Summary
The martial arts epic comes to a close in a fond farewell as Ip Man fights the most dangerous enemy of them all: racism.
You have to hand it to Wilson Yip and Donnie Yen’s Ip Man franchise. Although it is based on the life of the Wing Chun grandmaster of the same name, they’ve always played fast and loose with the actual history. So much so that he’s almost become a figure of modern mythology.
Save for some bookend pieces in Hong Kong, the definitively titled IP MAN 4: THE FINALE (葉問4) shifts the location to San Francisco. After being diagnosed with cancer, Ip Man (Donnie Yen) travels to America to find a new school and a better life for his son. Yet instead of a warm welcome and recommendation letter from the other martial arts masters of the Chinese Benevolent Association, he is met with hostility.
Set against the backdrop of 1960s Chinatown, the primary storyline concerns CBA chairman Wan Zonghua (Wu Yue) upset that Ip Man’s student Bruce Lee (Danny Chan reprising his role from Ip Man 3) is teaching non-Chinese students. The chairman’s daughter Yonah (Vanda Margraf) just wants to be a cheerleader, but faces violent racist bullying from the other students. Then there’s racist army dude Barton Geddes (Scott Adkins), who refuses to accept US Marines staff sergeant Hartman’s (Vanness Wu Jian-hao) idea of introducing Chinese martial arts into military training.
These three separate storylines seemingly have no hope of ever intersecting, but they are united by a common thread of racism. There’s nothing subtle about Hiroshi Fukazawa and Edmond Wong’s screenplay, one where all white people constantly refer to the Chinese by derogatory names and in turn there is an inherent distrust of “whitey” (in the film’s lingo) appropriating Chinese culture for their own purposes. Of course, in 2019 neither of these propositions have disappeared from reality.
The ‘other’ has always been the enemy in the Ip Man films, with the threat of the ‘foreign devil’ (to borrow a phrase from the first film) apparent from imperialist Japan (Ip Man) to Mike Tyson (Ip Man 3). Yen’s Ip Man is a kind of cultural ambassador between worlds, with Adkin’s Full Metal Jacket douche a heavy-handed representative of American exceptionalism and white supremacy.
Here it all contrives to end up in a series of unlikely fights between the various parties. Which, if we’re being honest, is the main reason we pay the price of admission. While masters from multiple styles are represented, the film disappointingly spends most of its time building to two major fights: one between Yen and the hulking Chris Collins (as Marine Colin Frater) and the other between Yen and Adkins. Series director Wilson Yip directs these with crisp blocking and Yen’s trademark rapid-fire punches. Chan, as the second on-screen Bruce Lee this year, ensures that the power of every punch is felt in a playful tribute to Ip Man’s most famous student.
Politically bizarre and structurally chaotic, IP MAN 4 is primarily a nostalgic farewell to the series, complete with an actual montage of the greatest hits from the previous films. It might be the end of the line for Yen’s Ip Man, but hopefully not for this breed of dramatic action film. Along with Chasing the Dragon II: Wild Wild Bunch, The White Storm 2 – Drug Lords and Line Walker 2 it’s nice to see the return of the Hong Kong blockbuster sequel.
2019 | Hong Kong| DIRECTOR: Wilson Yip | WRITERS: Hiroshi Fukazawa, Edmond Wong | CAST: Donnie Yen, Scott Adkins, Danny Chan, Vanness Wu, Chris Collins, Wu Yue | DISTRIBUTOR: CMC Pictures (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 105 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 20 December 2019 (AUS)
