Back in the nineteenth century, in the nineteenth year of Emperor Guangxu's reign (1893), in Sangyuan, Foshan, Nanhai, Guangdong, a boy was born in the Ye family. Ye Aiduo named his son Ye Jiwen. In Shaoshan, Xiangtan, Hunan, Mao Yichang's son was also born.
Years later, Ye Aiduo's son was known as Ye Wen. Mao Yichang's son also has the alias of Li Desheng. Ip Man has practiced Wing Chun all his life, and his years of hard work have formed the Ye-style Wing Chun system. As a martial arts master, Ye Wen can also be considered to be able to fight. Li Desheng is also very good at fighting, because he spent 30 years to overthrow the imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism raging on the land of China, and the wisdom he and those who fought with him used in the struggle formed Mao Zedong Thought.
Now, on the Chinese movie screen, Ye Wen is already another screen kung fu legend and a hot IP - after all, even the title of Ye Wen in "Ip Man" is IP Man. In addition to Donnie Yen's "Ip Man", there are also "The Grand Master", "Ip Man Prequel", "Ip Man Final Battle", TV series "Ip Man"...
In 2008, probably the most memorable year for Chinese people, the People's Republic of China created by Li Desheng was 59 years old. This year, there was the Wenchuan earthquake and the Beijing Olympics. In this Olympic Games, China has become a world sports power, and national pride once again permeates the hearts of the Chinese people. As a traditional national sport, Chinese martial arts can be regarded as world-famous, and this is due to Bruce Lee. Also in this year, "Legend of Bruce Lee" starring Chen Guokun was launched, telling the story of Bruce Lee's life, and Yu Chenghui who played Ye Wen. If Huang Feihong is Jet Li and Ip Man is Donnie Yen, then Chen Guokun is Bruce Lee - not only Bruce Lee in "Legend of Bruce Lee", but also Bruce Lee in "Ip Man 3" and "Ip Man 4". When "Iron Man" was released, the audience saw a superhero with a great personality, and not many people knew what the movie meant for Marvel. At the end of the year, "Ip Man" was released. Donnie Yen played Ip Man, who loves his country and his family and loves his wife. He is elegant and easy-going but very good at fighting. With the war against the Japanese, such a movie became popular immediately. Donnie Yen, who has been in film for many years, finally met a representative role.
Ten years have passed, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe opened by "Iron Man" came to an end in this year's "Avengers 4". Everyone thought that Captain Marvel was so powerful, what kind of abuse he could make Thanos, but in the end it was discovered that the hope of the whole village of the Avengers was still Iron Man. It started with Iron Man, and finally Iron Man ended everything.
In the past ten years, the screen memories that Americans have brought to the audience are the superhero movies of the "Avengers" series, and the heroic myths created by the mature film industry system. The Chinese people's on-screen memories are still the kung fu movies of the "Ip Man" series. Although they also have heroic spirit, they can't help but be old-fashioned. The Ip Man series and the Avengers series were born at the same time and ended at the same time. Does anyone believe that this is not the Wing Chun universe? Superheroes began to use superpowers and high technology to save the earth, and martial arts masters' way of fighting injustice is still kung fu, but master knights are another kind of superheroes.
Since it is a kung fu movie, the focus is still on kung fu, and the "Ip Man" series is trying to create a peak. In this series, Wing Chun has played with Northern martial arts, with karate, with Hong Quan, with Bagua, with boxing, with Muay Thai, and finally with Tai Chi. As an amateur practicing karate and tai chi, it's okay to watch Master Ye bully karate, but also watch tai chi being abused by military martial arts... In the first episode, the Japanese also used karate when playing karate. The technology, by the fourth episode, the Americans were completely crushed by strength. Why do you like flying kicks so much? Don't you practice karate? Why do you want to become taekwondo... More than 20 years ago, Donnie Yen played Chen Zhen in "Jingwumen", paying tribute to Bruce Lee; more than ten years ago, Wu Yue was also in "New Huo Yuanjia" and "Jingwu" The hero Chen Zhen plays Chen Zhen. Now the two "Chen Zhen" are playing opposite roles, and they have become Wing Chun and Tai Chi. Wu Yue practiced Bajiquan, and the relationship with Taiji is because he played Chen Wangting, the master of Chen-style Taijiquan in "Taiji Hero". It is also considered hard to play like this, although he can see Bajiquan in Taiji in the movie. shadow.
The "Ip Man" series, as a kung fu movie, always shows the fighting and fighting of traditional martial arts. However, when it comes to traditional martial arts, it's almost a joke. The reality is not a kung fu movie, and traditional martial arts are lagging behind the times and more and more people are learning about it. Just two months before the release of "Ip Man 4", Ding Hao, who was defeated by Xu Xiaodong, was once again defeated by a professional fighter.
Off-screen, Wing Chun practitioners were easily defeated by professional players. On-screen, Ip Man turned from a great master into a superhero. Whether it is the real boxing champion or Boyka, there is no one who can beat Ye Wen...
The look and feel of the whole series is that a superhero practicing Wing Chun is fighting against powerful enemies from all walks of life. Episode 1, Ip Man vs. Japanese officers; Episode 2, Ip Man vs. Western boxing champion; Episode 3, Ip Man vs. Boxer Tyson (this should be the most powerful man in reality); Not only is it rumored to fight foreigners , Even the rumors have to fight foreigners - in "Zhang Tianzhi", Zhang Jin is either going to fight Tony Jia or beat Batista... In the fourth episode, Ye Wen wants to fight Boika! Poor Scott's role as Boyka in "The Ultimate Fighter" was so powerful, but he met the Chinese, and the consequence was that he was bullied by Wolf Warrior and then by Ye Wen...
