's performance in "Ip Man" is almost comparable to, or even better than, Nalan Yuanshu's performance in "Men Be Self-improvement" fifteen years ago. Donnie Yen shows us the style of a martial arts master with his wonderful performance. Although he is also a tepid performance most of the time in the film, except for martial arts, but this kind of tepid performance is faint The "aura" burst out, so that every time Donnie Yen appeared, I felt a sincere sense of security. It seems that as long as he exists, all the difficulties in the film are not difficult. The film designed Ip Man as an absolutely invincible character, which is to make Ip Man a representative of a righteous martial arts force, and it can even be said to be a spiritual sustenance, and Donnie Yen's performance fully meets this requirement.
Apart from Donnie Yen, the most surprising person in the film is Fan Shaohuang. This guy who has a good kung fu but always hangs out in B-level films seems to have waited for this northern martial artist for several years, so I saw him in the film. Energetic in acting. There's a bit of a resemblance to the fact that the northern martial artist needs to wait until he admits and he needs a real big-budget movie to show himself. And Lin Jiadong's performance is also one of the highlights of the film. Ren Dahua has become an old actor, and he is familiar with any role. If he plays abnormally, it will be news. However, although several supporting roles are quite good, due to the reasonable arrangement of the scenes, they will not steal the spotlight with the protagonist. But this is mainly due to Donnie Yen's outstanding performance. If his performance is a mess, the more shots are given, the more the movie will collapse.
Although the second half of the film is almost a copy of "Jingwumen", "Ip Man" is still one of the best films I have seen this year, and it is the best "Kung Fu film" I have seen in recent years. ".
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