After attending the USC China Institute, which focused on the histories of China, Korea and Japan, I have been motivated to watch films produced in those countries. The week after we came home from USC, I had the opportunity to house two high school students from China. We watched Ip Man 1 and Ip Man 2 on Netflix. One interesting side note is they had to read the English subtitles just like me because the language was different from what they spoke.
Ip Man (2008)
Ip Man was produced in Hong Kong. It is said to be a semi biographical film based on the life of Yip Man. He was a grandmaster of Wing Chun martial arts. As it turns out, Man was also the master of Bruce Lee, a very well known martial arts figure in America. The story line is set in the 1930's in Foshan, China. He was a very humble master and tried to keep a low profile, but he is forced proves his martial arts prowess because the local martial arts schools challenged his right to teach without paying bribe money. They pushed him into fighting and his reputation grew because he beat all the local masters.
When Japan invades in 1937, it adversely affected everyone in Foshan. The Japanese took Ip's house and made it their headquarters. Without a way to make a living as a Wing Chun instructor, he was forced into working in a coal mine. Through this experience, he came up against the despised Japanese General Miura who is a Karate master. Here he defends China's honor and defeats the best martial artist in Japan. I won't go into the whole Ip Man 2 because the storyline is very similar, but this time Ip Man beats a Western style boxer.
The way that I see this film being used in a classroom would be to teach the idea of nationalism. We have our share of Hollywood movies where America prevails over it's opponent. It could be good for students to realize that other countries are no different than us in this respect. Ip man did wonders lifting the national pride of his countrymen by beating the aggressor in a fight. I also think the idea of propaganda could be introduced through this film. I think it would be very easy for students to give examples in American culture of nationalism and propaganda in our film culture.
edited by dmorton on 8/29/2013
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Ip Man
03/31/2015 01:18 PM
#1
Ip Man
This made me want to watch this film! I will have to get on netflix and see it myself! I agree, this is a great movie to show Chinese nationalism to students. It could also show some of the reasons for animosity between the Chinese and Japanese today.
As far as I know there are already 5 Ip Man movies produced, and the sixth one (Ip Man 3) will be released soon.
They are:
Ip Man 1 (Ip Man's life during during the Second Sino-Japanese War)
Ip Man 2 (Ip Man's beginning in Hong Kong)
The Legend is Born - Ip Man (Ip Man's early life in Foshan, Guangdong)
The Grand Master (focused on the connection of martial arts and the philosophy of life)
Ip Man - The Final Fight (Ip Man's later life and his disciples' loyalty to him)
These films show how some Chinese keep their heads up in a Japanese occupied province and in the British governed colony, though many would watch them for their fight scenes, curiosity of who Bruce Lee's master was, or simply entertianment.
The astonishing fight scenes are some of the most exciting ever filmed in a martial arts movie that raises the bar for the genre. For any martial arts fan, "Ip Man" is mandatory viewing.
I will agree with dmorton what he wrote especially the fact that IP man is a real person who did all that. Plus, if anyone doesn't know....he is the teacher to Bruce Lee
I just known that Ip Man is Bruce Lee's master when I finished watching the movie.
This made me want to watch this film! I will have to get on netflix and see it myself! I agree, this is a great movie to show Chinese nationalism to students. It could also show some of the reasons for animosity between the Chinese and Japanese today.
This made me want to watch this film! I will have to get on netflix and see it myself! I agree, this is a great movie to show Chinese nationalism to students. It could also show some of the reasons for animosity between the Chinese and Japanese today.
I haven't had a chance to see these Ip Man movies, but I did watch The Grandmaster, which is also based on Ip Man's life. It stars Tony Leung as Ip Man, and is directed by Wong Kar Wei. Like all of Wong's films, it was absolutely beautiful to watch, and Leung's performance was wonderful. Zhang Ziyi also has a supporting role.
I went into the movie knowing nothing about the subject, and was completely astonished by the epilogue--I had no idea that it was based on the life of a real man!
The IP Man Films are some of the best Hong Kong fighting movies I have seen. Donnie Yen does an incredible job playing Ip Man in th efirst and second films. I have not seen the Grandmaster, but definitely need to check that out. The first one was particularly interesting as it depicted Japanese occupation of China and the conflicts it created between the Japanese and Chinese. It was great to see martial arts as a way of the people to show their nation's pride. The Japanese occupation is one that's near heart to me, as my father often talks about Japanese occupation in Korea and how my grandparents lived through it.
I would tie the Ip Man series to the Boxer Rebellion at the end of the 19th century. It's a far stretch but the series will give students an idea of what Chinese "Boxing" looks like. Also, the movies also showed the extent of opium in the Chinese pastimes. In Ip Man 2, Ip Man was fighting against the Western boxer which is a Chinese nationalistic interpretation of what happened during the Boxer Rebellion. Again, it's a far stretch chronologically but thematically congruent.