The Legend is Born - Ip Man

This is the third installment of the most talked about Kung Fu movie these pass few years. The legend is born, Ip Man. As the name goes, the story actually tells how Ip Man get started off learning Wing Chun and how he was the man he is in the first and second installment. I think most of us had guess that someone would have made a movie of how he got started off in beginning and here it is. Typical Hong Kong style film making but we all go for it. I got free tickets for the sneak preview, so it's still alright for me. Anyway, most of the cast are familiar faces from the first and second movie except for Donnie Yen. I heard it's because of the money issue (again!) but it's logical that they find a younger man to play him as this part of the story starts off when he is still a teenager. 

The main actor who played Ip Man is Dennis To. You could recognize that face from the first and second movie if you really look carefully. Yes, he's Sammo Hung's disciple with the mustache in the second part. Go and guess where is him in the first movie. Sammo Hung is back but this time around he is playing as Ip Man's sifu, Chan Wah Shun. He passed away before he can fully train Ip Man, but the duty is being took over by the eldest pupil, Ng Chung Suk (played by Yuen Biao). Ip Man has a step brother called Tin Chi (played by Louis Fan). The story tells of how Ip Man being trained since a small kid to a teenager and went to Hong Kong to study over there. Over there he meet Leung Bik (played by Ip Chun, Ip Man's real life son) who teaches him a different kind of Wing Chun. 

I am not going to tell what happened next, as you need to watch it for yourself. The focus of the movie would be telling everyone that there is no authentic or non-authentic Wing Chun martial art. Wing Chun is a ever changing art which the person could learn and transform it to a greater one. They also emphasize that the martial arts in the movie are more authentic Wing Chun compared to the first two movie. As the Wing Chun played by Donnie Yen are more commercial type (DUH!!) It also tells how Ip Man found his wife and how they fall in love and at the end married. It's not all kick and punches in the movie but rather story telling with some flying kicks in between. Not as good as the first one but it's still a good movie to watch. If you watched the first two episode, you might as well go for this just to finish it up. (Rating: 3.8 out of 5.0)