So the "Ip Man" series really has to be filmed again. What's so strange about fighting against Saiyans, Kryptonians, and Thanos?
When the Japanese came in and the national disaster was on the cards, Ye Wen wanted to fight ten Japanese and singled out the Japanese officers, because this was a national struggle; the British boxing champion looked down on Chinese martial arts, and Hong Zhennan wanted to do it—for the sake of life, he had to endure it, but Insulting Chinese martial arts is not enough, because it is the dignity of national culture; in the third episode, I finally stopped taking the nationalist line, thinking that the director would not play, but Donnie Yen wanted to fight Tyson, and then Zhang Jin wanted to fight Batista ——Whether there is nationalism or not, foreigners must be beaten... When they go to the United States, Ip Man and Bruce Lee's masters and apprentices will all attack Americans. Whether it is Ye Wen at the age of 40 or Ye Wen at the age of 60 or 70, they can't win. Ye Wen's superhero-level combat power is nothing but superpower, and Master Ye's superpower is probably not kung fu, but nationalism. Ip Man can defeat them all, not necessarily because of how powerful Wing Chun is, but because what drives Ip Man to fight is nationalism, which makes Ip Man burst into a small universe every time he fights with his opponent.
Nationalism is Ye Wen's superpower.
Therefore, the most prominent and obvious theme of the "Ip Man" series is undoubtedly nationalism. As the fourth episode of the finale, the color of nationalism is still so strong. In the first episode of Master Ye, he fought against Japanese karate, and now he has to fight with American karate... Master Ye, what kind of hatred does karate have with you? Well, in the narrative mode of the nationalist tone of this series, of course, that is national hatred. The Americans have also mastered their use of the doctrine of bribery. They practiced karate and ran in front of the Chinese people and said that they want to let the Chinese people of the yellow race learn what it means to fight, but don’t forget that you are also from another group of Japanese and Ryukyu people of the yellow race. Learned karate in...
There is "Wolf Warrior" in the mainland, and "Ip Man" in Hong Kong. Whether it is the main theme action film in the mainland or the traditional Hong Kong kung fu action film, it will arouse the audience's nationalist emotions and reach the climax of nationalism. It's like a boy being seduced by a good-looking and coquettish girl, knowing that he is being teased by her, but he still can't help but want to steal the forbidden fruit with her.
Donnie Yen's Ip Man reminds me of Jet Li's Huang Feihong, because the characters are quite similar, they are all gentle and elegant, but their martial arts are strong, and they are still typical knights in traditional martial arts films. The difference, however, is the spiritual theme. Tsui Hark's "Once Upon a Time" series can be described as works in martial arts films and kung fu films that really consider the relationship between national traditions and modern Western civilization, and this is something that everyone can understand. As a result, more than two decades later, kung fu films have returned to nationalist narratives, and they are still fighting with foreigners.
By the fourth episode, the oil of nationalism was poured on the fire of American racism. Trump came to power to engage in racism and was madly hacked by the Americans, and now the Americans have been hacked by the Chinese again.
The U.S. imperial army, known as Blue Star's strongest armed force, was bullied by various aliens in sci-fi films, but in the end they were able to drive the aliens back to aliens. But Americans did not expect that on their own planet, it was the Chinese who gave them the first taste of failure. In the film, the background of Ye Wen's trip to the United States is 1964, ten years after the failure of the Americans in North Korea. It was in Beijing on the mainland that Li Desheng, who was born in the same year as Ye Wen, commanded the Red Army in North Korea ten years ago. Let Americans fail. Ten years later, Ye Wen directly crossed the ocean to bully the US military...
In fact, it was also in the year that Ye Wen went to the United States that the first atomic bomb was exploded in mainland China, and the red regime finally had the strength to defend peace. In the face of the Chinese who have the atomic bomb, what else can Americans do except make small moves? The Chinese have Wing Chun, and the atomic bomb (perhaps it should be called Red Nuclear Fist).
When watching the movie, Ip Man and the others fought with the Americans in the background era behind the Lenovo movie story, and China and the United States were also confronting each other at that time. This kind of fictional story coincidentally meets the real historical background, and in fact, it has also changed from a nationalist narrative to an expression of national self-esteem. Just this year, the new China created by Li Desheng ushered in its 70th birthday, and this year China and the United States are engaged in a trade war, and the situation on and off the screen is inexplicable.
What a coincidence.
At the end of the film, in 1972, Ip Man died of cancer, and the ten-year series finally came to an end. Donnie Yen played the 43-year-old Ip Man at the age of 45, but at the age of 56, he will play the 71-year-old Ip Man, and his hair is not very white. (U.S. Army: Fortunately, this old Chinese man is gone. Otherwise, who can stand it? He can beat people down with cancer. Should he go to the glacier ahead of schedule in the 1960s to dig out Captain America... ..)
During this trip to the United States, Master Ye also expressed his simple opinion: the moon in foreign countries is not so round, and the most important thing in life is self-confidence. It can be said that these understandings of Master Ye are deeply in line with the party's cultural self-confidence line, and have certain enlightening significance for us to carry forward Chinese culture and build socialism in our daily social life.
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