IP Man
Director, Wilson Yip.
This film presents in a detailed manner how it was the daily life of people in Fo-Shan, a small town of China back on 1937. The main character of the story is Master IP, who is considered the best Kung Fu master on the region. Many martial arts masters of the region usually visited him for duels with the purpose of learn something of his incredible technique.
On 1937, Fo-Shan town suffered the effects of the war. The Japanese invasion to China presents the destruction and massacre of the population that dramatically was reduced the 300,000 to only 75,000.
Fo-Shan town was oppressed not only by the Japanese invaders, but also by the organized crime. The Japanese army in order to install their Headquarters confiscated Master IP’s home. He had to move out and look for a job in a coal mine to feed his family.
A Japanese General named Miura, who was specialist in martial arts, enjoyed recruiting workers from the coalmine to make them fight against the Japanese soldiers. Eventually, Master IP ended participating in these fights and defeating ten soldiers at the same time. General Miura enjoyed watching Master IP fight and wants to see him again, but true to his nature Master IP refuses to go back. Eventually, General Miura confronts and challenges Master IP.
The Japanese army took Master IP in custody and threatened him to death if he did not allow Miura to win. Master IP refused to accept the threats and fought good enough to defeat General Miura. He got shot after the fight but survived.
This movie is good to be showed at a classroom. Besides some violence along the martial arts fights, this film does not present any material to be considered inappropiated for young students. On the other hand, this film presents real locations and an excellent cinematography to transport the viewer to the reality of China on times of the WWII.
I agree that it is a good movie to show in a classroom, preferably to high schoolers. I have done it several times. A lot of my students are fascinated about Martial arts. The action are usually the most exciting part. Most of the Chinese made movies has certain moral standards that the directors or writers would like to express. The storyline of Master IP happened under a bigger background which was the Sino-Japanese War. Even though Master IP was specialized in martial arts, he never bullied anyone. Instead, he took in lots of apprentices to learn martial arts regardless of how much they were able to pay him. On contrary, the China back then was "bullied" by lots of foreigners / invaders who were stronger in technology and national economy. In my opinion, this is an important perspective for high school students or, maybe, middle school students, to learn which they can actually apply to their daily life.
In addition, it is also a reminder to instructors and masters, which, in reality, could be us teachers, of their social responsibilities and profound influence that they could have on their following students.
At last, the most significant ethnical qualities of martial arts were also portraited well in this movie. I remember Master IP always said “Never go beyond necessity”. The soul of martial arts is not violence. On contrary, it is nonviolence.